Glasgow: Education and the Masses

The ‘Ancient’ Universities• 2 in England• 4 in Scotland• 1 in Ireland

England: University of Oxford (1096)

England: University of Cambridge (1209)

Scotland: University of St Andrews (1413)

Scotland: University of Glasgow (1451)

Scotland: University of Aberdeen (1495)

Scotland: University of Edinburgh (1582)

Ireland: Trinity College, Dublin (1592)

Ancient Universities• Reserve of the upper classes• Students would previously have been educated at home, or in one of the ‘Public

Schools’. • Only men were admitted until 1878 (and even then women were not allowed to receive

a degree until 1899).• Oxford and Cambridge maintained single-sex colleges until the 1970s.• Main subject matter included the Classics (Ancient Greek and Latin), and Divinity

(theology). • During the nineteenth century, curricula were expanded in most institutions to include

mathematics, history, law, and natural sciences.• Catholics and Dissenters were forbidden from receiving degrees (though not from

attending) in many of these universities until 1854.

College System• Oxford and Cambridge are each composed of several independent

colleges.• Each college is distinctive, and to a large extent independent.• Traditionally, different colleges have different intellectual and political

leanings, and have certain rivalries with each other. Wadham College Oxford, for instance, is known for its left-wing students, while Oriel College is considered right wing.• Traditionally, students live and eat together in the college.

Public Schools in the 19th century• Upper class children were traditionally educated at home, but when this

was not possible they were sent to ‘public schools’.• Traditionally all-male institutions, for children from 13-18• Students studied Latin, Greek and the classics.• Schools worked on a competitive ‘House System’.• Students formed a strict hierarchy according to age and privilege.• Well-known public schools still in existence include Eton, Harrow, and Rugby.• Upper class women were generally educated at home by a governess,

though some private schools for girls were founded in the mid-century.

Eton college

Rugby School

Middle Class Education• Upper middle classes educated their children at home or at Public

Schools• Other families sent their children to private ‘grammar schools’, which

primarily taught practical subjects such as Latin, arithmetic, and handwriting.• Middle (and upper) class girls were often educated by a governess to

be a good wife: this included ‘accomplishments’ (piano, singing, sewing, deportment).• Wealthier middle class children might hope to attend university

George Green Grammar School in London

Children at a Grammar school 1870

The Governess

The Governess in the 19th century• Neither a servant nor a member of the family• Governesses usually came from the middle classes, but may also have come

from a gentry background• Were unmarried, if a governess married she would have to leave her job• One of the few opportunities for women to work, and yet to remain in the

middle class• Taught modern languages, musical instruments, and other ‘accomplishments’, as

well as reading, writing and arithmetic.• English governesses were in high demand in Russia (where English had become

the fashionable language), and many women eventually went abroad to find work there.

Lower class education• The vast majority of working-class and poor children had no access to school at the beginning

of the 19th century• In some areas, small schools were set up by local churches• Other charitable schools were founded in industrial areas, primarily to teach children how to

work in factories. These were known as ‘Ragged Schools’• Schools were also established for girls, in order to learn certain practical skills such as

needlework.• These schools focused entirely on the ‘Three Rs’: Readling; wRiting; and aRithmetic.• Education was highly disciplinarian, often accompanied with violent corporal punishment. • Learning was mostly done by rote: students learned information and ‘facts’ by heart.• Major focus on hygiene and religious moralism.• Students could often move from these schools into apprenticeships.

Entrance to former Ragged School, Manchester

Lancasterian School System

Lancasterian Schools• Created by the Quaker Joseph Lancaster, from London, in 1808• Established many of the typical conventions of a modern school

room: rectangular room, rows of seats all facing front, one corridor down the centre of the rows, etc.• Worked on a peer tutoring systems• Worked on a monetary system, using ‘money’ as incentive.

1870 Elementary Education Act• All towns and villages were required to provide schools for children between the ages of 5-

13. These were still fee-paying schools, though government aid was provided for the poor who couldn’t afford them.

• Motivated by the need for more skilled workers in manufactories.• Was opposed by many, who feared the consequences of universal education.• Church schools and ragged schools were inducted into this ‘Elementary School’ system.• The new system was secular, all religious denominations were admitted. • In 1880 education to the age of 10 became compulsory, and in 1891 the schools were made

free of charge.• The language of instruction was English only, leading to the significant decline of Welsh and

English dialects. • Did not extend to Scotland or Ireland.

