HARDY FORUM ARCHIVE H01058 6/26/01 "NIGHT SCHOOL IN JUDE QUESTION" ===================================================================== Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2001 20:06:03 +0100 From: Birgit Plietzsch Subject: Jude's formal education Dear All Hardy describes Jude as attending the night school at Marygreen. This makes me wonder whether children like Jude who had to work during the day would have obtained the same formal education as those who were able to attend the normal lessons during the day. Does anybody know whether the content of the lessons taught during the day differed from that taught in the evening? If yes, how did it differ? Thanks for any suggestions! Best wishes Birgit ========== Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2001 09:50:57 -0700 From: Betty Cortus Subject: Re: Jude's formal education Unfortunately, I don't know the real life answer to your question Birgit, though I trust some of our members will know more. However, from fictional accounts of night school by other 19th Cenury writers I have formed the impression that the quality of education offered depended very much on the temperament and and dedication of the teacher. To cite just two examples examples, Pip in _Great Expectations_ learned very little under the somewhat less-than-exemplary tutelage of Mr. Wopsle's great-aunt who "kept an evening school in the village: that is to say, she was a ridiculous old woman of limited means and unlimited infirmity, who used to go to sleep from six to seven every evening in the society of youth who paid twopence per week each, for the improving opportunity of seeing her do it." Pip describes his learning experience thus: "Much of my unassisted self . . . I struggled through the alphabet as if it had been a bramble-bush: getting considerably worried and scratched by every letter. After that, I fell among those thieves, the nine figures, who seemed every evening to do something new to disguise themselves, and baffle recognition. But, at last I began, in a purblind groping way, to read, write, and cipher, on the very smallest scale" (Chapter 7). In contrast, the normally irascible Mr. Massey who taught both day and night school in _Adam Bede_ reserved the bulk of his sympathy for the deserving laborers struggling to learn at his night school. "He was not gifted with an imperturbable temper, and on music nights it was apparent that patience could never be an easy virtue to him; but this evening, as he glances over his spectacles at Bill Downes, the sawyer, who is turning his head on one side with a desperate sense of blankness before the letters d, r, y, his eyes shed their mildest and most encouraging light" (BooK 2, Chapter 21). All the Best, Betty =========== From: "Gary Alderson" Subject: Jude's education Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2001 18:36:55 +0100 Regarding Birgit's request: You can look at Greenwood Tree - Fancy is the regular schoolmistress, got the best result in the nation and is generally thoroughly accomplished. Mr Spinks "was considered to be a scholar, having once kept a night-school, and always spoke up to that level" but doesn't show any particular intelligence or knowledge beyond the other members of the quire. ========== Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2001 17:05:54 -0500 From: Bill Morgan Subject: Re: Jude's formal education Birgit (and Betty, et. al.)-- If you don't get a "real-life" answer from the Hardy list, I'd suggest you send the question to the Victoria list, which included legal scholars, historians, etc. as well as literary scholars. If you don't subscribe and would like me to post the question for you, I'll be happy to. It's an interesting matter; good luck. cheers, Bill =========== From: "k.farrelly1" Subject: Re: Jude's formal education Date: Thu, 28 Jun 2001 11:34:44 +0100 I have recently written a chapter for my PhD thesis on Jude, working-class education and reading practices. While my reseach into schooling was by no means extensive, I did some work in the Dorchester Records Office which holds old Dorset school log books. Most archival material relates to the state sponsored voluntary day schools which concentrated on teaching reading, spelling, perhaps a very basic skill in writing, arithmetic, Bible lessons and needlework - usually only for the girls. Some schools also gave lessons in geography or history. I think it would be difficult to generalise about the differences between such schools and night schools. It would very much depend on who was holding the night classes - whether the teachers of voluntary schools, a local man or woman giving private lessons, a mechanics' institute. In Jude's case, though, Phillotson, the village schoolteacher, gives the night classes. I recall a few logbooks where the schoolteachers also recorded their night classes. Teachers tended to be more enthusiastic about such classes - more motivated students. One of the major differences was the students themselves which included not only children but, perhaps mostly, adults who wished to learn or improve their reading and writing. Night classes seem to have had more emphasis on a practical training in literacy or woodwork and lacked the aura of moral 'civilizing' indoctrination which tended to imbue the voluntary day schools. Sue, for instance, who teaches at such a day school with Phillotson before attending Melchester teacher training college (Salisbury college where Hardy's sister trained) experiences the more conventional restraints put upon voluntary schoolteaching: although she ridicules the model of Jerusalem on the childrens' day trip, she teaches a lesson on the model the following day. Hope this is of some help. Pamela Horn has written a good book on rural education - although this concentrates on the voluntary day schools. Sorry for such a long answer! Yours Carol Farrelly c.m.farrelly@sussex.ac.uk ========== Date: Thu, 28 Jun 2001 13:25:05 +0100 From: Birgit Plietzsch Subject: Re: Jude's formal education Thanks Betty, Bill and Gary for your responses to my request. I am looking for a "real-life" answer to my question. I'll take Bill's advice and forward my initial message to the Victoria-L. Still, its good to have some differing fictional accounts of education at night schools too. Best wishes Birgit ========= Date: Thu, 28 Jun 2001 09:15:55 -0400 From: Rosemarie Morgan Subject: Re: Jude's formal education I'm not sure what "real life" entails but my first instinct would be to go to those who not only shaped Hardy's thinking on education and schooling but who also shaped the ideals and ethics of education in Victorian culture. Mill, for example, profoundly shapes both -- the internal world of "education" in *Jude* possibly reflects more of Mill's thinking than it does, say, Benthamism (as it developed as an "ism" for Victorians--although Bentham did also influence Mill himself). The fact that Jude goes to night school, not Sunday school, and does not frequent the resources proffered by the Lady of the Manor -- as did TH himself-- is illustrative. Given that the field (and ideals) of education was conflictful and diverse (for ex, the anti-intellectual movement) during this era and was most certainly class-ified I would personally devour the sage-writers of the day on this question (Kingsley, Froude, Mill, Carlyle, Bagehot, Ruskin et al -- maybe even Fourier, in TH's case). Cheers, Rosemarie ========== Date: Thu, 28 Jun 2001 09:39:16 -0400 From: Rosemarie Morgan Subject: Re: Jude's formal education Back again! Just remembered that John Doheney has done some thorough searches into local/regional West Country education. Cheers, RM ==========