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EVENING CONTINUATION SCHOOLS.

T is a good omen for the future of this country that a genuine and widespread interest has been awakened in connection with the new code for Evening Continuation Schools. A few years ago the very idea of such schools was strange to the ordinary British mind, and the oldfashioned night schools which were popular twenty or thirty years ago were rapidly becoming as extinct as the dodo.

Not that this was to be deprecated, on the contrary it was greatly to be desired, and was inevitable just in proportion as the Education Act of 1870 did its work. Before that Act came into operation most of the children of the artisan and labouring classes were without any elementary education properly so-called; what little they had was picked up, for the most part, in the Dame's school, or later on in the evening school. But when compulsory elementary education for all became the law of the land it was to be expected that the need for the old night school would The better the day school did its work the less need would there be for elementary teaching of an evening. For a time, no doubt, the need still survived-for, through the poverty, or cupidity, or stupidity of parents and employers, together with the distaste for "scholarship" on the part of children, a good many of the youngsters escaped the vigilance of the school visitor, and have grown up under our very eyes in almost absolute ignorance. For them the elementary evening teaching must still be provided.

cease.

But the great fact that has led to the present revival of evening. schools, and has given them new form and character, is this-that the elementary teaching given at so great a cost, and for the most part so efficiently, in the day school, is to a great extent wasted because of the early age at which the scholars are removed. Careful inquiries in the

year 1885 in various directions led to the conclusion that not more than 4 per cent. of our elementary scholars pursued their education in any systematic way after passing out of the day school; and that while the

exemption standard was often as low as the fourth, and even the third, it was yearly becoming easier for young children to pass the test of examination, so that, as a matter of fact, they passed in vast numbers away from school as early as eleven, and in rural districts ten years of age, And even supposing the schooling were prolonged to twelve or thirteen, as in some cases, what then? At the very age when discipline and guidance are most urgently required, when habit and character are being formed, when the mind begins to awake, and the bodily powers to develop, the scholars are permitted both by law and by the public opinion of their class, to leave school and run wild in the streets. Their "education," ie., the rushing through the standards, has given them no aptitude for work, it has been in no sense a preparation for their life. Five-sixths of them are destined to manual labour of some kind or another, but manual training-though now administered in homoeopathic doses here and there, was then-ten years ago-hardly thought of. Is it any wonder if such children fall an easy prey to the temptations that beset the idle and vacant-minded?

"After their day's work," as Mr. Besant says, "they are tired; they want fresh air and exercise. The street is always open to them; here they find the companions of the workroom; here they feel the swift strong current of life; here something is always happening; here there are always new pleasures; here they can talk and play unrestrained, left entirely to themselves, taking for pattern those a little older than themselves. As for their favourite amusements and pleasures, they grow yearly coarser; as for their conversation, it grows continually viler; until Zola himself would be ashamed to reproduce the talk of these young people."

These considerations are indefinitely strengthened when we remember the vast numbers with which we have to deal. About four hundred and

fifty thousand children leave our elementary day schools every year, giving a total of more than two millions from twelve to seventeen years of age, of whom less than one hundred thousand are enrolled in our even

ing schools. It is true that during the last seven years—since the Recreative Evening Schools Association has been at work-a considerable increase has been effected. In 1885 there were but eight hundred and thirty-nine evening schools throughout the country with an average attendance of only twenty-four thousand, two hundred and thirty-two, the number on the register being forty thousand, eight hundred and fiftyfour; while in 1892 the corresponding figures are: schools, one thousand,

Contemporary Review, March, 1886.

six hundred and four; an attendance of sixty-five thousand, five hundred and sixty-one, and number on register ninety-six thousand, eight hundred and forty-two.

It must be borne in mind also that a considerable number of scholars are found in the classes of the Science and Art Department, and in classes started by County Council Technical Committees; but the fact remains that the vast bulk of our girls and boys in their early teens are wholly untouched by our educational system.

It is evident that this state of things if left to itself constitutes a grave political and social danger. The four hundred and fifty thousand. scholars who annually leave our elementary day schools will be the fathers and mothers of a few years hence, and upon them will largely depend the future of the nation.

These were the main considerations that led to the formation of the Recreative Evening Schools Association,* whose object is, briefly, to promote the continuous and healthful education of the children who have left our elementary schools, by evening classes, both recreative and practical, under Government inspection.

Initial experiments having been made at the instigation of Dr. Paton by the School Board in Nottingham, a deputation, headed by H.R.H. Princess Louise, Marchioness of Lorne, waited upon the London School Board in August, 1885, asking in the name of the Trades' Council of London (representing fifty-seven large Trading Societies with twenty-five thousand subscribers) that recreative and practical subjects might be introduced into their evening classes, which were then very few and sparsely attended. The petition was granted and the Association forthwith began its arduous and important work-a work which aims at doing and inciting others to do, by voluntary and attractive methods, throughout the United Kingdom, what is done in Germany and elsewhere by State compulsion.

