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British Literature Survey
Reference Pages: Charles Dickens Group
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Child
Education in Victorian England
by Thomas Bridges
In
Victorian England, education was given in both private and public forms.
Young boys were by far the majority to be educated in either boarding or
reformatory schools, while a similar majority of women were denied their
educational rights past the typical grammar school. Many reformers attempted
to correct the institutional wrongs of corporal punishment, while some strove
further to advance the rights of females.
The education system of Britain in the mid-Eighteenth Century was composed of
both public and private schools. Public schools were meant for male adolescents
born into wealthy families and were started mainly by large donors of the English
aristocracy. Small city grammar schools specialized in the Latin and Greek in
preparation for young males for furthered university tutelage.
Women in this time period were granted some educational opportunities (girls
attended grammar school along with boys), yet they were seen mostly as something
to educate in order to enhance them so they could become “more effective
and stimulating companions for their husbands.” Other educational systems
called for the segregation of boys and girls, and in one school, after spending
half the day learning together, females would take lessons on domestic affairs.
Their educational freedom was definitely limited to a certain societal and cultural
standard.
There were also problems with corporal punishment. A schoolmaster named Thomas
Hopley was convicted of killing another child by excessive corporal punishment
of one Reginald Cancellor. With this, the English government took initiative
to make sure it never occurred again.
Works Cited
Bradley, Ian, and Brian Simon. The Victorian Public School. 1st ed. Dublin:
Gil and MacMillan, 1975.
Britain, Ian. "Education." English Romantic: Historic Guide to
Literature.
Ed. . : , . 161-170.
Middleton, Jacob. "Thomas Hopley and mid-Victorian attitudes to corporal
punishment." History of Education. November 2005: 599-615.
Stack, John A. "Reformatory and Industrial Schools and the decline of
child imprisonment in mid-Victorian England and Wales." History of
Education.1994: 59-73.
Paul
Marchbanks
marchban@email.unc.edu