A letter to N.W. Senior, Esq., one of Her Majesty's Commissioners for inquiring into the state of public education, explanatory of communications and of evidence on half school time teaching; on the military drill, and physical training; and on the administration of funds applicable to popular education / by Edwin Chadwick.

  • Chadwick, Edwin, 1800-1890.
Date:
1861?]
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A letter to N.W. Senior, Esq., one of Her Majesty's Commissioners for inquiring into the state of public education, explanatory of communications and of evidence on half school time teaching; on the military drill, and physical training; and on the administration of funds applicable to popular education / by Edwin Chadwick. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    and two boys and two girls, very promising young persons, have been removed, I am grieved to say, by death. So small a number of defaulters for misconduct, only three out of 300 youths between the ages of 14 and 17, would be indeed incredible, if our pupil-teachers had been merely clever boys and girls ; nor do I think if such had been the case, that any imaginable amount of lax indulgence could have kept down the number of dismissals to so scanty a proportion. But when it is remembered that in every individual case, and every year, the clergyman's certificate of good character and conduct is peremptorily exacted, very few will have the intrepidity to impute this inconsiderable list of degrada- tions to a lax regard for moral requisites, considering *' that that charge must ultimately trace its way to a quarter where it would be surely most unrighteously misplaced. Again, later on he says, in his general report from Kent, Surrey, and Sussex,— I turn with very great pleasure to the next column (M), which records that 310 apprentices in my district have received their stipends for the past year upon my favourable report on their good conduct and attainments, backed by the approbation of their clergy. Nor is this pleasure materially diminished when I advert to the two succeed- ing summaries (N and O), from which it appears that, while two have forfeited their payments for deficient *' attainments, and two for dishonest copying, of the 24 whose apprenticeship has terminated, nine have been promoted to Queen's scholarships, or to other advan- tageous appointments under circumstances highly creditable to themselves; six have been removed for incompetency; five, I am grieved to say, by death or illness; but only three through causes morally dis- creditable to themselves, and even these not of a very heinous character. Another year follows with testimony of the same tenor. I made particular inquiries at the chief training colleges in Scotland, on the same point, as to the proportion of failures to the extent of disqualification for employment, and I found that they closely corresponded with the above, and that, as respects females who were under supervision until the 25th year, when a large proportion of them entered into the married state, such failures were within one per cent. In Scotland, and in England, in some establish- ments for orphan children, I found that the whole of those