government_policy_towards_secondary_schools_and_history_teaching_1900_-_1910

Government policy towards secondary schools and history teaching 19001910 The period 1900-1910 is a crucial one in the development of secondary education in England Not just in the structure of the secondary system but also in the development of what was taught There was a consciousness that other countries, particularly Germany, were prioritising technical expertise in their educational facilities to an extent which meant England was being left behind in the skills market, and English companies were bringing German technicians and clerical workers into the country A number of educationalists wanted much more emphasis on increasing the technical and scientific side of education to the vast majority of children However there was a great uncertainly about how far this emphasis should be developed, and at what age it should be begun, even among those who supported the concept This indecision, linked to the potent factors of class and religion, meant that by the end of the decade the ideas of expanding technical education and wider educational opportunities to all children had been largely dismissed except by some parts of the labour and trade union movement In the early 1890s the Government had given the Bryce Commission the task of investigating secondary education; the Commission had found a complicated situation There was already an array of different types of secondary schools and even the definition of secondary education was not clear to commentators at the time Nor was it clear how many children were in the different types of ‘secondary’ schooling The Commission described three grades of secondary schools (which had been designated by the earlier Taunton Commission) but even within each ‘grade’ there was a wide range of quite different institutions For example the Bryce Commission included within the third grade endowed schools, certain private schools, and higher grade or higher grade elementary schools What we tend to think of as ‘secondary’ schools would probably have come into the second grade Before considering the ‘secondary schools’, it is necessary to look at all the other forms of post elementary education which were used, almost exclusively, by working class children Higher Grade Schools Higher grade schools were an extension of the elementary schools run by the School Boards They usually placed an emphasis on scientific and technical subjects, partly because they could apply to the Science and Art Department for grants for science and art subjects although some did devote considerable time to ‘literary’ subjects They generally provided education to the age of fourteen or fifteen and were seen as recruiting elementary school students from the lower classes who would be going into jobs as soon as they left school but wanted more training and education than the elementary school could provide They only existed in some areas, mainly the cities, and varied from area to area In London there was a considerable number of them and they were seen as an important element in the capital’s education system An Inspector’s memo from Jan 1900 sets out the minimum time for compulsory subjects in general Higher Grade Schools (as opposed to ‘Schools of Science’) In both girls’ and boys’ higher grade schools, ‘History and Geography’ must be taught for at least two hours a week and it was emphasised that it was “not desirable” that education on the HG schools “be carried on to the extent to which it is at present by class teaching alone, but that methods of education should be chosen by which the scholars should be forced to develop their powers of self-reliance by individual effort” As far as individual schools are concerned, a glance at the timetables in the National Archives files shows how impossible it is to generalise about what was being taught in these schools Every school whose details are there has different levels and names of classes and every class has different amounts of time spent on history At Montem Street School in Finsbury, the girls had one hour of history in Standard VII, three in Form 1, one in Form and one and three quarters in Form 3.2 Oldfield Road Boys (also in Finsbury) had one hour, 15 minutes of history a week in Standard and ‘ex7’ (the year after) At Fleet Road Higher Grade School one hour, 20 minutes of history was taught a week to the ‘Intermediate Class’, an hour of Commercial History to the ‘Senior Commercial Class’ (and an hour to the ‘Junior Commercial Class’, an hour and a half to the Girls only ‘Candidates Class’ and an hour and a half to the ‘Scholarship Class’.4 The higher grade schools became part of the debate about what kind of secondary schooling should be developed if there was to be some expansion of post-elementary education Many elementary school teachers and the School Boards which ran them saw the higher grade schools as fulfilling a very useful function of developing the education received in the elementary schools and being appropriate for pupils who had aptitude for more schooling but who it was felt would feel completely out of place in the atmosphere of a more traditional secondary school However for a number of reasons which have been much debated5, the development of the higher grade schools was National Archives, ED 14/41 ‘Curricula in Higher Grade Schools’, 22/1/1900 Ibid, Timetable - Montem Street School, Finsbury, Girls’ Department, c1899-1900 Forms 1-3 are presumably the years after VII ie 15-17 years old Ibid, ‘Special Time Tables, Oldfield Road Boys’ School, 1899-1900 Ibid, Fleet Road Higher Grade School, 1900 Secondary education during the early years of the 20C was a highly controversial area both at the time and for historians of education since the 1940s See for example: Whitbread, Nanette, ‘The early twentieth-century secondary curriculum debate in England’, History of Education, 1984, Vol 13, No 3; Daglish, ND, ‘The politics of educational change: the case of the English higher grade schools’, Journal of effectively stunted They were caught up in the moves to remove educational powers from the School Boards which had been the target of the Conservative Party for some years6 They were seen as promoting secular education through the Board Schools at the expense of the church schools and there was growing concern from both the powerful Church of England lobby within the Conservative Party and also from Conservatives who feared the radicalism that might be fostered in the working class if secular education took a dominant hold It was presumed that if the school boards were subordinated to and eventually replaced by the country councils as the main educational bodies these would prove more conservative in their administration First, the classes organised by the School Boards were deemed ineligible for Science and Art Department grants Then came the Cockerton judgment; a famous incident in the annals of the history of education In 1899 an art school in London brought a case complaining of competition from evening classes provided by the London School Board and the London Board district auditor upheld its argument, disallowing expenditure for classes of a non-elementary nature from rates The LSB appealed up to the High Court but lost at every level This ruling applied to the Higher Grade Schools as well as the evening classes so their funding by school boards was in effect illegal although they were given special permission to continue for another year Higher Elementary Schools Meanwhile, in May1900 the ‘Higher Elementary School Minute’ was issued by the Board of Education, partly to clarify the position of the higher grade schools whose status had been made unclear by the ongoing ‘Cockerton’ decision7, and partly to continue the clarification and re-organisation of the education system and ensure that the School Boards did not encroach into secondary education This followed the policy of the acting (and substantive holder of the post from April 1903) Permanent Secretary of the Board Educational and Administrative History, Vol XIX, No 2, July 1987; Lowe, Roy, ‘Robert Morant and