does anyone know anything about victorian era education?

Answer 1

Victorian Schools


All children go to school
Many children in early Victorian England never went to school at all and more than half of them grew up unable even to read or write. Although some did go to Sunday schools which were run by churches. Children from rich families were luckier than poor children. Nannies looked after them, and they had toys and books. A governess would teach the children at home. Then, when the boys were old enough, they were sent away to a public school such as Eton or Rugby. The daughters were kept at home and taught singing, piano playing and sewing. Slowly, things changed for poorer children too. By the end of the Victorian age all children under 12 had to go to school. Now everybody could learn how to read and write, and how to count properly.

Education in Regency England was in nowise equal - not between the sexes, and not between the classes. Gentlemen would be educated at home by a governess or tutor until they were old enough to attend a public school. The curriculum was heavily weighted towards the classics - the languages and literature of Ancient Greece and Rome. After that, they would attend Oxford or Cambridge. Here they might also study mathematics, law, philosophy, and modern history. Oxford tended to produce more Members of Parliament and government officials, while Cambridge leaned more towards the sciences and produced more acclaimed scholars. It was not compulsory, either legally or socially, for a gentleman to attend school at all. He could, just as easily, be taught entirely at home. However, public school and University were the great staging grounds for public life, where you made your friends and developed the connections that would aid you later in life. Beau Brummel met the Prince of Wales at Eton and that friendship helped him conquer all of London Society despite his lack of family background.
A lady's education was taken, almost entirely, at home. There were boarding schools, but no University, and the studies were very different. She learned French, drawing, dancing, music, and the use of globes. If the school, or the governess, was interested in teaching any practical skills, she learned plain sewing as well as embroidery, and accounts.

Answer 2

Yes -- an excellent article Education in Victorian London (an extract from Liza Picard's book Victorian London:The Tale of a City 1840-1870 in History Magazine (www.historymagazine.com), July 2006 Issue, which tells of The Ragged Schools, which took ragged children off the streets and taught them social skills, the three Rs, plus religion.
Robert Raikes is said to have opened a Sunday school in 1783, his idea caught on and thousands of these schools sprang up all over the world. "By 1869 there were 195 schools in the (Ragged School) Union. This was the zenith of the movement, which crumbled after the 1870 Education Act established government-funded board schools."
"From 1852 all elementary schools were subject to annual inspection by Government appointed inspectors. The National Schools, being Church of England were inspected by ordained clergymen. All other schools, including those run by the Jews (Free Schools-JFS) and the Wesleyans, were inspected by laymen such as Matthew Arnold, whose reports make fascinating reading."
The Royal Masonic Institution for Boys and the Freemasons' Charity for Female Children helped to educate children whose fathers were Masons.
"The City of London School was founded in Milk Street in 1835, and educated the sons of professional, commercial or trading people who could produce a nomination by a City Alderman or Common Councilman."
In any case, these are just a few of the facts from this book, they are fascinating, and you can tell even from the little I have reproduced here --it was a very mixed bag of religious, charitable, male and female, private/ public schools!