62 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF YORK AND DISTRICT 



was largely confined to activities other than those of the mind. It was 

 at the York St. Peter's School, long established even then, that Alcuin 

 in turn studied, taught, and administered. 



It is the aim of the present-day educationists to build not unworthily 

 upon the tradition handed down from their city's past, and to maintain 

 or enhance the reputation as a centre of learning that has been con- 

 tinuously attached to York. It is only comparatively recently that the 

 service of education was placed upon a permanent and broad basis by 

 the formation of statutory authorities for this specific purpose. The 

 credit for the voluntary provision of such education as was available for 

 the general population in pre-Education Act days largely belongs to the 

 Church, and the status of York as a cathedral city was an educational 

 advantage. 



On the other hand, the legacy received by the twentieth-century 

 Education Committee, of a large number of small and antiquated school 

 buildings, has been found an embarrassment peculiar to York, and one 

 from which the education authorities of cities of modern growth are free. 



It is just over a century ago that in York, as elsewhere throughout 

 the country, a beginning was made in the provision of education upon a 

 general basis that has now fully accomplished its first object in the elimina- 

 tion of illiteracy. 



In 1826 it was ascertained by a house-to-house visitation that of the 

 children of the labouring population 25 per cent, of those between the 

 ages of 6 and 10 years and 33 per cent, of those between 10 and 13 did 

 not go to any day school. Of those children between the ages of 12 and 

 14, II per cent, could not read. It is surprising to find that of the total 

 number of children who escaped the day school, 40 per cent, were to be 

 found in the Sunday schools. 



In the dame schools of that day it is recorded that the average pro- 

 fessional income of the teachers did not equal the wages of a child of 



12 years of age in the industrial districts. These schools were generally 

 destitute of proper books — sometimes possessing none at all, and seldom 

 more than mutilated fragments. Yet we find that they catered for 



13 per cent, of the whole number under instruction in York. 



The first serious attempt to make a general provision was in the opening 

 of schools of the National Society and the British Schools in the years 

 following 1828. The extracts from statistics on p. 63 show the rapid 

 progress from that time. 



The pioneer work of the York School Board established in 1889 was 

 energetically followed up by the Education Committee who succeeded 

 them in 1903. To-day it can justly be claimed that the city of York is 

 one of the leading areas in educational progress, an area in which there 

 are provided for the rising generation facilities for education that compare 

 very favourably with those available in any part of the country. 



The provision of the type of education corresponding to our present- 

 day secondary education began early in York, but its growth was slow 

 up to quite recent times. 



The St. Peter's School has provided education for successive genera- 

 tions since a.d. 627, and is still a school with a national reputation. The 



