Education in the Georgian Period - Essay Example

Education in the Georgian Period There is surprisingly little information available regarding the specific educational approach taken during the Georgian period that does not appear as an incidental side story to fictional writings of the period, such as Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte or Vanity Fair by William Thackeray. There had already been a long-standing tradition of offering educational services in England, if only as a means of instructing future monks how to read and conduct services. The trend since the twelfth century was for a liberal education, intended “as a preparation for the specialized study of law, medicine or theology” (Williams, 1965). In the early days, those schools not attached to a church were primarily intended for the sons of nobility as a means of preparing them for future leadership and, by the seventeenth century, many schools had opened that were supported by private foundations with positions being offered to the poor. The earlier schools catered to specific social classes, frequently requiring students to live within the grounds during the instructional period and sometimes functioning as full-service orphanages. Schools were structured to admit both boys and girls, only boys or only girls depending upon the proprietor and the method of instruction was also left to the discretion of the proprietor. There was widespread concern, however, that educating the masses would lead to large-scale uprisings, so these early attempts at the formation of a national education system began to fade replaced by trade schools, apprenticeships and a general apathy on the parts of the wealthy and the poor alike regarding formal education. By the early nineteenth century, the period classified as the Georgian period, curriculum at these schools had been mostly structured to provide appropriate instruction for the particular social class to which it catered (Gillard, 2004). Although this was almost universally true, there was no national curriculum, no standardized block of subjects to be taught and methods of instruction varied as widely as the reputations of said schools. This lack of a formalized national curriculum or even basic curriculum guidelines made it easier for the other form of education system in England to flourish as well. Those families who could afford it often hired governesses for daughters or tutors for sons to instruct their children upon the family grounds, instructing the children in those subjects the family felt important and the educator was qualified to teach. These qualifications were often based largely upon the recommendations of their own educational institution, but also upon their station within the social order. “The real definition of a governess in the English sense, is a being who is our equal in birth, manners, and education, but our inferior in worldly wealth. Take a lady in every meaning of the word, born and bred and let her father pass through the gazette (bankruptcy), and she wants nothing more to suit our highest beau ideal of a guide and instructress to our children” (Lady Elizabeth Eastlake cited in Peterson, 1972: 10). Although she was speaking about the Victorian governess, this position had been long established before Lady Eastlake uttered her words. If there was little information regarding the educational curriculum offered at the many small and relatively unorganized schools of the Georgian period, which had largely disappeared with the death of their originators, there was even less material available regarding the instructional approaches utilized by the governesses and tutors themselves. It is for this reason that turning to works of fiction written in this time period can prove to be especially enlightening regarding the attitudes, approaches and effectiveness of education as it was practiced in the early nineteenth century. This educational apathy is well illustrated in Wuthering Heights, as the children of the Earnshaw home were permitted time and again to neglect their studies, instead running wild upon the moors. As Nellie tells the story of Catherine and Heathcliff to Lockwood, she tells him that the children were provided with a curate “who made the living answer by teaching the little Lintons and Earnshaws and farming his bit of land himself” (34). Since Catherine and Heathcliff do not have any association with the Linton children except at church (41), and the curate must have time as well to farm his bit of land, this indicates that there wasn’t much time devoted to the actual instruction of any of the children involved. The method of instruction provided by this curate appears to have been primarily through rote memorization, as Nellie later explains “the curate might set as many chapters as he pleased for Catherine to get by heart … they forgot everything the minute they were together again” (38). In this statement, Nellie describes not only how education was used more as punishment than any real desire to prepare Catherine for later life, she also indicates the lack of effect this had on the children of the Earnshaw manor. While it was recommended that Hindley be sent away to college, he was not given much chance for success. “Mr. Earnshaw agreed, though with a heavy spirit, for he said – ‘Hindley was naught, and would never thrive as where he wandered” (34). The fact that there is more emphasis given to the education of Miss Catherine in terms of proper fashion, hairstyles and manners upon her convalescence at the Linton household and later under the tutelage of Hindley’s wife Frances illustrates where the priorities were in trying to educate young ladies while the ability of the house to completely ignore the education of the younger servants highlights the lack of an appropriate system or emphasis upon education for all. Nellie Dean helps to highlight this lack of serious