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THE EDUCATIONAL CONFERENCE.

THE gathering of the friends of popular education, which took place in London on the 22nd of June and following days, was a notable fact in the history of education, and attracted a considerable amount of public interest. His Royal Highness the Prince Consort presided at the first meeting, and the sectional and other meetings which took place on the following days were attended by all the most distinguished friends of education in the country. To have entered on discussions embracing the entire field of educational agency would have excited considerable diversity of opinion, and it is not probable that the practical effect of such discussions would have proved of much value. It was therefore wisely determined to limit the inquiries of the Conference to the one subject which lies at the root of all such discussions, and on the importance of which there could not fail to be a general agreement—The early age at which the children of the working classes are removed from school, and the remedies for this evil. It was to this question that the consideration of the Conference was exclusively devoted. On the first day of its meeting, his Royal Highness the Prince Consort presided, and near him were Earl Granville, President of the Council, and Vice-President of the Conference; the Bishops of London, Durham, Winchester, Manchester, Oxford, Sodor and Man, and St. Asaph; Lord Brougham, the Earl Ducie, Lord Ward, Lord Calthorpe, Lord Kinnaird, the Right Hon. W. Cowper, M.P., Vice-President of the Education Committee; Sir J. K. Shuttleworth, Sir J. Pakington, the Venerable Archdeacons Allen, Thorpe, and Sinclair, the Rev. Canons Moseley and Lonsdale, the Rev. W. Rogers, Robert Forster, Esq., the Rev. J. Scott, Mr. E. D. Wilks, Mr. Baines, and many of the leading friends of education from all parts of the country.

The speech of his Royal Highness furnished a very complete resumé of the whole difficulty which the Conference was asked to solve. It indicated a clear appreciation of the mistakes which had to be avoided, and the work which remains to be done. After alluding to the differences of opinion which exist in reference to the combination of religious with secular instruction, he remarked-"If these differences were to have been discussed here to-day, I should not have been able to respond to your invitation to take the chair, as I should have thought it inconsistent with the position which I occupy, and with the duty which I owe to the Queen and the country at large. I see those here before me who have taken a leading part in these important discussions, and I am happy to meet them upon a neutral ground; happy to find that there is a neutral ground upon which their varied talents and abilities can be brought to bear in communion upon the common object; and proud and grateful to them that they should have allowed me to preside over them for the purposes of working together in the common vineyard."

A very able discussion of educational statistics followed; and referring to the root of the entire evil, his Royal Highness remarked-" You will probably trace the cause of our social condition to a state of ignorance and lethargic indifference on the subject among the parents generally; but the root of the evil will, I suspect, also be found to extend into that field on which the political economist exercises his activity -I mean the labour market-demand and supply. To dissipate that ignorance and rouse from that lethargy may be difficult, but with the united and earnest efforts of all who are the friends of the working classes it ought, after all, to be only a question of time. What measures can be brought to bear upon the other root of the evil is a more delicate question, and will require the nicest care in handling, for there you cut into the very quick of the working man's condition. His children are not only his offspring, to be reared for a future independent position, but they constitute part of his productive power, and work with him for the staff of life; the daughters especially are the handmaids of the house, the assistants of the mother, the nurses of the

younger children, the aged, and the sick. To deprive the labouring family of their help would be almost to paralyze its domestic existence. On the other hand, carefully collected statistics reveal to us the fact, that while about 600,000 children between the ages of three and fifteen are absent from school, but known to be employed, no less than 2,200,000 are not at school, whose absence cannot be traced to any ascertained employment or other legitimate cause. You will have to work, then, upon the minds and hearts of the parents, to place before them the irreparable mischief which they inflict upon those who are entrusted to their care by keeping them from the light of knowledge, to bring home to their conviction that it is their duty to exert themselves for their children's education, bearing in mind at the same time that it is not only their most sacred duty, but also their highest privilege. Unless they work with you, your work, our work, will be vain; but you will not fail, I feel sure, in obtaining their co-operation, if you remind them of their duty to their God and Creator." The address concluded with an eloquent and effective summary of the blessings of an education which makes provision for the moral as well as the physical and intellectual necessities of man.

The Secretary then read the Report, which recapitulated the various points of interest dwelt upon in the speech of the Prince Consort, and stated that since 1839, £2,000,000 had been expended in the erection of school-buildings, thus affording the means of education to more than 500,000 children, while a sum exceeding £1,250,000 was annually expended for the support of schools for the children of the working classes.

Lord Brougham next addressed the meeting, and entered at length into a history of the efforts which had been made in the cause of educational progress by Mr. W. Allen and Mr. Fox, by the late Duke of Bedford, and by the earlier friends of the National and British and Foreign School Societies. In the present state of affairs he believed that a great deal might be done by enlisting on their side the great employers of labour, and by means of the masters influencing the men to avail themselves more extensively of the means of education for their children which were brought within their reach.

