7. Provision for the education of the labouring classes.
7. Another means by which the extension of pauperism is opposed in the countries which we have described, is the care taken by the government to provide for the education of the labouring classes. We are told (pp. 695 and 698) that in Norway their children have free access to the parish schools, and that the poor pay for the education of their children, and for religious teachers, nothing or nearly so. The general report from Russia states (p. 332) that every parish in every town has a school which is open to children of all classes, under the direction of the clergyman; and this is borne out by the consular return from Archangel. (p. 337.) The Gottenburg report states (p. 385) that in Sweden gratuitous education is provided for children of the indigent, and that it is asserted that there is not one person out of 1000 who cannot at least read. The Danish reports state (pp. 264, 293) that the children of all poor persons are educated gratuitously: that the parish is taxed for the payment of the schoolmaster, the repairs of the schoolhouse, books, papers, pens, ink, &c.; and that parents are bound under a penalty to send their children regularly to school until they have passed the age of 14, and been confirmed. Gratuitous education is also afforded in Mecklenburg (p. 491) and in Prussia. Mr. Gibsone states, as the general law of the country, that “all children capable of going to school are obliged to attend it. Those whose parents are unable to pay the expense, must be sent thither at the cost of the community to which they belong” (p. 460); “the expense of school-money and religious instruction is about 1s. 6d. yearly for each child.” (p. 466.) In the detailed regulation for the relief of the poor in Berlin, (p. 455,) it is laid down that “the period of children being sent to school regularly commences at the beginning of the child’s seventh year, and terminates when the child, according to the testimony of the minister, has acquired the knowledge necessary for his station in life, which generally occurs on his attaining his 14th year. If parents allow their children to grow up without instruction, the commissioners for the relief of the poor are to remonstrate with them, and should this be of no avail, the commissary of police is to interfere.” In Saxony, “the local poor commission supports free schools.” (p. 480.)
The care which has been bestowed on this subject in Wurtemberg is remarkable. The government report, after stating the recent introduction and success of infant schools, adds that—
For older children, from the age of 6 to 14, there has long existed in Wurtemberg in every, even the smallest community, supported chiefly at the expense of the local church estate and community fund, and of the parents, with the co-operation, however, of the public treasury, a German or elementary school, which all children of that age, both boys and girls, must attend, and in which, with the exception of short holidays during the time of haymaking, harvest and vintage, they receive throughout the year every day, with the exception of Sundays and holidays, in winter for five and in summer for at least two hours, instruction in religion, morality, singing, the German language, reading, writing, arithmetic, and the elements of natural philosophy, natural history, geography and history. In summer, in consideration of the work in the fields, the instruction is given as much as possible in the morning; and at the season when the labours of the field are the most urgent, and in cases of great poverty, an exception is made in favour of those children, where it is required, who, on application, are excused two or three times a week from coming to school. With this exception, every illegal neglect of school is punished by a fine of two or three kreutzers, and if the neglect of attending is continued, from four to six kreutzers; and no child, even if it has completed the 14th year, is suffered to leave the elementary school till it has acquired sufficient knowledge of what is taught there. (p. 528.)
As, however, many poor children endeavour notwithstanding to avoid attending the elementary schools, and in all cases the instruction in these elementary schools occupies only the smaller portion of the day, so that those poor children who are not properly attended and employed by their parents have still plenty of time for idleness and beggary; attempts have latterly been made in some places to put such children under special superintendence, as, for instance, by appointing a guardian for each poor child in the person of an overseer or other public officer of the community, or of a neighbour, who has to observe it every where, at home, at work, at play; or by periodical general summons to the several parents; or by periodical visitations in the houses of poor families, especially of those who are suspected of not paying proper attention to the education of their children; or by the periodical exhibition of the work done at home; or by the public performance of some work as a specimen; or by gratuitously providing the poor children with tools and materials; by the distribution of rewards among the most diligent and skilful of the children; and by exhorting, summoning, and punishing negligent parents; by these means to acquire the certainty that such children are kept to the constant attendance of the church and school, and to doing their tasks; that they are sufficiently employed in a suitable manner; that they are not ill-treated, either by being overworked or by unmerited corporal chastisement; that they are not neglected with respect to clothing and cleanliness; and that they are not abandoned to idleness, beggary and other vices, &c. (p. 529.)
Partly to retain, by practice, what they have learnt in the elementary schools, and partly to promote the further improvement of the grown-up youth, a Sunday School is kept in every community in Wurtemberg, in the common school-room, where every youth and girl above 14 years of age, in the Protestant places to their 18th, and in Catholic places to their 21st year, must go every Sunday, or where there is only one school-room the youths and girls every Sunday alternately, and attend the lessons for at least an hour and a half, on pain of paying four kreutzers, and if the neglect is of long continuance, six kreutzers, for every time that they remain away. It may be added, that, according to the existing laws, more care has lately been taken that young persons of this age, unless they are wanted to assist their parents in their domestic and field-work, particularly those who are educated at the public expense, and the poor girls and youths discharged from the penal establishments, do not remain at home with their families, or, out of love to a more unrestrained way of life, endeavour to gain a livelihood as Eigenbrödler[9], as they are called, merely by sewing, knitting, &c., but that they try either to engage as servants or learn a trade. (p. 534.)
The Bavarian poor law enacts, that all the children of the poor shall, without favour and without regard to the usual pretexts, be kept to the practice of the public school and religious instructions, as also of frequenting the work and industry schools, and of learning a trade. The school money is to be paid from the poor institutions. (p. 559.)
Among all the Continental communities which recognize in the poor the right to relief, the only one which does not appear to provide the means of education, and to enforce their being made use of, is that in which pauperism has become absolutely intolerable, namely, the Canton de Berne; and even there any aubain (or person not entitled to bourgeoisie in the parish in which he resides) may be summarily ejected (unless possessed of landed property in it), if it can be proved that he does not either send his children to school or provide otherwise for their education. (p. 199.)
8. Central superintendence.