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 AN ADDKESS ON 
 
 aiVEN BEFORB 
 
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND SCHOOL TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION 
 FOR WEST KENT, 
 
 FEBBUARY 11, 1871, 
 
 BY 
 
 EICHAED GAEDNER, 
 
 MASTER OF THE TONBRIDGE NATIONAL SCHOOL. 
 
 DEDICATED BY PERMISSION TO 
 
 J. G. TALBOT, Esq., M.P., 
 
 President of the Association. 
 PUBLISHED BY REQUEST. 
 
 W. BLAIR, printer, " FREE PRESS" OFFICE. 
 
 187 1.
 
 PKEFACE. 
 
 I have been requested hy several genthmen interested in the 
 education of the poor, to issue in the form of a pamphlet an 
 Address on Compulsory Education, which I recently gave 
 before the Church of England School Teachers' Association 
 for West Kent. The President of the Society, J. G. Talbot, 
 Esq., M.P., a geyitleman ivell hnoivii for his zeal and self- 
 denyiyig labours in the extension of religious education, has 
 been pleased to accept the dedication ; and so far as it regards 
 the absolute necessity of some system, of compulsion to render 
 the education of our country national in fad, as well as in 
 name, he cordially endorses the opinions I have expressed. 
 As a national school master, I feel fully convinced that large 
 numbers of children, notwithstanding the Educatio7i Act, 
 ivill grow up in ignorance, and many more through the 
 irregularity of their attendance will still receive an education 
 univorthy of the name, unless some scheme is adopted to make 
 attendance at school universally compulsory. One object of 
 the following address ivas to show how such a playi could be 
 devised without interfering loith the manage^nent of our 
 existing denominational schools. 
 
 R. G.
 
 AN ADDRESS ON 
 
 COMPULSORY EDUCATION, 
 
 BY 
 
 RICHARD GARDNER, 
 
 Master of the Tonbridgc National School. 
 
 -»oJ«<c 
 
 Y 
 
 The subject of National Education has engrossed a con-' 
 siderable share of public attention during the past eventful 
 year. The education of the poor is now regarded as an 
 absolute necessity. The opinion of the people of England 
 has wonderfully changed upon this question of the education 
 of the poor. Not many years ago the popular fallacy was 
 very prevalent that if the lower strata of the population 
 were released from their bonds of ignorance, it would tend 
 to disorganise the normal condition of society. Keverence 
 for superiors would be abolished, servants would wish to 
 become masters, and the poor would be discontented with 
 their station in life. Noio, we regard the vast amount of 
 ignorance which everywhere exists, as a national misfortune 
 detrimental to the true interests of our country ; and
 
 strenuous efforts have been made, both in and out of Par- 
 liament, to establish a thorough system of national education. 
 The Education Act, recently become law, is a palpable 
 indication of the recognised fact that the people must be 
 educated. 
 
 Now I maintain that any scheme originated to educate the 
 poor children of our land, should be universal in its applica- 
 tion to them. Every child capable of being taught should 
 be educated. It is well known that in numerous cases, it is 
 useless to off&r education. To the minds of some members 
 during the debates in Parliament, this offering of education 
 was deemed a sufficient panacea to dispel the ignorance of 
 our land. But we may provide an adequate number of 
 schoolrooms, and a sufficient and efficient staff of teachers — 
 we may even go further and offer education gratuitously, — - 
 and still large numbers of our children will not be educated. 
 Writers in the daily journals have asserted that the voluntary 
 system has failed. Why has it failed ? Simply because there 
 is no law to compel children to attend school. So, too, will 
 the rating system fail to educate the children of our country, 
 unless every board uses its powers of compulsion. For what 
 does it matter whether the schools are built and supported 
 by the rates or by voluntary subscriptions, so that they are 
 built and supported. To make education national in every 
 sense of the word, and to obliterate even a residuum of 
 ignorance, some system of compulsion must be resorted to. 
 Parents must be compelled to send their children to school. 
 
 In order to substantiate these assertions, I will examine 
 a few of the causes which keep children from school. 
 