thought given to the education of the poor and young simply in telling her own story. She indicates that she came to Wuthering Heights as a young girl when her mother was nursing Hindley and described her young life: “I got used to playing with the children: I ran errands too, and helped to make hay, and hung about the farm ready for anything that anybody would set me to” (29). There is no hint of any attempt to teach this young common girl any of her letters or numbers in this narrative. As she grows up, there remains no indication of a formalized education. Instead, she takes on the duties of the woman of the household upon the death of Mrs. Earnshaw as well as the caring for the children, who all immediately fall ill with measles. Rather than being educated in scholastic pursuits, Nellie is expected to immediately understand everything a woman should know in how to care for household and children, none of which were concerned with books. In describing Heathcliff’s early years, Nellie indicates another example that education made a significant difference in the social positioning of an individual. Very soon after Hindley’s return to the manor, it was decided that Heathcliff should be deprived of any educational advantages he might gain through the curate. “He [Hindley] drove him [Heathcliff] from their company to the servants, deprived him of the instructions of the curate, and insisted that he should labour out of doors instead; compelling him to do so hard as any other lad on the farm” (38). This again underscores the lack of importance placed on providing even the most basic education to the common people, as Heathcliff’s duties prevented him the time necessary to study, ‘as any other lad on the farm’ was similarly prevented from gaining an education. Despite this, there remains a strong undercurrent emphasizing the importance of education in distinguishing the gentleman from the country buffoon. Heathcliff’s banishment from the curate’s attentions is equaled with a pall of doom, supposedly forever condemning him to the life of a servant. By illustrating education as being the primary difference between the country gentleman and the poor farmer, Bronte is able to indicate the importance she felt education was in turning out decent citizens. Although Cathy tries to teach him, indicating a latent understanding of this importance of education, she is soon beyond his ability to keep up. By the time she is 15, she is telling Heathcliff “You might be dumb, or a baby, for anything you say to amuse me, or for anything you do either! … It’s no company at all, when people know nothing and say nothing” (58-59). In the story of Heathcliff and Catherine, education makes the difference between the two young people living happily together as they should have or the tragedy that befalls them. “It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now” (68) Catherine says, causing the subject of the statement to flee Wuthering Heights, not to return until he has acquired both the education he was lacking as well as the money to rival his enemies, Hindley and Edgar. Even Nellie, as uneducated as she is supposed to be, tells Mr. Lockwood that she has managed to gain an education regardless: “I have undergone sharp discipline, which has taught me wisdom: and then, I have read more than you would fancy, Mr. Lockwood. You could not open a book in this library that I have not looked into, and got something out of also; unless it be that range of Greek and Latin and that of French; and those I know one from another: it is as much as you can expect of a poor man’s daughter” (52-53). In raising Hareton without a formal education as he had been, Heathcliff plans to take out his final revenge upon the Earnshaw family. It is primarily due to the fact that Hareton is uneducated that Nellie and others of the town feel Heathcliff was able to take advantage of the boy’s inheritance, “the unfortunate lad is the only one in all this parish that does not guess how he has been cheated” (29). Although his lack of education comes close to preventing a relationship between himself and the younger Catherine, once communication is opened between them, an equitable arrangement is made in which both young people are able to find happiness and fulfillment. The younger Catherine and Nellie are able to expand their education into the commonly restricted world of business and finance while Hareton continues to take lessons from his young wife and run the farm. The apathy toward education is not necessarily reflected in William Thackeray’s novel Vanity Fair, but the disorganization and frivolous subject matter create a ripple here as well. The novel opens as Rebecca Sharp and Amelia Sedley plan to leave Chiswick Mall, a boarding school intended to turn out proper young ladies of what would now be termed the upper middle class. At once, the novel illustrates how these schools were intended for the privileged, as Amelia is planning to return to her family homestead to seek out marriage prospects with her mother while still allowing room for the downtrodden – Rebecca is described as a friendless orphan, merely catching a ride with her one friend in all the world to somewhere nearer her next position as a governess in the home of a Baronet. This presents the concept that education was greatly more available to young people of any economic level than Wuthering Heights tends to suggest from its very remoteness. However, there seems to have been a great discrepancy between the ways in which the two girls were treated. While Amelia left as a beloved sister and foster-daughter, with plenty of friends to wish her good-bye and plenty of warm memories to take with her, Rebecca was put to work caring for the younger children, emphatically refusing to take on additional duties when it was discovered she was also well-versed in music. This is a concept that is established almost from the