The Lord Bishop of Oxford said that, with the blessing of God, he believed the greatest results would be derived to the cause of education from the exertions of the present Conference. The difficulty which they had to overcome was not to provide schools for children, but children for the schools. They must first discover the cause of this evil, before they could offer to administer to its cure. He believed that, over and above the causes for the absence of young children from the schools which had been so well and lucidly exhibited in the speech of his Royal Highness, there was another reason, and that was the want of firm authority on the part of the parents, and the want of a willing obedience on the part of the children. He believed that that was one great cause of the evil they lamented, and it was one only to be done away with by awakening the minds of the working classes to the responsibility that laid upon them in this matter. They must exert themselves to show to the vast body of parents that the use of the schools was a positive and certain gain to their children.

The Rev. Canon Moseley discussed the question of the causes which led the children of working men to be so early removed from school. Between the ages of eight and nine years they began to leave, at the age of eleven most left, and at the age of twelve years they would scarcely find any of the working man's family at school. The average age at which this schooling terminated was 10 years. It was not possible to connect a child of 10 years old with the idea of an educated being, and it was not possible to impart to his mind at that tender age all the information and education which the man would want through life.

The Conference was then adjourned until the following day, when the various sections met at the Thatched House Tavern. Section A. was under the presidency of

the Lord Bishop of Oxford, and was occupied with the investigation of the facts as to the actual time of attendance in schools. The papers were read by the Rev. M. Mitchell, H. M. Inspector of Schools; Mr. Flint, Organizing Master of the National Society; Mr. E. Baines, Mr. W. H. Hyett, and Mr. Goodman. Among those who attended the meetings of this section, and appeared to be most interested in its discussions, were the Bishop of Durham, Sir Harry Verney, M.P., Mr. Hadfield, M.P., the Hon. and Rev. Grantham Yorke, Robert Forster, Esq., Mr. E. D. Wilks, and Mr. S. Morley.

Section B. was presided over by the Right Hon. W. Cowper, M.P., and was engaged in inquiries into the statistics of education in foreign countries. Mr. Joseph Kay, M. Eugene Rendu, of the Department of Public Instruction in France; the Rev. Dr. Mather, Inspector of Schools under the government of Louis Philippe, and Captain Boscawen Ibbetson, presented papers to this section.

Sir James K. Shuttleworth was the chairman of Section C., which was, perhaps, the most interesting department of the Conference. Its time was devoted to the consideration of Prize and Certificate Schemes. Papers were communicated by the Revs. J. P. Norris and W. J. Kennedy, H.M. Inspectors; Mr. Seymour Tremenheere, the Rev. Nash Stephenson, and Mr. T. Hare, one of the Commissioners under the Charitable Trusts Act. This section was fully attended, and among those who took part in its deliberations were the Rev. F. Proctor, of Plymouth; Mr. Ackroyd, M.P., the Rev. G. Ellison, Canon Melville, Sir J. S. Pakington, Mr. J. G. Fitch, and Mr. Jelinger Symons.

In Sections D. and E., over which the Deans of Salisbury and Bristol presided, the principal papers were read by Miss Carpenter, the Rev. C. H. Bromby, the Rev. P. Marshall, Mr. J. T. Bruce, and Mr. Winfield, the Rev. Canon Girdlestone, Messrs. J. Symons and W. L. Sargent, and the Rev. G. Robinson.

The results of these several discussions were presented to the general and final meeting of the Conference, which was held on Wednesday, under the presidency of Earl Granville, and which was crowded to excess.

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The Bishop of Oxford, as chairman of section A., read the report agreed upon, and moved the following resolution founded upon it :-"That it is the opinion of this Conference that the greater number of the children of the working classes are removed from school at so early an age as seriously to interfere with their education. That whilst this Conference is precluded from entering on the question of legislative interference, it would call the attention of the friends of education to the positive amount of good which may be effected as to increasing the age to which children continue at school, by the improvement of the schools themselves, and by bringing moral and religious influences to bear upon both the parents and children."