 1st. — I believe the most fruitful source of all to be the 
 apathy of the parents. So much ignorance and its natural 
 companions, poverty and vice, exist among the lower classes, 
 that having no education themselves they do not see the 
 necessity of it for their children. Many say, " I have got 
 along through life without knowing how to read or write, 
 and so can my children." They are also so absorbed in 
 obtaining the bare necessaries of life, or in the gratification 
 of their sensual desires, — for, alas ! in many, the life of the 
 mind is torpid or dead — that they are entirely careless about 
 the education of their children. Hence, the children of such 
 parents never go to school, and never will, unless they are 
 compelled by the power of the law. Do we not see every day 
 numbers of children running about during school hours ? 
 But some will say — this system of compulsion will interfere 
 
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 with the rights and lil)erties of the parent. But I maintain 
 that every child ia being educated, either in what is good or in 
 what is evil — for a child's mind is most impressionable — and 
 if he is not at school learning that which is right and useful 
 to make him a good citizen, he is learning in the streets and 
 lanes that which w ill in all probability make him a burden 
 or an enemy to society. If it is admitted that every child 
 should be educated, in order that he may exercise more 
 judiciously any political rights he may eventually possess, 
 and be more competent to earn his living, so that he may 
 more probably become a support to the State, instead of an 
 incumbrance, then, I say it is a political crime to deprive 
 him of education, and those wdiose duty it is to provide it 
 for him, ought, for this neglect, to be amenable to the power 
 of the law, as an offence against the well-being of the common- 
 wealth. Therefore no one should possess the power to deprive 
 a child of that education, which will make him more useful 
 and noble as a human being, and a benefit, rather than an 
 incumbrance, to his fatherland. 
 
 2nd. — There is also a class of parents who, though they 
 profess to send their children to school, yet realise so feebly 
 the advantages their children derive, that they keep them 
 away for the most trivial causes. I find in the Government 
 Report (Education) for 1870, there were 1,569,139 children 
 on the registers of inspected schools, while the average 
 attendance was only 1,062,999, or about one-third of those 
 children who actually go to school are absent every day. In 
 some places, particularly in agricultural districts, the propor- 
 tion of absentees is much greater. It is this irregularity of 
 attendance which produces the teacher's greatest difficulty, 
 and prevents our elementary schools obtaining that high 
 state of advancement and efficiency to be found in the 
 schools of Germany and Switzerland. Here again, therefore, 
 I say regularity of attendance will only be accomplished 
 by compulsion. 
 
 3rd. — Another cause which prevents many children attend- 
 ing school is the poverty of their parents. The wages of 
 their children is to them an absolute necessity. A man who 
 earns 15s. per week and has half-a-dozen olive branches to sup- 
 port, cannot be expected to do without the wages of those chil- 
 dren who are able to perform such labour as is suited to their 
 early years. For these poor children there is no school-life, or 
 very little ; they have to face so young the hardships of life, 
 and to learn so soon that by the " sweat of his brow " a man
 
 nmst eat bread. Now it has been ascertained that very few 
 children nnder twelve are regularly employed day by day ; 
 and more especially is this the case in agricultural districts, 
 where no laws affecting the labour of children at present 
 exist. They work for a period of a few days, or it may be 
 of a few weeks, and when their employment ceases, instead 
 of attending school, they are allowed to roam about, not 
 uneducated, alas ! — for there is no such thing as an unedu- 
 cated child — but receiving such an education as blunts and 
 vitiates their minds. They possess no opportunity, in the 
 spring-time of life, for receiving those seeds of knowledge 
 which in their after life would probably bring forth a harvest 
 of good to themselves and their country. Therefore, I con- 
 clude, that compulsion is essential for this class of children, 
 yet not such a rigid system as would entirely deprive the 
 parent3 of the w^ages or labour of their children ; for this 
 deprivation is the only objection that can be substantially 
 raised against compulsion. 
 
 4th. — Then, as you all know^, there are some children who 
 set the authority of their parents at defiance. More particu- 
 larly is this the case when the father is dead, and the poor 
 mother has to be the bread-winner of her children. She may 
 wish them t© attend school, but her persuasions are useless. 
 Here again the lawlesness of the children should be coerced 
 by the power of the law. 
 
 That a universal system of compulsion is necessary in 
 order that all our children may be educated, is now being 
 reluctantly admitted. With a plentiful supply of schools, 
 and an efficient staff of teachers, there will still be many 
 children who will seldom, or never, enter a school door. A 
 universal system of compulsion has not yet been enacted by 
 Parliament, still the principle is embodied in the recent 
 Education Act. You know that the power of compulsion is 
 vested in the School Boards, but only as a permissive 
 privilege. There is no doubt that the Boards of our large 
 towns will avail themselves of it, but that every School Board 
 will enforce the attendance of the children is by no means 
 probable. In agricultural villages, where the Board would 
 consist mainly of farmers, I fear the question of compulsion 
 will be shelved. 
 