first as Miss Pinkerton lovingly creates a farewell message for Miss Amelia, presenting her with a ceremonial letter and Dictionary upon her departure, but refuses to so honor Rebecca (9). The fact that Rebecca was put to work at Chiswick originally as a French instructor helps indicate some of the lessons commonly taught to young girls during this period. Rather than being considered a serious subject to study, it is indicated within the novel that the ability of young girls to speak a foreign language was considered in the highest taste, an expression of vanity. Most of the subjects taught to young women seemed to be primarily intended for show, as the more frivolous the girl’s abilities, the more wealthy the family appeared. In writing a message to the young Amelia’s parents, the mistress of the educational institution, Miss Pinkerton, not only spells out that the primary purpose of schooling for young girls was to polish them for social interactions within a specific class but enumerates some of the subjects deemed important (8). These included such non-academic pursuits as music, dancing, orthography (hand-writing), embroidery and needlework. The one mention of academic study indicates Miss Amelia is not well-versed in geography, but this is not necessarily considered to be a limiting detriment. With discussion into the subjects that Rebecca is qualified to teach, foreign language, particularly French, is considered among the topics learned by the well-born. In her position as governess to the Baronet’s two young daughters and taking on the additional duties of secretary to her employer, it is shown that there was a very lax system of measurements in place for educational standards, whether old or young. Sir Pitt Crawley himself is presented at once as the product of a great family that had once commanded a decent fortune and a high reputation, but is nevertheless completely unmannered and coarse, indicating an extreme distaste for educational matters but not any the less clever for his lack. While he can’t spell or turn a proper phrase, written or oral, he is clever in finding new means of financing his needs and an aptitude for legal manipulations. Placing priority on finding favor with the family she had joined rather than educational pursuits, Rebecca allowed the children in her care to follow their own instincts where education was concerned. “She did not pester their young brains with too much learning, but, on the contrary, let them have their own way in regard to educating themselves; for what instruction is more effectual than self-instruction?” (101). While specific subjects were still expected, such as the instruction in French, little actual supervision, assessment or interference was made, as long as the young ladies seemed to be occupied. As the nineteenth century progressed and industrialization brought more and more people into the cities, greater attention was brought to bear on the social questions of education and children’s rights. A primary driving force in the increased attention on education in the mid-1800s was brought about by the factories’ need for better educated workers (Benn & Chitty, 1996). In an effort to address some of these concerns, three different national educational commissions focused on providing education at the three major social class levels. “The Clarendon Report (1864) focused on the ‘great’ public (i.e. private) schools; the Taunton Report (1868) and the Act with followed it in 1869 dealt with separate institutions for the middle classes; the Newcastle Report (1861) recommended that the state should provide ‘sound and cheap’ elementary education for the masses” (Gillard, 2004). The Newcastle Report led to the acceptance of the Elementary Education Act in 1870 which made it mandatory that all children between the ages of 5 and 13 receive a basic education. This was followed up by the Mundella Act in 1880 which made attendance more enforceable. The Education Act of 1881 provided that education for the masses was to be provided to individual children free of charge and the Board of Education was finally established in 1899. The curriculum requirements were set at a bare minimum focus on reading, writing and arithmetic, commonly referred to as the three R’s while preparatory (private) schools were permitted to add additional subjects as desired. As it is shown through the fictional works of Bronte and Thackeray, as well as in the limited records available regarding the educational systems of England during the Georgian period, education was only a very loosely defined term for many, a dream out of reach for most and an activity to keep children busy for the rest. While some children were deliberately educated as a means of providing future leaders of business and government, the vast majority of children either received no education at all, a very low education or an education into the relatively impractical subjects at the detriment of those most applicable to a soon-to-be industrialized world. With the advent of industry and the need for a more educated workforce, the government finally began to establish a more nationally-based curriculum that would ensure at least some education to all children, a vast improvement over the previous period. Works Cited Benn C and Chitty C. (1996). Thirty Years On - Is Comprehensive Education Alive and Well or Struggling to Survive? London: David Fulton Publishers. Bronte, Emily. Wuthering Heights. New York: Barnes and Noble Classics, 1850 (reprint 1993). Gillard D. Education in England: A Brief History. (2004). February 27, 2007 Peterson, Jeanne. “The Victorian Governess.” Suffer and Be Still. Ed. Martha Vicinus. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1972. Thackeray, William. Vanity Fair. New York: Penguin Books, 1848 (reprint 2004). Williams R The Long Revolution. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, (1965). Read More