• “NOW, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else will ever be of any service to them. This is the principle on which I bring up my own children, and this is the principle on which I bring up these children. Stick to Facts, sir!”• - Mr Gradgrind, from Charles Dickens’

Hard Times (1854)

Rise of the New Universities

The University of London

University of London• Founded in 1834• Was entirely secular. Largely served to accommodate Dissenters, who

could not receive a degree from Oxford or Cambridge. • Conferred degrees in art, law, medicine, and later science – but was

forbidden from giving degrees in theology.• Became the first British university to admit women in 1878.• Eventually absorbed many other institutions in London such as King’s

College London and the London School of Economics. • Established Boys’ schools for middle class students, with the intent of

preparing them for university.

The ‘Redbrick’ Universities

The ‘Redbrick’ Universities• Founded in the industrial cities of Liverpool, Birmingham, Manchester,

Leeds, Sheffield, and Bristol.• Mostly founded in the late 19th century.• Part of the ‘Civic University Movement’ which advocated higher education

for everyone.• Emphasised practical skills: engineering, architecture, industrial design, etc.• Developed out of private research institutes founded by industrialists.• Were often looked down upon by the authorities of the ancient and newer

universities.• Can be considered a precursor to modern British universities.

The Press and the Masses

The Daily Mail (f. 1896) - ‘The Busy Man’s Journal’

• “A newspaper is to be made to pay. Let it deal with what interests the mass of people. Let it give the public what it wants.” – Alfred Harmsworth, founder of the Daily Mail

• “The Education Act of 1871 was producing readers who had never before bought books … these people wanted not George Eliot … but such crude tales of impossible adventures published in penny numbers only for schoolboys” George Bernard Shaw, 1879

• Just see these superfluous ones! They steal the works of the inventors and the treasures of the wise. Culture, they call their theft—and everything becometh sickness and trouble unto them! Just see these superfluous ones! Sick are they always; they vomit their bile and call it a newspaper. They devour one another, and cannot even digest themselves. Just see these superfluous ones! Wealth they acquire and become poorer thereby. Power they seek for, and above all, the lever of power, much money—these impotent ones! – Nietzche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883-91).

Women’s Education

Dr George Romanes on Women’s brains (1887)“Seeing that the average brain-weight of women is about five ounces less than that of men, on merely anatomical grounds we should be prepared to expect a marked inferiority of intellectual power in the former.[1] Moreover, as the general physique of women is less robust than that of men—and therefore less able to sustain the fatigue of serious or prolonged brain-action—we should also, on physiological grounds, be prepared to entertain a similar anticipation. … The difference [between men and women’s intelligence], however, is one which does not assert itself till the period of adolescence—young girls being, indeed, usually more acquisitive than boys of the same age, as is proved by recent educational experiences both in this country and in America. But as soon as the brain, and with it the organism as a whole, reaches the stage of full development, it becomes apparent that … a woman's information is less wide, and deep, and thorough, than that of a man. What we regard as a highly-cultured woman is usually one who has read largely but superficially; and even in the few instances that can be quoted of extraordinary female—industry which, on account of their rarity, stand out as exceptions to prove the rule—we find a long distance between them and the much more numerous instances of profound erudition among men.”

‘Bluestocking’ women• Bluestockings are an outrage

upon the eternal fitness of things … without being positively criminal, a Bluestocking is the most odious character in society; nature, sense, and hilarity fly at her approach … she sinks wherever she is placed, like the yolk of an egg, to the bottom, and carries the filth with her …• - The British Critic 1823

Advancement of women’s education• 1845 – ‘Queen’s college’ is founded by dissenters in London, to educate governesses and

middle class girls (mainly to become governesses).• 1849 – Beford Ladies’ college is established in London by Elizabeth Jesser Reid, also a dissenter.

Students studied science and the arts.• 1860 – establishment of the Langham Group in London, which called for women’s education, as

well as suffrage, employment opportunities, and law reform• 1869 - The pioneering feminist Emily Davies founds ‘Girton College’, which she called ‘a college

like a man’s’ near Cambridge. Girton would not be recognised as a Cambridge College until 1948.

• 1872 – women permitted to enter lectures in Newnham College, Cambridge. • 1874 – establishment of the London school of Medicine for Women. • Women were not allowed to receive university degrees until 1920, and their numbers were

severely restricted in Oxbridge until the 1970s.

Girton College, Cambridge (1869)