the secondary school regulations of 1904’, Journal of Educational and Administrative History, Vol XVI, No 1, Jan 1984; Banks, Olive L, ‘Morant and the secondary school regulations of 1904’, British Journal of Educational Studies, Vol 3, No 1, Nov 1954; Taylor, Tony, ‘An early arrival of the Fascist mentality: Robert Morant’s rise to power’, Journal of Educational and Administrative History, Vol XVII, No 2, July 1985; Kazamias, Andreas M, Politics, Society and Secondary Education in England, (University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia 1966); Graves, John, Policy and Progress in Secondary Education 1902-1942, (Thomas Nelson & Sons Ltd, London 1943); Banks, Olive, Parity and Prestige in English Secondary Education: A Study in Educational Sociology, (Routledge & Kegan Paul, London 1955); Eaglesham, EJR, The Foundations of Twentieth-Century in England, (Routledge & Kegan Paul, London 1967); Simon, Brian, Education and the Labour Movement 1870-1920 (Lawrence & Wishart, London 1965) These were set up under the 1870 Education Act They were elected by ratepayers on a secret ballot every three years; women might both vote and stand for office and from 1870 onwards there were a number of influential female board members across the country The case had not been through all the appeal stages yet and the London School Board did not finally exhaust these unsuccessfully until December 1900 of Education, Robert Morant.8 The Minute laid down a rationale for a version of the higher grade schools – the higher elementary schools which would be clearly within the elementary school system not the secondary (which Morant was already planning to reorganise) and would teach no pupils beyond fifteen They would provide a form of elementary education beyond the ordinary elementary school and would in general have a technical and scientific bias designed to meet the needs of industry and employers The Higher Elementary Schools were for children aged 10 to 15 years of age “who are certified by an Inspector of the Board as qualified to profit by such instruction” The concept behind them was that “the special object which they have in view is to qualify the children taught in them to enter any of those callings in which scientific methods have to be employed”9 The four year course of instruction was based on science and all the pupils were trained to make accurate measurements and perform and record simple experiments, although they also took elementary Mathematics, a foreign language and Drawing Classes were to be relatively small; “as a rule, confined to thirty-five, and may not exceed forty”.10It has been argued that the higher elementaries were just a way of appeasing a working class desire for secondary education while avoiding putting their children into the ‘real’ secondary’ schools, but their establishment was also a reflection of the perception that England was lagging well behind other European powers in its modern technical and scientific training However even some higher elementary school headmasters were wary of too much early scientific specialisation and advocated giving the pupils a more rounded education These arguments were part of the debate over the value of a ‘liberal’ humanities-based, even ‘classical’ education, which ran Sir Robert Morant, 1863-1920 Educated Winchester College and Oxford Taught briefly at a prep school then went to Siam where he tutored the crown prince and then became involved in the Siamese educational system Becoming politically involved in Siam, his position eventually became “untenable” (ODNB) and he returned to England where “though he pursued a career in the civil service, he was also to attract public controversy” (ODNB) He worked and lived briefly at Toynbee Hall and then went to the education department of the privy council where he worked for Michael Sadler Morant rapidly rose to become acting and then permanent secretary of the Board of Education, and Sadler resigned from the civil service with some bitterness, later describing Morant as “an early arrival of the Fascist mentality” The 1902 Education Act is largely seen as the work of Balfour who became the Conservative Prime Minister during its passing, but Morant was important as an adviser and he reorganised the Board of Education to implement the Act effectively Despite his controversial reputation Morant managed to work well with the Liberals when they came to power in 1905 and he was knighted in 1907 Under his regime school meals for underprivileged children were introduced in 1907, a system of medical inspection and treatment of schoolchildren initiated and Dr George Newman appointed to run it He introduced a number of other reforms both at the Board of Education and at the National Insurance Commission and later the Ministry of Health where he was the first permanent secretary ‘Report of the Board of Education for the Year 1902-1903’ (HMSO, London 1903), p46 10 Board of Education, ‘1904 Code of Regulations for Public Elementary Schools with Schedules’, (HMSO, London 1904), p 16 throughout the early years of the century and will be discussed in more detail when we look at secondary education In fact, Higher Elementary Schools often continued in the same premises and along similar lines to the Higher Grade Schools The Inspector, Mr Currey, reported that this was the case with Ipswich higher elementary school which had opened in the same premises as the previous higher grade school He suggested the drawbacks to these higher schools were that children started at them at varying times (although this was being changed); that parents were unclear about the purpose of the school, and were reluctant to commit to the four year course; there was “some not unnatural reluctance” on the part of teachers in elementary schools to lose “their best children when they are beginning to show some return for the pains bestowed upon them” 11 And it was soon clear that higher elementary schools were not favoured by the education authorities – which from 1902 were the local county councils They often either merged them back into elementary schools or renamed and developed them as secondary schools In 1903, there were only 29 Higher Elementary Schools, providing education for 7,459 children; just over a third of those attending were girls and over two thirds of all the children paid no fees It is not clear at this stage whether any learnt history In 1904 the Code was still clear that the curriculum and time table of the higher elementary school had to be approved by the Board of Education and “show that a sufficiency of Science instruction , both practical and theoretical, is provided for in each year” 12 However within a year the reorganisation of post-elementary education was under way and the secondary schools were in the ascendant The rationale for the Higher Elementary Schools was changed: By 1905 the Board was aware that the Minute of 1900 had virtually failed…The board was inclined to lay the blame on the terms of the Minute itself, mentioning in particular the high cost of the building equipment required and the scientific nature of the curriculum demanded, which was not particularly suited to the occupations for which many of its pupils were destined Accordingly the 1905 Code introduced new regulations for higher elementary schools…to encourage local authorities to organise such schools13 The Board of Education wanted the higher elementary schools to succeed As the Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Education, Sir William Anson said to the House 11 ‘General Reports of H.M Inspectors on Elementary Schools and Training Colleges for the Year 1902 (HMSO, London 1903), p77 12 Ibid, p15 13 Banks, Olive, Parity and Prestige in English Secondary Education: A Study in Educational Sociology, (Routledge & Kegan Paul, London 1955), p54 of Commons in 1905:, “if no intermediate type of school between the elementary and secondary schools is created, I fear it will lead to a lowering of the standards of the secondary schools”.14 They wanted to provide an intermediate school to prevent a dilution of the standards of the secondary