98 PROBLEMS OF VILLAGE LIFE 



Almighty, who is understood to be more or 

 less in harmony and agreement with the 

 squires, farmers, clergy and the other 

 " quality " of the parish. It is the fore- 

 ordained career of these rustic infants to stay 

 in the village and work on the farms : the 

 shades of their prison have closed round them 

 from their birth : education is wasted on 

 the " man with the hoe : " education and 

 discontent go hand in hand. 



This crude and selfish doctrine of over- 

 education is openly preached by persons who 

 begin to send their own children to school at 

 the age when the sons and daughters of the 

 poor are leaving it for good ! Well-to-do 

 parents whose thoughts are centred on the 

 advancement of their boys, who grasp the 

 importance of a good education in this con- 

 nection, who are constantly endeavouring to 

 better their own position in life these same 

 people unite in wishing to deny the offspring 

 of the poor any substantial improvement in 

 their lot and regard laudable ambition in 

 the parents as undesirable and dangerous. 



Another demand is frequently made in the 

 supposed interest of the rural population : 

 it is alleged not so much that education itself 

 is unnecessary or undesirable as that the 

 existing type of school ' training is quite 



