FREE OR ASSISTED EDUCATION P—A SUGGESTION.
[To THE EDITOR Or THE " SPECTATOR:1 Sin,—All who are interested in education have read with attention, and a great amount of approval, the recommenda- tions contained in the newest " New Code." All, too, are filled with wonder and suspense as to what may be contained in any future enactment of the Government in regard to the matter of "free " or " assisted " education. But while this latter subject is still "in the air," I should be most grateful to you if you would help me to ventilate the following proposals.
I may mention that I have for some years been connected with our County Voluntary Schools' Association, and that it is only after discussing the subject with several school- teachers that I venture to propose this scheme as a prac- ticable one ; but I believe that, granted its practicability, it is one that might prove acceptable alike to the advocates of Free Education, and also to the great body of ratepayers or tax- payers. I hold, with many others, that Free Education is the natural corollary of compulsory attendance, but I hold that the free education which a nation is bound to offer to each child, and to enforce on all, should only comprise a substantial grounding in the elements of learning, and that such a groundwork should be extended or developed afterwards at the option of the individual. To put it practically. Let compulsory and free education include what is known as "the three R's," and nothing more. Let the children be thoroughly grounded in these elementary subjects (say) in the morning, and in the afternoon let free and com- pulsory education cease ; and let all extra subjects—drawing, German, French, sewing, laundry-work, &c.—be taught ; and, further, let the school-pence be collected to pay for this.
Under such a system, no parents would be obliged to pay school-fees unless they wished it; at the same time, having once got their children to school, they would not be likely to want to have them back again. Added to this consideration, there would be the pressure put upon parents by the school- managers, school-teachers, clergy, and others, and even, in some cases, by the children themselves. A boy or girl would be obliged to receive a sound education in what is absolutely necessary to the making of a useful citizen, and he would, moreover, receive this education free. Its development into more useful branches, or into the acquirement of the arts and sciences, would be at the discretion of the individual, and the defrayment of:the cost would be contributed to by the payment of school-pence.
Let all children!receive a fair start in the race of life, and if their parents want more, let them pay for it.—I am, Sir, &c., EDMUND H. CLUTTEREUCK.
Hardenhuish (Chippenham), April 22nd.
[The majority of the population would learn nothing but the " three R's."—ED. Spectator.]
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