The Work of the London School Board Book

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: PART III CURRICULUM AND SCHOOL LIFE. CHAPTER I. Educational Progress. T N the preceding section an attempt has been made to describe the problems which L presented themselves to the School Board for solution, and the manner in which the first School Board dealt with those problems. In all those departments of the work which are supplemental or assistant to the main object of imparting education the story has been completed, in order that this, the concluding section, may be devoted entirely to a consideration of the advances which have been made in our system and methods of education, and the present condition of education. When it is remembered that these advances have been made within the comparatively short period of thirty years, it will be seen that the rate of progress has been more rapid than could reasonably have been predicted. The " ideal" curriculum laid down by the first School Board has already been described, and a few facts relating to the actual condition of education in 1870-73 have been set forth, to show how vast and deep was the chasm which separated the real from the ideal. It has been shown that in 1873 the only subjects taught in the schools of the Board, with very few exceptions, were the three obligatory subjects?reading, writing, and arithmetic?and singing, drawing, needlework, and physical exercises. The conditions under which the schools were conducted rendered hopeless any more ambitious scheme. Sir Charles Reed, in his annual statement for 1874, said: " Of the school work and its results I do not propose to say one word. It is too soon altogether for us to speak upon the question. Tens of thousands of the children in our schools are, I regret to say, grossly ignorant and utterly uninstructed, and the only thing we can do is to look to their ...Read More