School Board For London(1870-1904):English Middle Class Educational Reform In Late Victorian Times

Victorian Times is considered to be one of the most prosperous periods in the English history.It started with then ascending Industrial Revolution,and ended at the epoch of the beginning of a welfare nation.The Victorians witnessed how the society was transformed during a series of economic,political and cultural reform,which laid a fundamental groundwork for the future successful modern Britain.The low literacy,however,suggested an inefficient national education,which could not be compared with these remarkable changes.More than half of the English lower class people never attained any formal education in their lives.At the second half of the nineteenth century,it gradually became a threat to the national economic development,and required the government to take some measures.Three factors caused this backwardness.The first one is the supremacy of religion in the English elementary education since the Middle Ages.The second one lies in the ignorant attitude towards education.The third one is the usage of child labor began with the Industrial Revolution,and all these three elements resulted in the delay for government to step in the education area in a national base.Since the mid-nineteenth century,the English economy appjeared to grow slow.The problem of education was put out to question the government inefficiency.Furthermore,industrialization brought changes to occupational structure,political machinery,class language,and most importantly,to the growing middle class,all of which prepared for the creation of the Department of the Education and the promulgation of 1870 Education Act.According to the Act,a school board shall be established in each city,town,or parish,and to take charge of the provision for the school accommodation and the improvement of elementary education.Depending on its unique status,the London School Board was paid much attention to,and,to some extent,became an example for other school boards.It is complex to analyze the reasons why such a local authority was founded.The central government required it for carrying the policies into effects,the education department needed it as an agency to improve teaching method and popularize educational thoughts,while social reformers considered it as a camp for their diplomatic and modern reforming ideas.And it is the power of the middle class who acted like a network connecting all of them that coordinated with each of the forces.With their voluntary character and compromising spirit,the forces of politics and education,central and local,innovative and traditional ones could all be linked together,protecting the Board work from a vain attempt and meaningless struggle,achieving certain success.The London School Board work could be categorized into two groups on the basis of its different nature and content.In the first part,the author introduces the background and process of its establishment,and makes an emphasis on its achievement in the elementary education area,including compulsory education methods,religious education reform,modern curriculum set-up,professional teacher training,modern school building and poor students relief etc..The evening school,industrial school,and the schools for the defective children are discussed in the second part.Owing to these achievements,the elementary education was much improved in London at that time.The contribution paid by the middle class could not be denied.The London School Board could be considered as a middle class educational reform agency.Many middle class people worked as members and represented their reforming ideas.Based on the fundamental education improvement,they paid much attention to the skill training and individual pursuit.Thus they established lots of evening schools and manual class centers,and added some training lesson to the curriculum.Besides,they improved physical education,focused on the entertaining part of teaching methods,and stressed on personal cultivation.Most of all,they insisted that every one,unless beyond the legal age limitation,should be sent to school and acquire some education.This thesis will be divided into six chapters.The first one analyses how the industrialization contributed to the educational reform form the economic,political and social perspective.The following three chapters discuss how the London School Board was elected,its working patterns,measures and influences.The work of the Board will be separated into two parts,notably the fundamental ones,as curriculum,teachers,and compulsory attendances,and the additional ones,like schools for the education of defective children,industrial schools,and evening schools.A thorough and careful assessment of the Board will be seen in the fifth chapter.And the author 's reason for this topic,its current works home and abroad,the researching theories and methods,and the conclusion of the whole issue are carried out separately at the beginning and the end of this thesis.The point of the research,using School Board for London as an example to discuss the role that English middle class played during the educational reform in the late Victorian Times,offers some deeper thoughts of this issue.As a growing social group,the middle class has great influence on the whole nation and society through their political activities,their values,and their social participations.Researching their influence on the social reform and their performance will not only help us to get a better understanding of the Victorian social transformation,but also of the middle class.