NA TURE 



73 



THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1SS4 



OVER-PRESSURE IX ELE.VEXTARY 

 SCHOOLS 



r I "HERE has lately arisen a warm controversy about 



I 



over-pressure in schools, and its alleged results. 



The points in dispute are unquestionably important, and 

 deserve the careful thought of all those who are interested 

 in the intellectual and physical development of the rising 

 generation. The cry of over- pressure was raised some 

 years ago with reference tomiddle-class schools, and during 

 the discussion of the Proposals of the Education Depart- 

 ment for the New Code it extended to elementary schools. 

 The National Union of Elementary Teachers took up the 

 subject at their meeting at Sheffield during the Easter 

 week of 1SS2. In July they had an important conference 

 with Members of Parliament at the House of Commons, 

 and they have continued ever since to agitate for a relaxa- 

 tion of Government requirements. Their views were 

 supported by the opinions of several medical men, and 

 were gladly seized hold of by the opponents of the educa- 

 tion of the people. The matter came before the Social 

 rice Congress at Huddersfield and the Health Exhi- 

 bition at South Kensington. It has been investigated 

 and reported on by several School Boards. The Tunes 

 has dealt with it in able leading articles, and the Pall 

 Mall in prettily written " Idylls." The Education Depart- 

 ment itself, and both Houses of Parliament, have been 

 stirred by it, while the personal combat between Dr. 

 Crichton Browne, one of the Lord Chancellor's Visitors, 

 on the one side, and Mr. Fitch, one of the best known and 

 most highly esteemed of Her Majesty's Inspectors, on the 

 other, has added a flavour to the controversy. 



The question is a large and complicated one. In deal- 

 ing with it I have no intention of touching on any personal 

 matters in dispute, nor of speaking of the pressure on 

 School Board members, or on teachers. Our educational 

 systems exist for the sake of the children, and must stand 

 or fall according to the effect upon them. My remarks 

 also will be restricted to public elementary schools 

 whether " voluntary " or " Board," though I do not believe 

 that they tire so open to the charge of over-pressure as 

 many of our middle-class or higher schools. 



The allegations are of the most serious order. It is not 

 so much that here and there one poor child dies of di 

 brought on by over-work; but it is held that the bodies 

 of our scholars are being systematically sacrificed to an 

 abnormal development of their minds, and that there is 

 growing up a generation whose nerves are over-strung 

 and who are becoming more and more liable to diseases 

 of the brain and connected organs. The defenders'of the 

 present system, however, assert that these charges are 

 enormously exaggerated, and that all reasonable precau- 

 tions are taken against the occurrence of the evil. 



In all this conflict it is difficult to find evidence of a 

 scientific character ; there is more rhetoric than argu- 

 ment, and even when the figures of speech are supple- 

 mented by statistics, the conclusions drawn from them 

 seem open to question. There are, however, two conclu- 

 sions which will scarcely be disputed by any one who has 

 looked at the matter with any amount of impartiality. 



(1) That in all large schools there are children who are 

 Vol. xxxi — No. 787 



in danger of over-pressure. Take the typical case of a 

 class of seventy children, starting with about the same 

 attainments. The bulk of these will be average boys, or 

 girls, as the case may be, fairly healthy and intelligent, 

 not given to over-much study, but still ready to fall in 

 with the requirements of the school. But there will also 

 be some half-starved children, who often come without 

 any breakfast, dull children — descendants of a wholly un- 

 cultured race — feeble children, and others averse to 

 any restraint and constitutionally irritable, together with 

 children who are weary with toil at home, or with hanging 

 about late at night, or working early in the morning before 

 they go to school. Besides these there are the exception- 

 ally clever children, who are in danger of under-pressure, 

 and the over-sensitive or ambitious, who are prone to 

 over-work themselves if allowed the opportunity. It is 

 evident that the general scope of the instruction must be 

 adapted to the average of the class. To reduce it to the 

 level of the physically or mentally weak would be a cruel 

 wrong to the majority of the children, and an injustice to 

 the public, who, by means of taxes, rates, or voluntary 

 contributions, mainly support the school. 1 But this 

 insures the possibility of more being expected from some 

 of the other boys or girls than they have the power to 

 perform. This danger is aggravated where, as in many 

 country parishes, it is difficult to raise sufficient funds to 

 provide a proper staff and appliances for teaching, while 

 the very existence of the school is dependent upon each 

 child earning as large a Government grant as possible. 

 The danger is aggravated also by the shocking irregu- 

 larity with which those children attend who are driven in 

 from the streets. Happily elementary schools are usually 

 exempt from one prolific source of over-pressure — com- 

 petitive examinations. The annual Government exami- 

 nation is simply for a pass, and is looked forward to with 

 pleasure by the majority of the children. 2 The practice 

 of the more important bodies of management is, I believe, 

 similar in this respect to that of the London School 

 Board, which recognises no competition between one 

 child and another, unless it be for the Scripture prizes 

 and a few scholarships, which it administers for other 

 parties. 



(2) That in a large number of instances the circum- 

 stances of school life are more favourable to health than 

 the home life. Before the days of compulsory education 

 many thousands of children passed a joyless existence 

 shut up in close and often fetid rooms, or turned out in 

 all weathers into the streets or alleys. Now these children 

 are brought into warm, well-lighted, and well-ventilated 

 school-rooms, where habits of cleanliness and self-respect 

 are inculcated, and where both their bodies and minds 

 are duly exercised. This is especially the case in the 

 newly-constructed Board schools. It is difficult to show 

 this improvement by statistics of health, but we have the 

 statistics of death. The Registrar-General, having been 

 applied to on this matter, reported that " the death- 

 rate of children (from five to fifteen years of age) in 

 1861-70 was 6 - 3 per 1000. It fell in 1871-80105-1 per 



1 So far from the majority of the children being ove 

 by Dr. Crichton Browne that 70 or 80 per cent, can 

 work required by the Code easily. 



2 An attendance-officer, lormerly a schoolmaster, has just written to me as 

 follows: — "I have ever found the children looking anxiously and joyously 

 forward to the day of examination, so much so that it would be nothing 

 short of absolute cruelty to deprive any of those dear little souls of their long- 

 hoped-for privilege." 



E 