schools through the introduction of an influx of working class children who might not only lower standards by leaving half way through the four year course but would also lower the social standards of the school The National Union of Teachers and increasingly all sections of the labour movement who now shared a growing interest in educational provision became more strongly against them precisely because of fears that this was the purpose of the schools: to divert poorer children from proper secondary education In 1900 the Higher Grade Schools had been one of the few paths to extending their education for working class children; by 1908 the secondary school sector was expanding and working class advocates saw no reason why their children should not be participating in it The rationale for higher elementary schools was now that they were for children who might wish to defer leaving school until they were fifteen but no longer; particularly in areas “where there is a steady demand in skilled occupations for the services of young people” If these children were in schools where very many pupils would leave at thirteen or earlier “ the general standard of work that can profitably be attempted by any of the higher classes of the school” would be “very seriously” lowered and these children would need the Higher Elementaries.15 The HES course would now be only three years, from twelve years old (and the scholar would leave at fifteen except with special permission from the Inspector) As far as the curriculum was concerned, since the publication of the 1904 Code, the circumstances which had led to the imposition of a scientific curriculum “no longer exist”, and the curriculum would now be less specialised (and therefore less expensive as laboratories, equipment and specialist teachers were all necessary for the earlier curriculum).16 The curriculum must now be more general, more flexible according to the particular needs of the locality A “special side” would remain, responding to circumstances (“In some cases the chief local industries may demand fine workmanship In others a high degree of manual skill may be less important than the power to use machinery or to handle materials used in construction, and to carry out the details of a design” And for girls, the curriculum will “be expected to include a practical training for home duties, which is applicable to the circumstances of their own homes” 17) However 14 Sir William Anson quoted from Hansard, 1/8/1905 in Banks, op cit, pp54-55 Board of Education, ‘1905 Code of Regulations for Public Elementary Schools with Schedules’, (HMSO, London 1905), p iii 16 Ibid, p iv 17 Ibid, p v 15 it was firmly stated that the “curriculum will not be approved unless it provides, together with this special instruction, a progressive course of study in the English Language and Literature, in Elementary Mathematics, and in History and Geography” 18 So the curriculum would be an extension of the elementary one and no details are given of what should be taught Probably it was a development of the higher grades of the elementary school The Code said firmly that as long as there was “a sufficient amount of general instruction” the practical side will be left “largely” to the decision of the local Authority and there will also be no regulation as to how time is divided between the different subjects It does however say that care must be taken to avoid specialising, “in order to serve the needs of a particular trade or the needs of a group of related industries” This kind of routine is better developed in “the workshop or in the counting house” The Code says that: to learn to a thing with mechanical accuracy, and to neglect to consider why a thing is done in one way and why not in another, will not encourage that adaptability and intelligent understanding of routine work which add so much both to the value of an employé (sic), and to his own powers of self-development and advancement.19 This is in one sense a quite enlightened approach to vocational education However the next section reveals the enormous difference the Board is seeking to impose between higher elementary and secondary education Turning to subjects beyond the “ordinary” (which include history) it says “the purpose of a Higher Elementary School should be borne in mind” Looking for example at French: …the question of introducing French into the curriculum may arise In a Secondary School the teaching of French may be regarded as a first step towards introducing the scholars to the literature and thought of France, and though this use of the language may not be fully realised in the Secondary School, yet the course is long enough to ensure that the scholar will have the opportunity of acquiring a literary as well as practical knowledge of the language, useful for this or for other ends A thorough study of language has also a value in intellectual training In the Higher Elementary School, on the other hand, French could not, owing to the limitations of time, be studied adequately for either purpose, and therefore its introduction is best considered solely in relation to the question of immediate 18 19 Ibid, p15 Board of Education, ‘1905 Code of Regulations’, op cit, p vi usefulness in employment…The circumstances of the locality must determine the propriety of attempting to teach French at all in a Higher Elementary School 20 For the next few years there was a mixture of Higher Elementary Schools still working to the old policy which they were allowed to until 1909-10, and a few new ones operating according to the revised regulations In 1907-08, the Board of Education annual report says that thirty new Higher Elementary Schools were opened in England; 28 of these were ordinary elementary schools converted into HESs, one secondary school converted into an HES and just one was an entirely new school However, reading on, it turns out that 22 of the 28 converted schools were LCC ones which had provisional recognition and in the end the LCC withdrew them all as it could not undertake to satisfy certain conditions which the Board imposed for paying grants at the higher level provided for HESs By mid 1908 there were in total 38 HESs of the ‘new’ type and 21 of the ‘old’.21 This annual report from the Board is interesting in that it includes some information from the inspectors’ reports, at least from the ‘older’ HESs which are in transition – most of the others are too new for definite opinions to be drawn In one school the inspector complains that the boys in particular leave when they reach their “14th year and says that the curriculum needs to be modified (although very good “for the purpose of a good general education”; there should be more mechanical and laboratory lessons – “The aim should be throughout in the direction of training the boys to be intelligent artisans rather than teachers, clerk, or craftsmen in the higher sense”22 He says the girls’ curriculum is “even more deficient than that for the boys as regards practical training” They “receive no Housewifery training, and out of 150 girls, only 36 learn Cookery and 28 laundry in the year” 23 The schools were clearly moving towards academic teaching English is praised at another: “A wide selection of literature is studied in each class, and the aim of the course is that the girls should enjoy their books instead of merely acquiring facts about them For the first-year girls the literature is well correlated with the History and Geography…the girls express themselves well on a variety of subjects, many of which are selected by themselves Some excellent compositions were seen in the second-year class and it was noticed that the girls had collected the information for themselves out of school hours”.24 Unfortunately the only mention of history is vague: “History and Geography are also in general reported to be well taught” 25 20 Ibid, p vii ‘Report of the Board of Education for the Year 1907-08’ (HMSO, London 1909), pp 25-26 22 ‘Report of the Board of Education for the Year 1907-08’, p44 23 Ibid 24 Ibid 25 Ibid, p45.