Voluntary Societies And The Elementary Education In England(1800-1870)

It was Voluntary Societies Age of the elementary education in England from 1800 to 1870.Industrial Revolution destroyed the traditional parish education system.The church was conventional provider and manager of education,but it could not meet the demand of education of increasing population,educational voluntary societies took the responsibility of educating the underclass gradually.Voluntary societies,such as National Society and British and Foreign School Society,established various schools to spread education efficiently and largely by Monitor System with little money.This thesis thinks that voluntary societies played a predominant role in elementary education of England from 1800 to 1870.These societies,which were dependent on different religious denominations,had done their duty to the children of lower classes with limited government’s subsidy.This thesis falls into three sections.The first section is an introduction that discusses the concepts of voluntary societies and elementary education,analyzes the trends of research at home and abroad,and presents the basis viewpoints,research methods and contents of this thesis.This body of thesis falls into three sections.The first section is chapter 1,discusses the necessary and possibility of voluntary societies undertook the responsibility of national elementary education.Classical liberalism demanded on restrictions to the powers of the government,the church worried the government intervention violating the traditional educational rights,the government also had been unprepared for the functions of educational management,so the government enforced the educational policies from laissez-faire to limited intervention.Lower social classes were widespread poverty before sharing the fruit of Industrial Revolution,they could not pay or partially pay the tuition and had to throw the responsibility of educating children to society.Voluntary societies were capable of raising money more powerfully and managing education.Education took on the function of social control,could reduce the expenses of poor relief and prisons,maintain the safety and stability of society.So these societies bore the most responsibility of the government and family when the government limitedly involved and the parents were poorer.The second section includes chapter 2,3,and 4,expounds the contribution of voluntary societies to elementary education.As representative of voluntary societies,the voluntary strength experienced two stages from devoting education lonely(1800-1832)to cooperation with the government(1833-1870)in the field of elementary education.These societies established,maintained and inspected schools by themselves in the former stage.In the latter stage,the government aided the elementary schools and training institutions,reinforced intervention gradually by the Committee of Council on Education,which was founded in 1839 and supervised the parliament grant.These societies were still the main force of establishing new schools,but the training institutions depended more and more on the government,inspecting schools were inferior than the government slowly,the importance of these societies declined little by little.At the same time,more and more people took part in voluntary societies of elementary education who were from different social classes.As a Quaker,Joseph Lancaster came from lower classes and devoted himself to the common day schools.Mary Carpenter focused on special educational institutions children;she was a Unitarian from middle classes.Anglican priests,belong to middle classes or upper classes locally,contributed significantly to children education of countryside.Everyone had the personal heroism complex,whether he came from superior upper classes or humble lower classes.The impulse of voluntary urged them to devote to the enterprise of elementary education.The third section is chapter 5,analysis the dilemma of voluntary societies work on elementary education.For the increasing of educational audiences and the improve ment of elementary education’s requirement,voluntary societies could not unilaterally undertake elementary education and had to rely cooperation with the government little by little.They could meet the low level requirements in elementary education of early 19th century,because the demand for literacy was little and the educational contents were limited at that time.The secularization in education caused the marginalization of religious teaching since the 1830s and advanced higher requirements of teaching quality.These changes overwhelmed the ability of voluntary societies to cope.Voluntarism in education was splendid in the 1840s and 1850s,but declined in the 1860s.These all swept away obstacles for emerging of Elementary Education Act of 1870.In the section of conclusion,this thesis summarized the complexity of voluntary education and tried to correct many false ideas of contribution of voluntary societies.The thesis analyzed the reasons of that voluntary societies devoted to education lonely to cooperation with the government.Voluntary societies could recognize the problems of elementary education and contribute their pygmy effort,but that it is the government who could really solve these problems.