Show ED MUM mr mit owella aitto tl school stean or of grent compares lt it ith that or other na alon ili enion n flint be corn cam pul sory chicago nally Dally neva News LONDON feb 10 1883 in augland there is U no free school system it 13 a pretty hard 8 stern t to 0 understand but by the aid of cabinet minister indella Mi and ten pounds of pamphlets I 1 am ain able to get tho the matter down and to give you you an interview with the chairman of the privy council which is th the e office the rt RL lion ilon Ail anthony thony john Nf P holda holds to begin berin a little backof back of the in interview 1 will say that P passing assine through Ravens court park roll road near my house the other day I 1 SAW a it policeman serving a summons summon sup upon my neighbor I 1 aked asked him what hat was the matter he ile said that lie was summoned fur not sending his child to school the next day he went before tho the tun magistrate tva s t ra t e w who b 0 promptly told him that t he lie must obey the law and aa as promptly finca him 40 shillings for hia his past neglect my neighbor is an australian detained some months here on business n M ho is ig most unhappy but cant help himself iii about abou t the tile same game time mr Mi Blu tidella made a famous speech in birmingham about the beauties of the obligatory 1 system which made parents cr criminally i 11 liable for the failure of their c children hi to attend school it was an ail eloquent speech full of tarn earnestness estness and pervaded by an a apparent p arent purpose to advance genera generah education when rhen I 1 read the speech I 1 made up my mind that my neighbor was wm not more inore seriously aff affected acted than to be the victim of a law which tends to the benefit of one thousand where it does lots injustice to one in this thickly populated tl e d count country the money has io to change hands bans often if it did not riot and if every cir circle cle and class of society di did id not aid its d doing oin so the circulating medium woulY would prove too small for the necessities olevery of evary day life and no end of trouble would ensue so they la lay the charge on in in everything and the school children have got to pay their share in school pence ence and when the child brings its little little soft skull of thron chronological tables to the classroom class room it also brings its little chubby hand full to overflowing with great copper 1 I pieces pieces so many each week w ack english ilg people are so fond of government they love ashow a show of authority soldiers wh eliose ose presence except as a permanent garrison is 53 obnoxious to americans arc are delightful objects to tho the average englishman and he lie is most happy batly when M n A something or other that aft might or might not do of his own free will so her people smile at the school pence the children have gut got to pay and appear to enjoy it thero there have however been enor moua strides made in the system of education in england L angland and yet it needs accordi according i to the american mind many improvements the tile schools are supported from three sources and managed almost separately Department The of education daei does this enforces the attendance of every child examine by means of its in inspect orri re who are all university men who have taken high degrees the proficiency of pays money to those teachers rs who have br bought u lit pupils ils to pass a certain standard rt an erd each tach child is eligible to earn fur its school a grant of government money and it may earn it in any one ar all of the branches of study A child will thus have ac credited to it the sum of fi f I 1 a year which is paid to the school and part of it goes to the teacher aa as a stimulus to encourage him or her to push his sc ollars forward this tills is is tho the first sum which is paid for school pur purposes oses and it co cornea meg from the general moneis moneys of the exchequer to the approximate amount of YA 00 per annum the next ile t fund ia is the school peace pence which I 1 is Is paid by the children to their teacher in in sums varying from I 1 penny 1 anal 3 farthings far things to 4 pence a weel week thid amount ia is about per year next and last are the voluntary contributions which go lo 10 chiefly to the file universities and sectarian schools if there is any deficit after it falla falls upon tho the rates I 1 dont doni know whether I 1 make this clear or not but it is the best that I 1 can do let me say just here that the school buildings here are wretched structures except some of the university buildings of cobrae poorly aorl lighted inadequately I 1 J fitted for g alie ie pur purposes paes for which ay they are used with imperfect fire escapes and uncomfortable forms and classrooms class clas rooms room the school discipline ia is severe beyond belief and the tile practice of cramming cram cramming min is carried to a frightful extent there are children between the agea ages ofa of 3 and 5 in the public schools at that age tile compulsory clause becomes continuing until the child ia is 10 years of age after that dint the child may be put to work fur for halftime half time timo only but alth half t time in tho tile schools as well until the tile ae ago b 0 of f 1 13 U armed with something of thia this knowledge I 1 sought an interview with thy the cabinet minister who has charge of all educational mattera matters in parliament mr ln let me say that whatsoever good there is in the existing system of education hero bera is ii duo to this one mans ho is at once an ait ast and a man of practical f eal sense in appear appearance ancer lie is plain unassuming and courteous with an ail air and manner that impre impresses nes one with the practicability of the ideas ho lie ad advances vatic lie ile is in in short a broad gauge 11 man with the characteristics acte of a diplomat afler after it preliminary talk lie begins 9 ins by by saying that england was M wedded to what her people regarded aa as purely Ell english glish