` 21 Over the next few years, the number of Higher Elementary Schools gradually increased to 46 in 1909-10 but the number of pupils attending them remained low and by 1913-14 there were only 36.26 And the figures show that although at age thirteen there was a peak of students attending, the number rapidly declined after they became fourteen As most pupils only joined the schools at twelve this meant they were only receiving two years of education in them.27 As the Board’s 1909-10 annual report concluded; “ it can hardly be said that the majority of Higher Elementary Schools are in any special degree fulfilling what the Board conceive to be the true function of a school of this type” 28 Reformatory and Industrial Schools Throughout this period a number of children were receiving their education through reformatories and industrial schools Reformatories had been set up by charitable individuals and societies to provide accommodation for young offenders and neglected children From 1854, legislation provided that they must be approved by the Secretary of State for the Home Office, and that funding would be provided for them from the Treasury to provide maintenance for their inmates From 1857 approval was given for industrial schools for vagrant and neglected children which were again established and managed by voluntary societies The 1870 Elementary Education Act gave education authorities the power to establish industrial schools although by 1913 only 22 of the 112 such schools were local authority owned and managed, and all 37 of the reformatories were still in charitable hands.29 By 1913 the number of children in reformatories and industrial schools was nearly 18,000 The Children Act 1908 clarified that reformatories were for juvenile offenders aged between 12 and 16 years who must go to them for between three and five years; industrial schools were for vagrant or neglected children under the age of 14 to stay there for a period the court thought “proper for the teaching and training of the child”, and for child offenders under the age of 12 and those between 12 and 14 in certain cases.30 Every year there was a perfunctory inspection of the schools: the Home Office reformatory and industrial inspectorate was considerably less well paid than those inspecting factories, mines and explosive manufactories let alone the Board of Education inspectors, and the difficulties involved in visiting often remote schools made it a demanding task.31 Looking at the mentions of history teaching in their annual report for 26 ‘Report of the Board of Education for the Year 1913-14’, p68 ‘Report of the Board of Education for the Year 1909-10’, p64 28 Ibid, p63 29 ‘Report of the Departmental Committee on Reformatory and Industrial Schools’, (London, HMSO 1913), pp 4-5 30 Ibid, p44 31 Hurt, John, ‘Reformatory and industrial schools before 1933’, History of Education, Vol 13, No1, 1984, p50 27 10 1907, there is usually little to say about it In Bedfordshire Reformatory (and many others) , ‘History good’; similarly at Birkendale Farm and at many others, “history readers have been in use” These two phrases reappear time after time, sometimes with slight changes as at Kent Industrial School, “History readers have been used to good purpose” and at Beacon Lane, Liverpool, “history readers have been intelligently used” However at St Vincent’s Industrial School, Dartford, “ History readers might well be used more frequently”, this latter comment is unusual – usually history is only mentioned if it is relatively positive There is absolutely no sense of history being taught in any but the most mechanical reader-based way.32 This was borne out by the Departmental Committee’s Report on Reformatory and Industrial Schools produced six years later It asked some Board of Education inspectors to look at a sample of reformatory and industrial schools Looking at their findings the Committee concluded that “the certified schools have not, except in isolated instances, attempted to follow the changes made in the elementary schools in curriculum and method during recent years” 33 Its Report quotes the Board Inspectors as saying the schools “closely resemble the good schools of 15 or 20 years ago, but we miss in them some of the characteristics of the best schools of to-day…in history and geography, object teaching and drawing [and English and arithmetic], the syllabuses and methods are those of 15 to 20 years ago”.34 The Chief Inspector of Elementary Schools is quoted as saying: “They have the merits of the old type of elementary school The work is accurate, careful and neat within a narrow range On the other hand…there is not the intelligence, the individuality and the originality which are in the best of our schools today” When asked how he would compare the schools to average rather than the best elementary schools he thought the best reformatory schools would be more “accurate and thorough” but the second rate elementary school would probably be better for “range of information”, and for composition, reading and also geography, “because the new methods of teaching geography have penetrated even to the second-rate elementary schools”35 The Reformatory School inspectors took issue with this The Acting Chief Inspector maintained “that for the mass of children the older methods were better than the newer, and that the average boy is better grounded for the work of life in the schoolroom of an industrial school than in the average public elementary school” He valued “the modern attempt to make lessons more interesting and more stimulating” 32 ‘Fifty-first Report for the Year 1907 of the Inspector of Reformatory and Industrial Schools of Great Britain, Part I’, (London, HMSO 1908) comments taken from pp 35-265 33 ‘Report of the Departmental Committee on Reformatory and Industrial Schools’ (London, HMSO 1913), p 30 34 Ibid, pp 30-31 35 Ibid, p31 He unfortunately makes no specific mention of history 22 Secondary Schools There has been a growth of interest, of knowledge, and of experience 76 It went on to say that an effective Inspectorate, a system of detailed reports, and informal visits and conferences meant that it was now possible to guard against “the risks of one-sided education, of ill-balanced schemes of instruction, and of premature or excessive specialisation” So now “it is only laid down that the arrangement of work must provide for due continuity of instruction, for an adequate amount of time being given to each subject taken, and for the disallowance of subjects which are not of educational value”.77 The curriculum and timetable for each school still had to be officially submitted for approval to the Board which might require modifications in it but other aspects of the Regulations were freed up 78 The potential impact of these curricular changes probably received less attention than they might have done because the Board of Education introduced other changes at the same time which aroused considerable controversy Following the passing of the Education (Administrative Provisions) Act 1907, which introduced the free place system, the Board announced that “all Secondary Schools aided by grants shall be made fully accessible to children of all classes” and with this in mind it decreed that all grant-aided Schools which charged fees (and previously that was what the Board had encouraged) must open up, without charge, at least 25% of their places to scholars who had spent at least two years at public elementary schools In future all schools eligible and desirous of grants which participated in this scheme would be given £5 per annum for every child between 12 and 18, and £2 for those aged 10 to 12, and consideration would be given to providing extra payments to schools incurring expenses in carrying out “special educational experiments approved by the Board” 79 The new scheme brought criticism from a number of secondary school head teachers who liked to believe the existing scholarship system worked adequately and feared the opening up of the system to an influx of working class children The Liberal MP for Bethnal Green SW, Edward Pickersgill, pointed out the situation before the new policy was hardly adequate – quoting a