60 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



THE EDUCATION OF THE MIDDLE CLASSES. 



Self-examination is one of the first duties impi-essed 

 upon us all. We are beginning to apply the principle 

 a little more generally. Day by day are we coming 

 more and more to inquire how the several classes in the 

 State really stand ? How far have they progressed ? 

 Or, what means have they at their command for so 

 doing ? It is no longer the scholar alone has our care. 

 We are gradually endeavouring to properly qualify 

 everyone amongst us for the position he is to fill. It 

 is not alone the University-man who prepares for his 

 " Little go," or the Medical Student to " pass." The 

 very Government Clei'k, that a few years since became 

 a Government Clerk merely because he knew nothing, 

 or was fit for nothing, has now to face the ordeal of an 

 examination as to his capabilities. Church and State, 

 the Army and Navy, Science and the Arts, alike admit 

 the policy of so wholesome a practice. It can be no 

 very distant day when the " learned friend," who com- 

 placently assumes his wig and gown on the proof of 

 having eaten so many dinners in Middle Temple Hall, 

 will be but a bye-woi'd and a reproach. 



Education, in fact, is rapidly and widely extending 

 its uses amongst us. From the highest to the lowest 

 we are gradually striving for something better and 

 sounder than what custom and routine have but too 

 long sanctioned. The gentleman commoner and the 

 farm labourer arc almost alike regarded in this move- 

 ment. The aim is to make more useful citizens of 

 them, and to arm them with such knowledge and power 

 as shall really (jualify them for their several stations. 

 In so becoming a business let us not altogether forget 

 ourselves. The Government will, in a greater or 

 lesser degree, take charge of the alpha and omega 

 we have cited. The condition, the wants, and the 

 advance of either are being perpetually discussed. 

 In the meanwhile that vast body of the people 

 known as the middle classc.«, have been suffered 

 to continue in much the same stand-still state, without 

 encouragement or recognition. A boy at a commercial 

 school is still entirely at the mercy of his master. 

 There is no one to fairly test what he has learnt. At 

 best he may write a good hand, in which he indites the 

 one common form of holiday letter, announcing that 

 he is getting on uncommonly well, to the mutual satis- 

 faction of Mr. So-and-so and himself; and that the 

 summer vacation will commence on the eighteenth 

 instant. Perhaps he may return decorated with the 

 very questionable order of a prize for " good conduct " ; 

 and then he is bound apprentice, or sent farming, or 

 engineering, or land-surveying, knowing little or 

 nothing to begin with, and strong only in the negative 

 recommendation of there not being much to ?/?jteach 

 him. 



At length we are about to remedy this. As men- 

 tioned in our report of the Newton Meeting, the 

 West of England Society has taken up the subject ; 



and what is more, both our Universities appear ready 

 to support the movement. It is not too much to say 

 that the origin and development of this proposition are 

 almost entirely attributable to the members of a So- 

 ciety essentially agricultural. They have passed reso- 

 lutions in favour of it, and they have embodied in the 

 last number of their Journal a prospectus as to the 

 manner in which the plan may be carried out. We 

 must let our readers learn from this what the chief 

 features of the scheme are : — 



" The middle classes bear the whole cost of the edu- 

 cation of tlieir own children. They derive less aid 

 from ancient endowments and from the public purse 

 than any other branch of the community. Training 

 colleges, certificated masters, pupil teachers, industrial 

 schools, are in part supported by the Government, and 

 their efficiency is secured by public examination. The 

 standard of instruction is on every side rising, and the 

 method of teaching made more effective. The educa- 

 tion of the gentry and clergy, on the other hand, has 

 engaged the prolonged and serious attention of Par- 

 liament. The public schools are tested by examina- 

 tions; the colleges contend with each other in a race of 

 open competition ; even the universities themselves 

 have been tried against the world in the examination 

 for public appointments, and the soundness of their 

 training has been nobly vindicated by the result. Thus 

 the parents of boys intended for the higher professions, 

 and the managers of schools for the poor, have every 

 advantage in judging of the efficiency of the institu- 

 tions from which they have to select instructors; but 

 with the middle classes it is otherwise : they have no 

 such opportunity. The parent has not the security, 

 nor the master the honourable independence, so essen- 

 tial to mutual confidence and to the welfare of the 

 scholar." 



It will be seen from this that the principle is public 

 examination, with proportionate rewards, and some- 

 thing, indeed, like the distinction of a degree, as conferred 

 by the letters A. A., or Associate in Arts. The commen- 

 tary of one of the inspectors of training schools, the Rev. 

 F. Temple, himself educated in Devonshire, is not merely 

 encouraging, but practically useful and suggestive : — 

 " The one thing lohich the middle classes ioant,and 

 which they cannot get loithout help, is organization. 

 Let the schools remain self-supporting, Ixit let the sys- 

 tematic action introduced by the Government into the 

 working of elementary schools be extended to theirs; 

 let inspectors visit and examine ; let exhibitions and 

 scholarships be founded ; let first-rate teachers be dis- 

 tinguished ; let the nation give as much money as will 

 organize these schools into a system, and ,£50,000 a 

 year would completely do it, and the middle classes 

 can do the rest for themselves." 



On the very day on which the members of 

 the West of England Society were celebrating their 