A comparison indeed of the state of this country from an educational point of view, with that of several of the Continental nations is greatly to our disadvantage :

"In Switzerland each Canton has its own school law. In Lucerne, for instance, the child must come at seven years old-and may come at six; the day school course lasts till he is fourteen, and then unless he goes to a higher school he has to attend a fort bildungs schule, or Continuation School, for two years more until he is sixteen.

* Office: 37, Norfolk-street, Strand, W.C.

"In Zurich the child must come to school at six years old, his day school lasts till he is twelve, he has then three years of obligatory attendance at an erganzungs schule, or Completion School, after he is twelve, besides one time a week at a singing school.

"In France, as in Germany and Switzerland, where intermediate and higher instruction has long been established and aided by the State, we find, too, that the municipality of Paris has not only its Infants' Schools and Elementary Schools but its evening classes for adults and apprentices, its establishments of superior primary instruction, and its establishments of professional instruction, all of them for young people of both sexes, and all of them gratuitous. "MATTHEW ARNOLD,

"Special Report."

Now the reasons which have led to the adoption of this educational policy in the above mentioned nations operate no less strenuously in Great Britain. Indeed it is obvious that a great commercial and industrial nation cannot afford to spend seven or eight millions a year on elementary teaching, and see the larger portion of it wasted for want of a small additional expenditure which might conserve the whole, and turn it to the greatest advantage; while at the same time the artisans of neighbouring countries, its rivals and competitors in the markets of the world, are receiving at the public expense the best possible general and technical training. Surely English artisans have a right to ask for, and it is in the highest degree expedient for the State to give, equal facilities to those which foreign countries freely provide for their people. By such means only can we hope permanently to raise the condition of the masses of our population, not merely by securing for them improved material surroundings, but by a truly liberal education enabling them to appreciate the higher issues of life, and to enjoy its nobler pleasures and loftier possibilities.

A very short time sufficed to show that the Association had struck the right note. A hearty response soon came from the leading educationists of the country, from school authorities, and from the public Press. Public meetings were held in the Mansion House and elsewhere and addresses given in many towns and cities, where, as a result, classes were started, and local associations formed, as, e.g., in Wolverhampton, Manchester, Leeds, Huddersfield, Leicester, Birmingham, Bristol, Brighton, &c. A further most important opportunity was offered for the formation of public opinion on this subject in the appointment of the Royal Commission on Education in the year 1886. The views of the Association were expounded before the Commission by Dr. Paton and

others, at considerable length, and as a result the following important recommendation formed part of the report:

"That the evening school system should be thoroughly revised; that a special curriculum and special schedules of standards and subjects should be allowed, suitable to the needs of a locality, and that local managers should be encouraged to submit such schedules to the Department for approval; that the provision embodied in the code requiring all scholars in evening schools to pass in the three elementary subjects as a condition of taking additional subjects should cease to be enforced, and that no superior limit of age should be imposed on the scholars."

The Association has now been at work for upwards of seven years. During this period classes have been carried on under its auspices largely by means of voluntary teachers in connection with both Board and Voluntary schools, youths' clubs, and evening homes for working girls, to all of whom valuable apparatus has been lent, free of charge. The extent of this department of the work may be inferred from the simple statement that last year the centres aided in London alone were two hundred and thirty-two, and the number of classes four hundred and fourteen. The chief subjects were lantern lectures on geography, travel, and simple science, needlework and dress-cutting, drawing, carving, musical drill, and gymnastics. The estimation in which this help has been held by the responsible teachers is shown in masses of letters, of which the following is a sample:

The Senior Science Demonstrator under the School Board writes: "Permit me to ask of you again the favour of one or two sets of slides, as I find by this means the attendance is wonderfully improved, and the teaching of science receives a wonderful impetus."

A Responsible Teacher says: "The pupils are deriving great benefits from the labours of the voluntary teachers of the R.E.S.A. Directly, by the subjects taught them, and by the more regular attendance induced; and indirectly, by securing the elementary work being more successfully taught."

Another writes: "I cannot speak too highly of the drill. It has created this class, which has an average of nearly ninety. It is by far the most popular subject taught."

Another, a voluntary teacher in simple chemistry, says: "There has been an average of thirty-five boys and men, at least one-fourth of them being over eighteen. The interest shown by the class has been well maintained, and has far exceeded my expectations."

And an hon. local secretary reported: "The ambulance lectures have been a decided success. The boys take great interest in the work, and many of them show considerable proficiency in the various methods of first-aid. The same is true of the girls. The musical drill and lantern lectures are much appreciated