Parliamentary Return he said that Aston Manor had one scholarship place to secondary school for 12,858 children, East Ham none for 19,191, and Portsmouth none for 26,871 children And even where scholarships did exist they were often subject to the condition that the pupil pledge to become a teacher 80 76 Board of Education, ‘Regulations for Secondary Schools (in force from st August 1907)’, (London, HMSO, 1907), p viii 77 Ibid 78 Ibid, p 79 Ibid, p 11 80 Hansard, House of Commons, Vol 171, 93 13 March 1907, Mr Pickersgill 23 Other MPs over the months leading up to the Regulations, including the President of the Board of Education, suggested that in England (as opposed to Wales and Scotland) there was very little demand from working class parents for secondary education for their children Both headteachers’ fears, and predictions of lack of demand were proved wrong The free places were rapidly oversubscribed and the “entrance test of attainments and proficiency” described in the Regulations81 soon became a competitive exam such was the demand Headteachers found that the unruly and uncouth influx they feared failed to materialise and indeed both Banks and Graves pointed out that the free place pupils tended to stay at school longer than the fee-payers and formed the cornerstone of the emerging sixth forms 82 The most controversial aspects of the Regulations were less relevant to the current study, and related to the attempts to make schools – and particularly the teacher training colleges – less denominationally biased in terms of admissions, halls of residence and teaching Similarly school governing bodies were not to require a majority of their members to be of one denomination and had to have a majority of governors appointed or elected by representative bodies from outside All of these clauses could be waived if the appropriate local authority agreed These clauses were seen as an attempt to introduce religious division into the ‘higher education’ system and discriminate against the Church of England and Roman Catholic Church which had set up a number of the training colleges and secondary schools and they raised an outcry from critics up to the Archbishop of Canterbury Lowe suggested that this controversy overshadowed the curricular side of the 1907 amendments and resulted in the 1904 regulations remaining influential long after they were withdrawn This seems rather implausible, and Whitbread saw “greater flexibility”, “innovation”, experiments with “alternative curricula” and “debate on differentiation resumed” in the years after the system was changed 83 By 1908 there were 736 grant-aided secondary schools and a year later, 804 Only three of the new ones were mixed, 25 were boys’ and 37 girls’.84 (In many areas there had been relatively few girls’ schools) Interestingly there were nearly 3000 more girls than boys aged 16-18 in secondary education – 4,284 boys and 7,039 girls The Board’s annual report a year after the new regulations were introduced said that “while it is too soon yet to estimate results fully, there is undoubtedly a marked improvement; and what is 81 Regulations, 1907, op cit, p Banks, op cit, pp 67-68; Graves, John, Policy and Progress in Secondary Education: 1902-1942, (Thomas Nelson & Sons Ltd, London 1943), p68 83 Whitbread, op cit, p229 84 Board of Education, ‘Statistics of Public Education in England and Wales, 1908-1909, Part 1’ (HMSO, London 1910), p 103 82 24 most noteworthy is the vigorous interest and activity in experiment found all over the country”.85 It singled out for praise the work of the special subject associations – including the Historical Association as well as the Classical, English, Modern Language, Mathematical, and Geographical Associations – which had all worked hard to improve the way their subjects were taught Circulars issued by the Board on a range of subjects including History had also “helped the very marked improvement in the teaching of these subjects”.86 Summing up History, the Board said : In History two improvements are especially noteworthy The first is the introduction of the history of other countries It is not an exaggeration to say that until recently all history except that of England has been a complete blank to pupils in our Secondary Schools The difficulty of remedying this defect is great, but the task is being undertaken, and an interest in the national history of other countries is already being awakened The second is the study of local history Hitherto schoolboys and girls have been brought up quite ignorant of the history of the town in which they live, of the historical events which have taken place in the neighbourhood, and of the buildings and other remains which exist there Improvement has begun here and, though it has not yet gone very far, there is every reason to hope that in a few years the interest and affection of boys and girls will have been aroused in their local monuments, and the foundation laid for a larger and more intelligent local patriotism.87 ‘Teaching of History in Secondary Schools’, Circular 599 The Circular issued on History was distributed in November 1908 The accompanying letter to HMIs from the Board, signed by WN Bruce, the Principal Assistant Secretary at the Secondary Schools Branch, had mentioned both the elements singled out in the Board’s Report It said that “it is most important that some instruction on the history of other countries should be included in the History course of all Secondary Schools, and also that the interest of the pupils should be aroused in the history of the district or town in which they live” and told them to encourage schools they visited to this.88 The Staff Inspectors’ Committee had already approved the Circular, which had been drafted by Mr Headlam, one of their group, who had written the earlier criticism of the teaching of literary subjects in 1902 WN Bruce had sent it to Robert Morant, the Permanent Secretary of the Board of Education, praising it and asking him to consider 85 Board of Education, ‘Report of the Board of Education for the Year 1980-1909’, (HMSO, London 1910), p 42 86 Ibid 87 Ibid, p 43 88 National Archives, ED 12/48 Memo to Inspectors from W N Bruce, 25/11/1908 25 how they might widely circulate the accompanying explanatory memorandum which Mr Headlam had also written He thought it “a sad pity to let it be buried in the file” Morant agreed, saying it was “so admirable and so helpful and will so vastly help to explain and justify the Circular” As for the Circular, Morant believed, “it cannot but carry great weight and be of immense help everywhere” He realised “how glad one would have been to have had it before one, years ago when one had to try and direct that kind of study for varying ages” He urged publication as soon as possible although in revealing asides about his need to control (or perhaps knowledge of previous typos) he added “Proofreading must be carefully done”) and in the margin “I should like to see the last proof before final printing off RL Morant” And as well as sending his congratulations to Mr Headlam for his “admirable piece of work”, he also ventured to suggest: the need of emphasising the use of a suitable map (not on too small a scale) showing very broadly the big political divisions of (at least) Europe, for each of the main periods dealt with I know that many boys & adults imagine the Crusades or the Charles V stories, in a mental picture of the map of modern Europe He mentions it at the foot of page But it is equally necessary earlier, is it not? Mutatis mutandis this applies also to the Elizabethan expansion 89 Headlam’s Memorandum was published, although it is not clear how far it was circulated The Circular was certainly distributed widely More hand-written notes from Robert Morant show that he personally added the main newspapers (Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph, Standard, Times etc ) to the list of all the obvious educational authorities and a few selected journals like the Local Government Chronicle and Schoolmaster The Memorandum is almost as long as the Circular In it, Headlam said that the circular “recommends