A liberal education... frees a man from the prison-house of his class, race, time, place, background, family and even his nation.

Robert M. Hutchins

The Victorian Ragged Schools were a philanthropic effort to provide education to the destitute children in the United Kingdom. At the beginning of the nineteenth century education was the privilege of the middle and upper classes; children were either taught at home by a tutor or governess, or were sent to board at public schools such as Eton or Rugby. Then, as now, those who were not provided an education were condemned to a life of low-paid menial work. Literacy rates for the population as a whole were less than fifty percent. However, the Victorian era was a time of great social change, with benefits extending to the British education system. In 1870, a State School system was implemented by the Education Act of 1870 (also known as the 'Forster Act') and it became law that all children from the ages of 5 to 13 had to attend school.

Before the implementation of a State School system, there were many different types of schools, some better than others. Public Schools were fee-paying schools, and were the preserve of the rich and socially advantaged. Charity Schools covered the other end of the spectrum; they provided a basic education to the working classes and were run by volunteers. Workhouse Schools were an effort to provide education to pauper children from several different parishes in one central building, but these were an abject failure, not least because the people who ran them were barely literate themselves. Dame Schools were glorified babysitting services, where a woman would take children into her home for the day. However, there were often too many children of too broad an age range in attendance for a Dame School to be effective. But by far the most popular schools were the Sunday Schools run by the churches. Sunday was an ideal day for most working class families, as the children weren't expected to be working towards the family's keep as they were during the rest of the week. Here, volunteers taught the children basic reading skills and religious morals. The Ragged Schools were schools for the most desperate of inner city, destitute children, and were so-called because their pupils were ragged of appearance. It was these schools that sought out the vagrant children, who were often orphaned or abandoned by their parents. The Ragged Schools often housed and fed these children as well as providing a basic education.

The First Ragged Schools

In his book, Plea for Ragged Schools, Dr. Thomas Guthrie, a Church of Scotland minister, claims that the first person to set up such a venture was a Portsmouth shoemaker called John Pounds. Pounds had originally been apprenticed by his father to a shipwright, but when he was 15 he fell into a dry-dock and was crippled for life. He re-trained as a shoemaker and opened his shop in Portsmouth in 1803. In 1818 he began to use his shop premises to teach local children how to read. Eventually, his reputation as a teacher grew, and he was providing up to 40 children at a time with a basic education, not only in reading and writing and arithmetic, but in life-skills such as cooking, carpentry and shoemaking. He actively recruited children to his school by searching the streets and quays of Portsmouth, even offering food to those who would attend his schooling. The most amazing aspect of this is that he did not charge for his services; he was happy to do what he could for these children without accepting even a penny in return. Of course, John Pounds was not the first person to have ever done such a thing as this in aid of the poor, but he was the first to catch the public's imagination with it. John Pounds died in 1839, and unfortunately his school died with him.

Another man that it is claimed to have started the ball rolling with Ragged Schools is Thomas Cranfield. A former soldier and tailor, he first began running a Sunday School in London toward the end of the eighteenth century. He then progressed to opening a day school in 1798, and by the time of his death in 1838 he had 'built up an organization of nineteen Sunday, night and infants' schools situated in the foulest parts of London' (Eager, 1953).

In 1841, another candidate, Sheriff Watson, established an all-boys Ragged School in Aberdeen, followed by an all-girls Ragged School in 1843 and a mixed school in 1845. These schools were different from others of their kind; Watson favoured arrest as a method of getting children to attend his schools. Whilst it seems unfair that these children were forced against their will to attend his schools, Watson did at least provide these children with food and clothing.

Dr. Guthrie himself opened his own Ragged School in Edinburgh in 1848, but his main contribution to the formation of Ragged Schools was his articles and writings on the subject, informing the public of the need for provision of education to the deprived children living on the streets of industrial cities the length and breadth of the United Kingdom. His Plea for Ragged Schools was written in 1847, long after the death of John Pounds, and was an effort to push forward the concept of Ragged Schools to others.

The Ragged School Union

In 1844, the number of Ragged Schools was such that it seemed appropriate that a union should be formed to look after them and their interests. The Ragged School Union was officially formed in April of 1844, and managed to secure the patronage of Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury, who took an active interest in the schools and organisation. A combination of the formation of a Union, publicity from gentlemen such as Dr. Guthrie and the work of the Earl of Shaftesbury mean that in the next 20 years, the number of Ragged Schools grew exponentially from 19 to over 650.

The Ragged Schools weren't just formed to look after the educational needs of children. They also sought to care for the physical, mental and moral well being of their charges. The schools opened wherever they could afford to, and the types of buildings used to house the schools include stables, covered railway arches, disused stores and old houses. To begin with, most schools were just open on Sunday and used volunteer workers to care for the children. Over time however, the schools started to open during the week, both in the day and at night; and to recruit properly trained workers, often still volunteers, though some schools had enough financial backing to be able to pay their staff. Of course, once the Education Act of 1870 was passed, the need for Ragged Schools started to diminish. Some evolved into boy's and youth's institutes, but most closed down. Their effects can still be seen today though; both Dr. Barnardo and George Williams (who went on to help shape the YMCA) took their experiences of working in Ragged Schools to other projects.

The impact of the Ragged Schools was immense. It is estimated that 300,000 children passed through the Ragged School system. These children who would otherwise have either died on the streets from exposure or, in desperation, would have turned to life of crime in order to support themselves. As it was, the Ragged Schools were able to give these children the gift of literacy, and then helped them move on to apprenticeship schemes and other opportunities.

References

• Eagar W, 1953, Making Men. The history of the Boys' Clubs and related movements in Great Britain, London: University of London Press
• Guthrie T, 1847, Plea for Ragged Schools, or Prevention is Better Than Cure, Edinburgh
• Silver H, 1983, Education as History, London: Methuen