The 3 Rs
On a visit to Chichester yesterday, I was struck by this memorial in the Cathedral cloisters:
"Oliver Whitby dying unmarried Feb the 19th 1702 in the 39th year of his Age Founded and Endowed a School in this City for the maintenance of a Master and Twelve Poor Boys to be carefully educated in the Principles of Religion as Established in the Church of England and also to be diligently instructed in Reading, Writing, Arithmetic and so far in Mathematical Learning as may fit them for honest and useful Employments with a particular Regard to Navigation."
300 years later, we are still haven't worked out how to teach the 3 Rs effectively, there is little emphasis in schools on Christian teaching, the Navy has dwindled and class sizes have increased dramatically.
posted by Whispering Walls at 8:22 am
2 Comments:
The real problem is that education used to be regarded as precious and a passport to greater things - the non-conformist schools taught well, and the poorest did their utmost to get their children educated.A degree was worth something.
Now, of course, noone actually needs to know anything - a calculator or Google can sort it.
I wonder what became of the, "twelve poor boys" Maybe there was an admiral or two amongst them.
Post a Comment
<< Home