Elementary education 1833-1870 Essay

What was the role of the government in developing Elementary Education 1833-1870? 1. Why did the government play little role in education before the nineteenth century? Government played little role in education prior to the nineteenth century because of many reasons, one of them being Laissez faire. Laissez faire was the philosophy of the government that it was not their role to get involved in the lives of the people. Edward Baines wrote about the state of education in 1846 and said â€Å"it is not the duty of the government to feed the people†¦these are things that the people can and ought to do themselves† some thought this was the way God wanted things to be. Other felt that the fittest and richest could survive; the idea did nothing for the poor. One of the only things government was willing to get involved in was defending the country. Money was another motive why the government played little role. The government didn’t want to spend money on educating the poor, they would much rather spend their money on the royal stables and the military. On Samuel Whitbread’s Bill this topic was discussed â€Å"It would burden the country with a most enormous expense†. Not only did they not want to put money towards education but also it was going to be a very expensive project, which they thought could be done without. Samuel Whitbread argued that more education was needed and that raises money was the way forward when he stood up to the government, but the House of Lords rejected his Bill. The Class system was another thing that was preventing the government from contributing money towards education. Everyone knew his or her place in society so for the poor to read write and be educated would make them more intelligent and mess up the ‘The Great Chain of Being’; this was another name for the social structure at the time. The chain of being was written about once by a Bishop in 1720 and he said â€Å"God so orders it that we always have some Poor among us† from this the ‘The great chain of being’ had come about. The Government simply didn’t see the need for change. There were already Sunday Schools and Dame Schools available for the poor, which were supplied by the church and individuals ‘As far as education was concerned, the government was content’ reading this its seems as if the government couldn’t be bothered to improve if there was nothing wrong with how things were currently going. This reminds me of the old saying ‘why fix it, if its not broken’. Revolutionary ideas were also something that was considered to be a threat if the poor were to be educated. If they were taught to read then they would be able to understand and read Anti-Christian books and stories about revolutions in other countries such as France. This was also discussed in the Debate on Samuel Whitbread’s Bill, â€Å"It would enable them to read vicious books, and publications against Christianity† religion was very strong at this time and to disrupt it could have lead to social unrest. Revolting against how they feel they stand in society would â€Å"make them insolent to their superiors† this was also talked about on Samuel Whitbread’s Bill. Parents of poor children didn’t want their children to go to school and learn, because they wanted them to work and earn money. This was the traditional way of life for the poor people and most of them were keen to stick with it. They worked on farms and in mines. However if the parents were to look at the advantages of educating their children they would see that with an education they could get better jobs and earn more money. Even though it would have taken time it still would have been the more intelligent choice, but as they were not educated themselves they never thought of it that way. 2. Why did the government become involved in developing elementary education for all during the nineteenth century? Government eventually had to become involved in developing elementary education. The increasing population meant that schools could not cope with the large amounts of pupils, so more schools were built to accommodate the demands of numbers. The large numbers of pupils also meant that more teachers were needed and to employ more teachers money was needed, so without the help and money from the government education would have gone nowhere. Not only would they have needed more teachers but also they would need bigger schools to have room for the large increase of pupils. The poor people could no longer look after themselves, so the government had to step in. They may have been struggling because the higher classes were sending their children to school so they would have had a tremendous advantage over the poor and uneducated children when they both contest for work, as they got older. A link the raising population had with the changes outside education is firstly the 1832 Great Reform Act. For the first time the large new industrial towns were able to elect MPs, most of these MPs were keen on cleaning up the towns. In the end the combined effects of the Reform Act and the cholera epidemic of 1832 made the living conditions in all towns a major political issue. An education was needed for people to be able to operate the machines. Due to these demands the scope of education was widened to include the children of more ordinary men and women. ‘Better-educated clerks and crafts people were needed’ to produce better goods to increase the countries economy with trade. Better-educated workers were wanted; the future of workers education took a big step forward with the Factory Act of 1833. This Act laid down that every factory child should receive two hours’ schooling a day. Other countries were educating their youth and were therefore were ahead of Britain in that department, so to avoid embarrassment and keep up to date the government decided it was time to teach the younger generation. This was a very important time for the country because they realised that the children are the future and educating them would be so much better for the government. This would be because to have more educated workers in the future would mean people doing and understanding their jobs better. If countries got ahead of Britain then they would have more knowledge, to stop this the government introduced an education Bill, this was read from it â€Å"If we leave our workfolk unskilled, they will become over-matched in the competition of the world† by W. E Forster. More money was coming in from the country’s trade and empire. This meant that more money could and was put forward towards education for the poor. Most of the money from the trade came from the industrial revolution. This was mainly thanks to the trade that merchants did with Australia and other countries. Another thing that played a key part in the great income was the Railway industry. This was very quickly becoming a national system and brought in great loads of money. A link with more money coming in from education was that more money could be spent on defence. This was very helpful because if Britain were to go to war we would have hopefully have been well off. Poor people were given the chance to vote, but they needed some knowledge of who to vote for and why. If they knew what things they wanted from the government, then they could have a rough idea of who shares the same thoughts and ambition as them for the running of the country. They needed to know who to vote for because if that person won he would run the country, so they are voting for a very important matter. In the reform Act of 1867 most working class men were giving the chance to vote. This was very important link outside education because with educated voters the country has a better chance of a good and well presented Prime Minister.