Middle- Class Education. 3 



branches wliicli alike suit all classes and professions, and re- 

 jecting such as may be exclusively appropriate for farmers. 

 Classics would then be taught to all who desired it. 



I have therefore come to the conclusion that half a dozen large 

 district schools, scattered throughout England, would meet, for 

 some time to come, the educational demand of farmers' sons, &c. 

 These schools, with those already established, would in a few 

 years be capable of turning out a very large number of young 

 men, well grounded in a plain general education, and so far intro- 

 duced to the study of some branches of science connected with 

 agriculture that they could pursue them after leaving school. The 

 necessary funds might be raised by the joint exeitions of land- 

 owners, farmers, and others, the landowners helping to build the 

 schools, and the farmers supporting them, when built, by sending 

 their sons to them. If this be too much to expect, Joint-Stock 

 Companies, or one Joint-Stock Company, might be formed, with 

 shares of not more than 10/. each, for building first one school and 

 then another, according to the means available, and the demand 

 for accommodation. Those districts which contributed the most 

 should naturally have the first schools. By concerted action 

 some preliminary expenses might be diminished, and a broader 

 basis of action adopted. 



Both in the South-east and the South-west England appears to 

 be already fairly provided in these respects. There are the 

 schools of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, and Surrey, besides Hurst- 

 pierpoint, in Sussex ; in the West, Cirencester College, and in 

 the East, the Suffolk Memorial College. That every farmer may 

 have a school within easy reach, one school in Hertfordshire, one 

 in Northamptonshire, and one in each of the counties of Wor- 

 cester, Lincoln, Derby, and York, might be provided at once, 

 whatever expansion the system might attain hereafter. 



Each school ought to have from ten to twenty acres of land 

 attached to it as a playground and for other purposes. Ten thou- 

 sand pounds would be sufficient to start each school, capable of 

 containing 200 pupils, at first, and of receiving further additions, 

 if required, at a moderate outlay. Buildings of a highly orna- 

 mental character are costly both to erect and to keep up, and are 

 by no means necessary. The internal arrangements should be 

 those of a school rather than a college, because professorial 

 teaching is not suited for boys of thirteen, who have only been 

 moderately grounded beforehand. They require the more usual 

 method of question and answer. Too much has generally been 

 attempted ; a curriculum of studies which is either too high or 

 too extensive does harm. Boys should not try to run before 

 they can walk ; they only get bewildered if they are ex- 

 pected to attend half a dozen lectures a dav, and prepare as many 



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