to schools a course of study including a consecutive study of English history from the earliest times, extending over three years at least, and four wherever possible” However “it also recommends that a large liberty should be assumed in each school to leave out freely much which is included in the ordinary school treatment” 90 In explanation it said that: One of the chief reasons why much history teaching is so unsuccessful is that an attempt is made to teach too much The number of facts, persons, events, mentioned in any ordinary text-book used in the middle forms is far greater than boys can understand, much less remember If an attempt is made to remember them it results in a purely verbal memory of the words, names and language of the text-book This is worse than valueless, and makes boys hate the whole 89 National Archives, ED 12/48 Handwritten notes, WN Bruce 16/10/1908, RL Morant, 17/10/1908 90 National Archives, ED 22/36 Board of Education ‘Memorandum in explanation and expansion of the Board’s Circular on the Teaching of History in Secondary Schools’, p1 26 subject In addition to this the amount of work to be got through prevents them dwelling with any detail on those events or ideas which would be and are interesting and instructive to boys A considerable amount of detail is necessary to get the full interest and instruction even for quite young boys, but this requires time, and time is now wanting.91 Headlam described various ways that had been suggested to deal with this problem: the first was the ‘special period’, formerly much encouraged by the examinations The drawbacks were that the ‘boys’ then crammed themselves full of facts about their period rather than understanding the issues, and that they did not gain a “a view of English history as a whole”.92 There was now more of a concentration by examining bodies on “a long period, eg, from 1066 to 1485, for ‘outlines’ and a short period for special study” Headlam was not keen even on this He felt they should study all the important events that happened during the longer period, and special periods should be left till very late in the school career and should then be very short and studied in great detail eg “the first five years of the French Revolution, the War of American Independence, the history of England from the year 1638 to the battle of Naseby, the history of Elizabeth’s reign to the defeat of the Armada” 93 They should only be studied if the pupils were advanced enough to read works written for adults and “something of the nature of an original authority”.94 The second approach was the ‘concentric system’ in which the whole of English history would be studied every year; each year adding to the pupils’ detailed knowledge This, Headlam felt, meant too much ground had to be covered each year so that everything was always done in a hurry with no time to get strong impressions of anything “It also has this great danger, that it tempts the master to put broad historical generalisations before the boys when they are still without the rudimentary knowledge of the facts on which the generalisations are based” The third approach was beginning with the present day and going backwards “on the ground that all instruction should proceed from the known to the unknown” However Headlam was dubious that “it is possible to speak of the political history and system of the present day as being in any real sense known to boys and girls of 12 to 14” He felt that “this system misses that which should be the chief aim of every historical teacher, the presentation of a narrative which explains itself Narrative should precede analysis, but a course of study which begins at the end must always be analytical” 95 91 Ibid Ibid, p2 93 Ibid 94 Ibid, p 95 Ibid 92 27 Headlam proposed that for the four years from 12 to 16, schools should plan “a course of three or four years in which there should be a consecutive study of English study in the extended sense which is here advocated , ie , English history with large digressions into foreign history The whole of English history would then be divided into three periods, one of them being assigned to each year” But this would be done on the basis that these periods are much too large to be covered in one year so that “a great deal of it will have to be left out” This must be determined beforehand and the “boys should be told what is being left out, and why” Headlam gives a couple of examples of this approach, for example: In a course on the Tudor and Stuart period for boys of 14, we might begin with the great discoveries, leave out the greater part of the reign of Henry VII and the first part of Henry VIII, go straight to the explanation of the Empire of Charles V, laying stress on the permanent importance of it, and showing how its effects still continue, and then take up the history of England at the beginning of the Reformation The foreign policy of Elizabeth would probably be fully dealt with; and the whole relation to Scotland during the reigns of the Tudors, with a fuller treatment of Mary, Queen of Scots The Irish question would either be left out altogether, or if there were time, dealt with sufficiently fully to show its effect on the future history of Ireland; but if it was taken, there could not be a break at the death of Elizabeth, it would have to be carried on at once to the time of Strafford , including the settlements of James I.96 He admits that this scheme would only work if the pupils already had an adequate grounding in historical teaching in their earlier years of schooling, with a good knowledge of “the traditional stories, as well as the succession of the kings” 97 Turning to revision and examinations, Headlam believed that “if the teaching is properly done there will be constant indirect revision of all work that has been done before”, because as new subjects are begun there should be “constant reference back to all that has been learnt bearing on this” For example: “The dissolution of the monasteries should be introduced by recapitulation of the main facts about them; the Reformation by a reference to the ecclesiastical policy of William the Conqueror” As for examinations, he declared; “History is always a most difficult and unsatisfactory subject to examine in well” Areas like the study of local history were extremely difficult to examine As far as the general history papers were concerned foreign history should be included and questions should be set which “encourage those who have a fuller 96 97 Ibid, p Ibid 28 knowledge of the most important events rather than a general verbal knowledge of a large number of names and facts”.98 Headlam’s Memorandum was the accompaniment to Circular 599 on the ‘Teaching of History in Secondary Schools’ (‘Price One Penny’), which was a detailed programme for history teaching, although it started off saying: It must be clearly understood that it is not the wish of the Board to lay down strict rules either as to the arrangements of the course or as to the methods of teaching This would be, above all, undesirable in a subject such as history, in which perhaps more than in any other there is room for the greatest variety of treatment The experience of Inspectors, however, shows that in many schools there is clearly need for some help.99 Setting the stage, the circular said that the time given to history teaching was generally two lessons a week with some flexibility when it was linked up with English literature or modern languages, or at different periods in the school course when it might be alternated with geography Turning first to the initial stage of history teaching – from the earliest age to about 12 (ie pre-secondary) the Circular said that this “will consist almost entirely of stories These should not be confined to stories taken from the history of England The pupils should become familiar with the chief events and characters from the history of the most important nations, in their traditional form” There was “endless scope for selection” but lessons might include stories from “ the Persian Wars, Alexander the Great, stories from Roman history, the fall of Jerusalem