things their methods werch were it t crehore tto to a greater 0 or r ks less s der degree ree old those fa fathers who did not possess an ati education did not see why their eb children ildren should faro fare belter better and alid the parl which were founded by voluntary contribution or b by tho the rates were spur sparsely sely at attended tetide the alist government aid mad ins in ill the form of onla only a little over f forty lor I 1 years y aid ao ago 0 IN we c managed to push pusi the tile sum up day by day until it deac reached I 1 aed in indeed I 1 bcd I 1 am the oliver twist of the movement I 1 expect to get twice as much for the schools before long say ten or fifteen years years from now low and aud do you expect to change the method now employed of collecting money moncy to a more inore central one which shall embrace the american eyet cin no not all end and besides the american system is not a central one it is a good tiling thing in many ways let me tile say not in the spirit of criticism that thy the american US tern would be perfect except there is no com compulsion our system here is by no means perfect but it is of recent growth it was not until 1870 that we got ot the compulsory act passed ail and its itz operation lias has been over rough places hit hitherto berto we now have children in the schools in 1870 wo we had only the average attendance in 1870 that is the number that attended all the days of the year on the average was 1 last ast year it was more than the average increase increase of attendance is a year that i s nearly three times the nominal increase of the population 0 1 I how many children in england and wales have you yott yet to get into the school we estimate about but a good mandof many of them at least go 90 to private adventure schools we take cognizance only of schools that are open forty furty weeks or more in a year and while far for obvious reasons we do not interfere with these private schools part particularly ie those in tho the rural districts wo cannot have count of them while you have thus in increased creed the tile quantity of your dupile have you raid raised ed the quality of the education YOU tid you 0 furnish them cs very much and I 1 may say that the tit attendance received its chief est cst increase iu in the higher standards standard sot recently when I 1 nias was making 0 a public address on this subject I 1 said to the audience this all costs something and a deep antagonistic voice in the rear ih loll 1011 1 vw V tl th well I 1 only had to ask him what the cost of ignorance was fo for r the last fifty years to carry the ni meeting ee ti ing by storm and subsequently at the polls to return a Parliament parliamentary 4 candidate who was in favor of compulsory education richard cobden si said laj you ou khow that ho lie took I 1 the corn law aw repeal as a light amusement compared with the dil difficulty of reconciling the conflicting sects to consent to give education to the children of the country when it was wits first asserted that ive must have compulsory education the political leaders besought us its to speak with bated breath they were aghast at the proposal and declared that tho the conference would li be ruined if we persisted in in our appeal just fifteen years ago despite the opposition odthe of the enemies of the bill and not aided in the least by our own political colleagues we got the bill through and ii is there begin beginning nin to appear a decrease in the illiteracy of great Bi britain tain yes but our condition is deplorable yet particularly is that so in london it is the center for ever every class of people from all parts of the world there aro are a great many it italians a flans here ta they I 1 ey dont want nant to learn the germans ermana on oil the other liand hand take care of their children but the mixed population euch such as we have in the city it is very hard to bring in in 1 I should have thought tb that man chester sheffield and the manufacturing t uri i towns of the north generally would have pre presented tented the greatest difficulties 11 so everybody thought but the fact is that the workingmen were only too glad to avail themselves of the schools and were the tile best supporters of the compulsory sy system steni everybody thought and eo so did lid 1 I that the obligatory rule would not stand in the factory towns but to and deli delight lit it has ha stood best with them thein there there is something in the northern people eliat makes education necessary to tl them ein in scotland there ia is the war warmest niest desire on everybody s part to learn the tile poorer people will ninke the most astounding sacrifices to give their children university education the other day at tit the privy council a peer of scotland said that his ills gme game keepers son sons had outstripped his lis own boys in tike the university how ilow do the sums of money you expend compare with the amounts in other countries we spend about as little as any of them and not ilot near ilear so much as united states in it fact our school system is not very perfect as yet people are not ready to ive money BO so freely as they faill by and by franco france is making the moat most etoris just now f for or the education oilier people thoy they recognize hint that th ili 9 war wit with germany wa a it failure lim lic causo use the german germans 6 knew the most and now they propose to change all till that flint our coat cost ia is nebout ca 2 per head lead all roun round drates r its pence and contribution well that is 10 practically where chicago spends new york spends 24 boston for every child that is i or 31 cimei what our average is is here baltimore pays 2034 san francisco and the average in hi america ij is xa 4 or per child per pei annum boston with a population of yge collected hy by local taxation in ill the city over 1 while Birmin birmingham glian with practically the sanio saine population collected only or less ices than I 1 give these figures as the between the two countries |