 A gradual change is manifest in public opinion, as expressed 
 in the daily journals, upon this subject, and many influential 
 advocates for its adoption are now to be found. Mr. Forster, 
 Mr. Stausfield, and Mr. Mundella recently publicly spoke of
 
 its necessity, and if tlio present Cabinet remain in office; I 
 do not think we shall wait long for legislation on it. I argue 
 from the fact that since the Government demands school 
 accommodation for one-sixth of the whole population to be 
 provided everywhere, when the buildings are erected, they 
 will find some means of filling them. I think it is a fair 
 deduction that since compulsion is applied to the buildings 
 it will eventually be applied also to the children. As it is, 
 in parishes where no School Board now exists, and in many 
 instances, where they do, or will exist, the education of the 
 children will not be advanced a single iota by the present 
 Bill. The children in these districts who now grow up in 
 ignorance will still remain uneducated. But, I believe, that 
 if it is found that the School Boards in our large towns can 
 compel the children to attend school, there will be a universal 
 cry for compulsion arise in our land. The Factory Act has 
 done nnich towai-ds giving many children an education. The 
 Act itself is a species of indirect compulsion. Its extension 
 to all parts of the Kingdom and to all kinds of labour in 
 which children are employed would do much to force many 
 into our schools. If it were made penal for an employer to 
 give children under thirteen work of any kind, unless they 
 attended school a certain number of times in the year, the 
 selfishness of the parents would at once be appealed to, and 
 selfishness is a potent motive power in human nature. For 
 their own interests, many would send their children to school 
 merely that their little ones might occasionally obtain 
 employment. A system of indirect compulsion such as this, 
 would no doubt be very beneficial, and would cause many 
 children to receive an education who are now allowed to grow 
 up in ignorance. But still it would be by no means effectual. 
 The education of our country would not be national in the 
 true sense of the word. It would not touch our city Arabs, 
 or the dregs of our towns and villages. I do not believe we 
 can do without, or that we shall be very long without, a 
 direct system of compulsion which shall afiect all the children 
 of the poor, and yet not such a rigid scheme as would 
 entirely deprive the parents of the wages of their children. 
 But the question naturally arises — How can this be accom- 
 plished ? 
 
 In my opinion, no act of compulsion could be so framed as 
 to be universally applicable without in some instances being 
 detrimental to those interests of the poor which we are bound 
 to respect. For the peculiarities of child-labour vary in
 
 different localities. If a law were passed compelling; all 
 children to attend, say one hundred days in the year, how 
 could it be enforced ? I would suggest the following plan : — 
 Let Parliament cause a School Board to be formed in every 
 place, where under the present Act none need now exist, 
 and let each board be compelled to frame a system of compul- 
 sion adapted to the requirements of the locality, and which 
 system shall cause every child within its jurisdiction to attend 
 school a certain number of times in the year. Of course I 
 do not advocate that these Boards should possess the power 
 of rating, &c., when the schools are well supported voluntarily, 
 but they should merely have the power of compulsion. I 
 believe that such Boards, acquainted as they would be with 
 the local necessities and requirements of their several 
 districts, could overcome all the difficulties which might 
 exist in the enforcement of compulsion. They should have 
 the power of saying to the parents, " We will compel you to 
 send your child to school (say one hundred days in the year). 
 If you wish to obtain employment for him when child-labour 
 is demanded, you can do so, but we will regulate the length 
 of the time he is to be absent from school. . You may send 
 the child to any efficient school you please, if there be more 
 than one in the parish, but if there be only one, whether 
 belonging to the Church or Dissent, you must send him there, 
 and we will see that no religious dogmas distasteful to you 
 are taught to your child. If you cannot afford to pay the 
 school fee, and we shall know, being residents of the parish, 
 we will pay it for you out of the poor rate, but in this case 
 you will be regarded as a recipient of parish relief." All 
 that refuse to send their children to school ought to incur 
 certain penalties, as if they wilfully deprived their oflFspring 
 of food. 
 