The Right Hon. W. Cowper, M.P., chairman of section B., reported that the following statement had been agreed to by the section over which he presided:-"That it appears that in Germany and Switzerland, the regulations in force have produced a very general attendance in primary schools on the part of the children of the labouring classes, between the ages of 5 and 14; and that the proportion of children in daily attendance at schools is 1 in 6 of the population of Prussia and some other States of Germany, and 1 in 5 in Switzerland. In Holland, the attendance at school is estimated at 1 in 8 of the population, and among other regulations for promoting such attendance, the forfeiture of the right of the parent to receive parochial relief, in the event of his having neglected to send his child regularly to school, has been efficacious. In France, 1 in 8 of the population are in primary schools, and the age of leaving school is ordinarily regulated by the age at which the children are admitted, if Protestants, to confirmation, and if Roman Catholics, to the administration of the Holy Communion. That age is most frequently 11 in great towns, and 12 to 15 in other parts of the country. Various measures adopted in Central and Northern Europe for the extension and improvement of popular education are deserving of careful consideration, so far as they can be adapted to the circumstances and opinions of this country." In conclusion, he moved-"That throughout the north of Europe the children of the working classes are kept for a longer period at school, and to a riper age, than in this country."

Sir J. K. Shuttleworth reported as follows from Section C.:-"That, in the opinion of this section, the certificate and prize schemes adopted in certain localities are, from their hopeful results, deserving of more extensive trial as an appeal to parents of elementary scholars to allow their children a more regular and longer attendance at school, and to the employers of labour and the wealthier classes generally to encourage the parents of such scholars to make the personal sacrifices requisite for these objects. That in carrying into execution these schemes and others brought under the consideration

of the section, it is desirable to keep in view the following principles :-That such schemes should be regarded only as subsidiary to other agencies for acting upon the irregularity and insufficiency of the time of school attendance; that they should aim at enlisting the co-operation of employers of labour or the Government in its administration of appointments, and of the trustees of apprenticeship funds; that they should be formed with due regard to character and conduct, as well as intellectual attainments; that the section regards with peculiar interest the application of prize and certificate schemes to evening schools, which educate young persons from thirteen years of age to twenty years, and which may thus hope to preserve them from degrading and sensual habits." He moved the following resolution for the adoption of the meeting:-"That registration certificates and prize schemes have been shown to have been applied in certain localities with advantage, and to be worthy of more extensive trial." The Dean of Salisbury presented the following report from section D.:-" That in the opinion of this section the careful examination of the results of instruction in good half-time schools, as compared with the results of instruction for the ordinary full-time, in the same or the like schools, is fraught with important results affecting the whole scheme for the working classes. That in large factories or farms the system of relays is advisable each half-day, but that, under circumstances of practical difficulty, the alternate day or week would be preferable. That it is expedient to encourage night schools as places of primary or secondary instruction, in which subjects having relation to the specific labour of the locality should be taught by certified or other competent masters. The section believes that the establishment of evening schools of this class will do much towards remedying the deficient state of education amongst both the younger and adult members of the working classes. That if the voluntary system is to be worked with success, an appeal must in the first instance be addressed to employers whose preference of instruction will, by stamping a material value upon education, materially tend to receive the co-operation of parents." In conclusion, the Very Rev. Dean proposed the following resolution :— "That the voluntary half-time schemes have been with success adopted in certain localities, and may be recommended for further trial."

The Dean of Bristol brought up the report from section E., which having detailed the papers read, concluded as follows:-" Resolved, that inasmuch as industrial training is calculated-1. To impart to the children of the working classes habits of industry. 2. To qualify them by manual exercise for manual employments, by which they are afterwards to live. 3. To enlist the sympathies of the parents by its useful, practical, and remunerative tendency, and thus induce them to keep their children longer at school-it is desirable to encourage to the utmost the introduction of the industrial element in our schools for the working classes."

The Hon. and Rev. Grantham Yorke, of Birmingham, moved the following resolution :—" That this Conference considers the encouragement of industrial education in elementary schools, especially amongst girls, to be very desirable, and that such instruction is peculiarly important in the reformation of juvenile

offenders."

The Bishop of Sodor and Man then proposed a resolution to the effect that the Conference should be adjourned, that the facts stated to the Conference should be carefully prepared and published, and that it should be left to the general committee to decide when it would be advisable to call another meeting. The several resolutions, having been duly seconded, were unanimously agreed to, and the meeting adjourned.

EDUCATIONAL MEETING AT TORTWORTH.

On Saturday, June 20th, a meeting convened by the public school teachers of Gloucestershire, &c., was held at the British School-room, Tortworth, under the presidency of the Right Hon. Earl Ducie. Among those present were Mr. Commissioner Hill, R. Charleton, Esq., and H. Cossham, Esq., of Bristol; S. Bowley, Esq., and Captain March, of Gloucester; Rev. C. E. Oakley, vicar of Wickwar, Messrs. G. Bengough, of the Ridge, Davies, Thornbury, Jellinger C. Symons, H.M. Inspector of Schools, W. R. Baxter, Agent of the British and Foreign School Society, Rev. E. Matthews, of Bristol, &c., &e.