and the history of the early Church the invasion of Attila, Charlemagne, the Cid Columbus and other explorers, Galileo, Washington, Garibaldi”.100 Although at first the children cannot distinguish between history and legend, by at least the last part of this stage they should have a sense of the chronological sequence of events By 12 years old, “they should have some idea of the nature of the great nations and stages in civilisation, centring in each case round certain individuals or events in their chronological succession” The stories should be illustrated “by plans and pictures of armour, dress, castles, etc, and the pupils should themselves be occasionally required to make plans and models”.101 This stage was important because these stories can never “be learnt with the same interest and facility later, and the stories from history afford 98 Ibid, p5 Board of Education, ‘Teaching of History in Secondary Schools’, Circular 599 (London, HMSO 1908), p 100 Ibid 101 Ibid, p 99 29 excellent material for training the imagination” 102 Much of the teaching would be given orally but suitable books should also be used As far as dates were concerned: “They should not have to learn a large number of dates, and generally dates should not be learnt except of those events which have been specially studied; but a few of the most important dates must be known It does not seem desirable to give up the traditional system by which boys are expected to know the kings of England, but of course the dates and names of the kings should be learnt in connection with some of the important events of the reigns, and not merely by rote”.103 The next stage, 12 to 16 years, presented more of a challenge As far as English history was concerned: “In nearly every school it will be necessary here to place a formal course covering the whole of English history from the invasion of the Romans to the present day” At least three years would be necessary for this and Headlam went on to explain the plan he had already described in the Memorandum of dividing the chronological history into three parts, one for each year, and then if possible a year for revision As in the Memorandum, he pointed out that “an attempt to give an equal and uniform knowledge of the whole of English history must fail”.104 What should be aimed at was: a clear apprehension of the general chronological sequence of the cardinal events; a fairly detailed study of those parts or aspects of the history which are at each stage of the school course not beyond the comprehension of the pupils.105 So, “at each stage attention should be concentrated not only on what is important, but on that the importance and interest of which can be made intelligible to the pupils” – so “much of the internal history of the eighteenth century much of the political history of Charles II’s reign, the internal history of the Lancastrian period ” can be omitted to concentrate on “events such as the Crusades, the Civil War, the reign of Elizabeth ” 106 Finally pupils should not attempt “to learn all the names and facts which are mentioned in the ordinary school text-books” but some areas will need more detailed study than has been the norm in the past And “the course will also necessarily include reference to the great inventions, such as gunpowder, printing, the steam engine, which are specially characteristic of European civilisation, and some explanation of their effect upon the history of the nation”.107 102 Ibid Ibid, p 104 Ibid, p3 105 Ibid 106 Ibid, p 107 Ibid 103 30 Under the heading ‘Foreign History’ it was stated that European history “must” be included whenever it was “necessary for the understanding of English history” which might mean that sometimes entire lessons would be devoted to it A number of examples were given including “the account of the Danish invasions should be incorporated in a general description of the expeditions of the Norsemen”; “the French wars of the earlier and later Plantagenet kings will probably be best treated from the point of view of the growth and consolidation of the French monarchy” and “a full account of the great discoveries of the 15th and 16th centuries” would be “a starting point for the history of European colonisation, and also of the rise of the Spanish Empire and of those episodes in the religious struggles on the Continent, such as the rise of the United Netherlands, which immediately affect English history” 108 Summing up, Headlam said: “in this way, it may be possible to remove the complete ignorance of any history outside England, which is now too common, without adding a separate subject to the curriculum”.109 The next heading was ‘Local History’ It was “essential” that every school pay attention to the history of the town and district in which it was situated; generally best done by referring “to the history of the locality as illustrative of the general history” The two ways of doing this were first to look in detail at any great and important event which had taken place in the neighbourhood which would fit in to the wider studies Battles were seen as particularly appropriate If no particular event had taken place in the vicinity the teacher could explain the part taken in any of the Civil Wars by that part of England or, if it was London or the Eastern Counties, might make a special study of the Peasants’ Revolt The other way to bring local history into the classroom was to explain and illustrate general changes, whether political, social or economic, (such as the Roman occupation, the foundation and dissolution of the monasteries, the Norman settlement, the economic changes of the 15th or 18th centuries) by reference to their effect on the particular district Study of actual historical remains – castles, city walls, monasteries – must be included and the architecture of the earlier periods should be studied “It is far more important that pupils should leave school with their eyes trained to observe the historical remains which are to be found in almost every part of England, than that they should attempt to remember the whole of the political history which they cannot understand” 110 With this in mind “it is essential that the school library and museum should be well provided with books, plans, maps and pictures” with a particular emphasis on maps and pictures of the locality There should also “be made specially prepared extracts and translations from 108 Ibid Ibid, p5 110 Ibid 109 31 historical documents giving full details of local events” eg the relevant extract from the Domesday Book or chronicles describing great events in the area In the great manufacturing towns, reproduced maps would illustrate the changes wrought locally by the industrial revolution Preparing all this material would take time and effort but volunteers might be found to help, and the new Local Historical Associations could be of great service “Valuable assistance” on this and many other matters would be found in the pamphlets issued by The Historical Association Headlam admitted that all this was an ambitious programme but reminded his readers that there was considerable overlap in the information and concepts found in history lessons with those “in the allied subjects, especially literature and geography” 111 Without subordinating the study of English literature to that of history it would be possible to co-ordinate what was read in English classes with the work in history For example, extracts from Froissart’s ‘Chronicles’ and the introduction to the ‘Canterbury Tales’ when the Middle Ages were being studied And “in the same way, if geography is intelligently taught, much knowledge which is essential for a proper study of history will be acquired in the geography lessons Thus the study of geography of Asia should include some elementary facts as to the rise and spread of Mohammedanism (sic)” 112 If the same teacher was not teaching all these subjects there would have to be liaison between the teachers about what was being taught As far as text-books were concerned, Headlam was largely in favour of them, except for the very youngest of children who were not yet fluent in