 You see, then, that I would give to the School Boards the 
 following powers : — 
 
 1. — They should be able to compel all parents and guar- 
 dians to send their children to some efficient school ; and 
 lest the so-called " religious difficulty " should be an impedi- 
 ment to united action, the parents must be allowed to possess 
 perfect liberty in the choice of the school. In cases where 
 only one school exists in a parish, no matter of what religious 
 denomination it may be, the children must be sent there, 
 and it would be the duty of the Board to see that the 
 provisions of the Education Act as regards the religious 
 instruction are stringently enforced. If, when this is carried
 
 out, there is found to be insufficient accommodation in any- 
 particular school, the denomination to which it belongs must 
 enlarge their buildings, supposing there is no room elsewhere 
 within a reasonable distance, or a rate school must be 
 established by the Board. This plan, I think, will be 
 reasonable and equitable ; for if the denominationalists wish 
 to retain their schools, they should be compelled to keep pace 
 with the requirements of their several districts ; and that 
 they would do so I believe there is very little doubt. 
 
 2. — They should have power to regulate the duration of 
 time when the children should be absent at work, subject to 
 a fixed number of annual attendances. 
 
 3.— If the parents are so poor as to be unable to pay the 
 school fee, the Board should be allowed to pay it out of the 
 poor rate. This mode of payment would prevent the 
 privilege being abused, for the honest and upright among 
 this class regard it as a great stigma to receive " parish 
 relief " unless they are absolutely compelled. 
 
 4. — All persons who neglect to send their children to 
 school, the Board should have power to summon before the 
 magistrate. The punishment should be a fine varying from 
 one shilling upwards. To this, it has been objected, that the 
 poverty of many of the parents will make the imposition of 
 the fine useless, as they would be unable to pay it. But, I 
 believe, the universal dissemination of the fact that the parents 
 commit a criminal act when they deprive their children of 
 education, will have a most deterrent eflfect ; so that ofiences 
 of this character will soon become uncommon. In Switzer- 
 land, out of three thousand parents, only forty were punished 
 for educational offences in eight years. 
 
 Lawless children who defy the authority of their parents, 
 and of the Board, should be sent to Industrial Schools. Far 
 better this, than that their wayward wills, unchecked by any 
 restraint, should make the lives of these children a curse to 
 themselves, their parents, the neighbourhood where they 
 dwell, and eventually, in all probability, a curse to their 
 country. The children of professional vagrants should be 
 similarly dealt with, while the children of gipsies and other 
 nomads should be compelled to attend schoool during the 
 time they are encamped in any locality. 
 
 I need not say much to you teachers on the advantages of 
 compulsory education. Almost every child would then be 
 educated, and the education of our country would indeed be 
 national. The poor would not only have — as, alas ! too
 
 10 
 
 many have now — simply their carnal senses as a means of 
 enjoyment, but their mental faculties would be developed, 
 and the vast storehousss, of knowledge to which only educated 
 persons have access, would be open to all. Then I believe 
 we should see less vice, less drunkenness, and less poverty. 
 Men would become better parents and better citizens. 
 Besides this, the advancement of science and its application to 
 almost all kinds of labour demands from a man in these days 
 not merely strength, but skill. In the use of our military 
 weapons and in the modern modes of warfare, we require not 
 only animal courage and dogged perseverance, but the 
 cultivated intelligence of educated men. We have seen this 
 wonderfully exemplified in the educated soldiers of victorious 
 Germany. But are our recruits, many of whom are " the 
 dregs of society," educated men ? Let us have compulsory 
 education, and then I think greater influence and greater 
 prosperity will eventually accrue to our country. 
 
 We, as teachers, know too well, and more especially those 
 who have schools in agricultural districts, that the greatest 
 obstacle to our successful teaching is the irregularity of the 
 attendance of the children. How different would be the 
 aspect of our schools, and how much more could we teach, if 
 this difficulty were surmounted. Let theoretical educationists 
 aver that physical science and other cognate subjects should 
 be taught in our elementary schools, and let cynical writers 
 assert that our schools are below the standard imagined in 
 their impractical mind ; but as long as the normal average of 
 attendance remains at two-thirds of the number on the books, 
 and as long as the majority of our children are allowed to 
 leave school before they are eleven years old, the educational 
 standard must be low, and the curriculum of instruction 
 must be mainly confined to the essential E's. 
 
 Therefore, in conclusion, I would say to all teachers who 
 wish to magnify their office, and to all those who earnestly 
 desire the education of the poor as a means to enhance the 
 reputation and prosperity of our noble empire, endeavour to 
 obtain a universal system of compulsory education. 
 
 W. Blaik, Printer, High Street, Tonbkidge.
 
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