The noble Chairman, in a few appropriate introductory remarks, contrasted the position and character of the schoolmaster at the present day with the majority of his class half a century ago. Although so much progress has been made, still there were many difficulties and numerous obstacles met with by the educationist; to some of these it would be the object of this conference to refer. He would therefore call upon Mr. Moore, of the British School, Cheltenham, to read the first paper, on "What can the teacher do to secure a more punctual and regular attendance at school ?"

Mr. Moore, in the course of his paper, said:-In securing a more punctual attendance, local influences, parents' occupation, and a variety of circumstances must be taken into account. There are three elements to be operated upon to secure such attendance-the parent, the scholar, and the teacher-all of which must be made to work harmoniously together, and must be brought to see that their interests are mutual, and not antagonistic. The parents should be brought to feel sympathy with, and to give practical assistance in carrying out, their children's education. This sympathy should be secured by the teacher getting them to see that their child's teacher is his friend as well as his instructor. This feeling may be cultivated by the teacher sending them written reports of their children's attendance at and progress in school-an occasional letter upon the importance of education, and, as a means thereto, of regular and punctual attendance-special invitations to examinations,—and such methods. The scholar must have greater attractions offered him at school than in the streets. He should be got to understand what he loses by lateness and absence, and what a bad habit he is cultivating. Examinations of progress should be made, and certificates of good conduct and progress in school awarded to those whose attendance had been thoroughly good. As a way of punishing those who came late to school, he recommended that all those who were late should be made to carry their caps in their hands instead of hanging them up. This, as a peculiar mark of disgrace, is a most efficient cure; but upon the teacher mainly depends what the school is to be. Plans and systems, though good, are not equal to an earnest, faithful, right-minded, and prayerful teacher; they may assist, but must not be allowed to supplant. He it is who must propose plans and see them properly carried out. He must show by example what he wishes his scholar to be. He must have a proper appreciation of the high position he occupies, and of the responsibilities under which he labours, and seek the assistance of the Almighty to perform faithfully the duties and responsibilities of his profession.

His lordship tendered to Mr. Moore a vote of thanks on behalf of the meeting. After which a paper was read by Mr. Seaton, of the Lewin's Mead British School, on prize schemes.

The speaker entered into a defence of prizes, as a means of elevating the standard of instruction, but thought that association schemes were not the best that could be devised. He showed that these schemes had failed in three main particulars; first, in the class of children who compete for them; secondly, in the numbers who compete for them; and thirdly, in the ages of the children who compete for them. He thought that this failure was due primarily to the injudicious manner in which they were thrown open to all classes of children who attend national and British schools. He contended that the children of miners and others had to contend at great odds, as there is a class belonging to tradesmen who have not only the advantage of regular attendance at school, but whose home training is much superior to that of the former class admitted to competition with them. The result of all the examinations in 1856 showed that there were at least 57 per cent. of this latter class present, and that a considerably greater per centage of these children had gained prizes than of those belonging to the other 43 per cent. He thought that each school should have its own prize scheme, and that it should be adapted to the particular circumstances in which the school was placed. Every kind of excellency shown in the scholars ought to have its distinct reward. He thought it was not possible, were it desirable, that there should be only one pattern of excellency, and that the success of a child should be judged not only according to what he might be able to put down on paper at an examination, but also by what his teachers had put down against him or for him during the year. That for this purpose a system of marks should be carried out by the teacher, giving credit for each day's work, and at the end of the year he should be judged the best scholar who had best fulfilled the duties of each day, as shown by the aggregate number of marks he had obtained. He stated that this plan had been in operation in his own school for some years, and he had found it a valuable help, not only in determining the status of his pupils, but also in measuring the efficacy of his plans. Although he believed that these prize schemes had failed in these three main points, he yet believed that they had done much good in stimulating both teachers and scholars. He thought that it was impossible to make prize schemes tell very much on the lowest class of our scholars; and, though he should deprecate any legislative interference which would deprive parents of the benefit of their children's labour where that labour was necessary to the family, he yet thought that it might be usefully employed in compelling children to attend school who do not stay away under the pretence of being employed, and that in all cases where there was a great deficiency in the education of a child, provision ought to be made for attendance at school some part of the week, either as half-timers, or as evening scholars up to a certain age.

After thanking Mr. Seaton, his lordship invited discussion upon both papers, and an interesting discussion followed, in the course of which the Rev. C. E. Oakley explained the recent decisions of the University of Oxford with respect to Middle Class Examinations; and many of the leading British teachers of the west of England detailed facts which had come within their own experience.

Mr. Charlton urged, to secure a punctual and regular attendance, the importance of making the school a happy place. There should be a sound mental activity, combined with a genial and happy

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