reading (and even then he favoured reading aloud to them) “There are not many teachers who have so great a power of exposition and narrative that it is justifiable for them to dispense entirely with the use of a book”.113 Further, one of the great values for him of history was the “valuable practice” it afforded in the use of books For this reason “the greatest care should be exercised in the choice of the book to be used” and a clear distinction must be made between books with “a well-arranged narrative” and those which were “merely a chronological summary or compendium of facts to be used for reference” 114 In the higher forms both were needed but the fault of many was that they attempt to fulfil both functions How the text-books were to be used depended on the nature of the book, the subject, the pupils’ ability and the teacher’s expertise Sometimes when the subject was new and complicated the teacher might need to give a full explanation before the book was studied; at other times the pupils would read it first and discuss with the teacher afterwards 111 Ibid, p6 Ibid 113 Ibid, p7 114 Ibid 112 32 Written work should be set even in the lowest forms; partly to afford “practice in original composition”, answering questions and writing essays, sometimes in exam conditions, sometimes using books And partly to give “systematic practice in the taking of notes, graduated according to the age of the pupils” so that the pupils are trained to be able to make a “well-arranged digest for themselves of all the information which they acquire both from reading and from teaching”.115 The Circular finished with two miscellaneous ‘general’ paragraphs; the first urging the constant use of maps – the school should provide “good historical maps or atlases” and the pupils should make them for themselves And the second insisting that questions to the pupils whether verbal or written must “train the power of giving a connected narrative or explanation” rather than inviting an answer which consisted of a single word or phrase.116 How much of an impact did this Circular have? It was reprinted a few years later and referred to in government publications into the 1930s so one suspects that it was quite influential And in inspectors’ reports the recommendations in the Circular were often used as guidelines for their comments This paper concludes with some extracts from the ‘History’ sections of the first inspection reports of three of the new secondary schools set up by local authorities after the 1902 Education Act Inspectors’ Reports The Roan School (Boys), Greenwich, had its first inspection in May 1907, eighteen months before the publication of Circular 599 The tone does seem to be considerably more critical than the later ones which would have had the benefit of the Circular’s advice: History is taught in the main as a Form subject, and the Masters, while none of them are specialists, appear in general to be sufficiently well qualified for the work they are called upon to The syllabus is planned so as to secure that a boy shall during his passage through the School acquire a good general knowledge of the subject While all the lessons gave evidence of careful preparation, they were, with two notable exceptions, somewhat lacking in interest Nor can it be said that the general level of knowledge in the various Forms was at all high In several cases where questions were put by the Inspector the answers came almost entirely from two or three of the best boys, the vast majority making no attempt at all It is not clear, further, that sufficient attention is devoted to written work in the upper part of the School 115 116 Ibid, p8 Ibid 33 Insufficient use appears to be made of maps and diagrams as aids to the teaching In only one case was anything of the kind observed during the Inspection: the Master had constructed a simple sketch map to illustrate the Civil War, showing the parts of the country, siding respectively with Charles and with Parliament, and its value was patent throughout the lesson The same Master added further to the interest of his teaching by reading a contemporary account of the attempted arrest of the Five Members This too was a conspicuous exception to the general rule The equipment for history teaching is very meagre To give life and zest to the teaching there should be a supply of illustrations of historical events and portraits of famous characters, and the Teachers’ Reference Library should contain a good collection of standard histories The reading of passages from these would not only add appreciably to the interest of the lessons, but also supply the boys with models of a good prose style which would be bound to react favourably on their English work as a whole.117 The County Secondary School, Fulham, had its first inspection in May 1909: In History the Head Mistress and her Staff are specially qualified The course is arranged in a series of short periods of English History – except in Form IIIA and Form VA and Form VI where the outlines of \Greek and Roman History are taken with the object of throwing light upon modern institutions and forms of Government Forms I and II, which are taught English History chiefly on biographical lines, also learn stories from Roman and European History of an illustrative character; whilst the Tudor period linked with the previous periods by the Renaissance is largely studied from the European standpoint by Forms Lower IV A, B and C In Forms Upper IV A, B and C the Stuart Period is studied chiefly from the point of view of the development of the British Constitution; whilst in the Lower VIA the Period 1485-1900 is taken for the Matriculation Examination and in the Lower VIB that set for the higher Certificate Examination, ie the Period from 1485 to 1685, is prescribed The details of this interesting Syllabus are well worked out; the text books used are carefully chosen and drawn upon , the oral methods adopted are generally effective and the Essay writing connected with the Historical teaching well directed and supervised 117 National Archives, ED 109/3708 Board of Education, ‘Report of First Inspection of the Roan School (Boys), Greenwich, London, held on the 6th, 7th and 8th May 1907’, p 10 34 Sufficient attention to the use of maps and diagrams appears to be given by the individual teachers and it is understood that the reference library, not yet sufficiently strong, will be considerably added to in the course of the year Altogether the teaching of history seems to be particularly well schemed and carried out.118 The County Secondary School, Kentish Town (now Parliament Hill School, Camden) had its first inspection in February 1910: The School is still in a transition state and it is of course difficult to formulate a scheme which shall at once provide for the present and future without injury to either Having regard to this the work appears to have been very well planned out, adequately for the present and with good provision for the future The School possesses plenty of good reference books, and both teachers and taught seem interested in their subject; the plan of reading translations from some original authority is to be commended, and it was noticed that these were listened to with deep attention Also there is a reasonable amount of correlation between this and some of the other subjects The amount of time devoted to European and general History as compared with English might perhaps be open to criticism; but, on consideration and having regard to all the circumstances of the case it does not seem necessary to advise an alteration which might not after all be for the better.119 Jenny Keating History in Education Project Institute of Historical Research University of London June 2009 118 National Archives, ED 35/1656A Board of Education, ‘Report of First Inspection of the County Secondary School, Fulham, London, held on the th, 5th, 6th and 7th May 1909’, p 13 119 National Archives, ED 109/3986 Board of Education, ‘Report of First Inspection of the County Secondary School, Kentish Town, St Pancras, held on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th February, 1910’, p9