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Liberal Education in York Since 1815, with Special Reference to Provision for Non-Vocational Adult Education

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Liberal Education in York Since 1815, with Special Reference to Provision for Non-Vocational Adult Education Durham E-Theses Liberal education in York since 1815, with special reference to provision for non-vocational adult education. Ashurst T. B, How to cite: Ashurst T. B, (1972) Liberal education in York since 1815, with special reference to provision for non-vocational adult education., Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/9737/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 LIBERAL EDUCATION IN YORK SINCE 1815,, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO PROVISION FOR N ON-VOCATIONAL ADTJLT EDUCATION. A thesis submitted for examination for the degree of Master of Education in the University of Durham. Terence Bailey Ashurst, 1972. I ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS \ I wish to acknowledge the kind assistance of the Librarians of York City Library, St. John's College Llbrarjr, York, and the Rowntree-Mackintosh, York, Technical Library. My thanks go also to my oolleagues in York, Graham Francis and Gordon Renshaw, who have generously provided me with reference material and other Information relating to their own Evening Centres, and to York Education Authority for allowing access to their records. I am especially indebted to Alfred Peacock, M.A., J.P., Warden of the Settlement, York, for providing me with much valuable Information and advice on many of the historical details of jthe development of the voluntary organisations in York, in particular the Settlement and the Workers' Educational Association. i i i i i II "If eves* there was a field of corporate human endeavour In which social and community Indebtedness Is Identified with the Individual Initiative of a vast company of known and honoured pioneers, It must oertalnly be in the field of adult education™. A* Jos el in. III. ABSTRACT A study of the development of non-vocational education in York during the last century and a half reveals several Interesting ventures in liberal adult education. In York as elsewhere, initially most of the experiments In adult education were, perforce, remedial and were usually conduoted by philanthropic organisations or Individuals from a social class nigher than that of the students who attended the schools and Institutes. Gradually all the early i institutions; deviated from their original alms - and In so doing often became; successful. The York Mechanics' Institute became a Literary and Scientific Society; tne Adult Schools Became Temperance Organisations or what amounted to Recreational Clubs; the York Settlement, created to provide a basic education for working men, became a kind of middle class finishing school. Voluntary organisations remained the sole providers of adult education in York almotat until the end of the 19th century. After 1902 the Local Education Authority was legally empowered to provide non-vocational adult education, but what it provided was sparse, drab and uninteresting and the position of the voluntary organisations went unchallenged. There was little alteration In the situation until after the Second World War wnen, in 1950, a start was made to improve local authority provision for adult education. In 1964, belatedly, York Education Authority created three new Evening Centres to provide a comprehensive system of attractively titled classes and courses. The immediate result was a dramatic Increase in enrolments. The traditional providers of liberal adult education, the voluntary organisations, remain to complement the Education Authorltyfs provision but they are undergoing a process of re• orientation as they seek a new role for themselves. The present provision for non-vocational adult education In York Is probably as good as that In any city of comparable size and resources and there now exists a sound basis for future development. IV CONTENTS INTRODUCTION LIBERAL EDUCATION - AN INTERPRETATION. PA&E Z.. CHAPTER 1. SOCIO-ECONOMIC CONDITIONS IN YORK IN THE EARLY K. 19TH CENTURY. CHAPTER 2. YORK MECHANICS' INSTITUTE. i i Z3. CHAPTER 3. THE ADULT SCHOOLS IN YORK. CHAPTER 4. UNIVERSITY EXTENSION IN YORK. 7 A CHAPTER 5. 90. LOCAL AUTHORITY EVENING SCHOOLS. CHAPTER 6. DIRECT PROVISION FOR N ON-VOCATIONAL ADULT EDUCATION AFTER 1918. CHAPTER V. VOLUNTARY ORGANISATIONS - /66. (i) YORK EDUCATIONAL SETTLEMENT. (ii) THE WORKERS' EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION, (ill) SMALLER VOLUNTARY ORGANISATIONS. CHAPTER 8. THE ROWNTREE FAMILY AND QUAKER INFLUENCE. CHAPTER 9. THE FUTURE OF LIBERAL ADULT EDUCATION IN YORK. 23/. FRONTISPIECE - York Mechanics' Institute new building. From the original drawing by W. G. Penty 1. INTRODUCTION LIBERAL EDUCATION - AN INTERPRETATION INTRODUCTION LIBERAL EDUCATION - AN INTERPRETATION Erasmus stated that after sowing the seeds of piety the most Important task for education was to ensure that the youthful mind 1 • be taught to "love and thoroughly learn the liberal studies." At the time when he made this recommendation what he meant by "liberal studies" would, no doubt, have immediately been understood by all who read It. The main problem with Introducing the word "liberal" into educational discussion today, however, is that it tends to become a kind of slogan used to express different meanings according to its Immediate context. Even if an acceptable general concept of "liberal" were possible in adult education there is the added difficulty of deciding whether "... the general concept 'liberal' (has) anything to do with the problem of what Is to be called 'vocational* and what 'non-vocational', and whether a 'liberal and vocational education' is more or less meaningful than a 'liberal 2. and non-vocational eduoation'." Nevertheless, while It would be impossible to attempt a full semantic and philosophical analysis of the word "liberal" nere, perhaps the following brief discussion of what might constitute a liberal education will be of some help in arriving at a working definition for the purpose of this study. In the original Greek conception of a liberal education the seven liberal arts, the quadrlvlum comprising Geometry, Arithmetic, Music, Astronomy and the trivium, Grammar, Rhetoric and Logic, were the basis of a process concerned simply with the pursuit of knowledge and a way of life in which banausic attitudes were held In contempt. There were three main justifications for this belief whloh were; 1. E.E.Reynolds, Thoma3 More and Erasmus (London, 1965), p.136. 2. Adult Education, Vol.41, No.3 (September, 1968), p.161. 3 that such an education was based on what was true and not on unoertain beliefs or temporary values; that as knowledge was a distinctive human virtue, the purpose of a liberal education was the fulfilment of the mind and had nothing to do with utilisation or vocational considerations; and finally, because of the sig• nificance of "the good life" as a whole, a liberal education was/ essential to man's understanding of how he ought! *° live, both individually and socially. To strive after the good was the Greek Ideal and It was held that, as the mind was man's distinguishing characteristic, it was the nature of the mind to pursue knowledge. The quest for knowledge was not only thought to jpromote the attain• ment of the mind Itself, but was considered the chief means whereby the good life was to be found. By right reasoning the mind could apprehend what was ultimately real and immutable. Acoordlng to Greek thinking, then, knowledge corresponded to what was ultimately real and had Its place In a comprehensive, harmonious scheme hierarchically structured in various levels within the whole of man's understanding. In the Greek conception of a liberal education the mind was seen as freed to function according to its true nature and man's conduct seen as freed from wrong - essentially, therefore also a moral education. In this country in the mediaeval Institutions of learning the classical curriculum prevailed. Latin - the medium of Instruction - was needed by prospective priests, lawyers, and;doctors, so that it was basically vocational. The classical subjects, however, came to be regarded as Intrinsically educative rather than a means to an end because they "mirrored a civilisation envied and revered for Its erudition and logioal pursuit of answers to metaphysical questions." The discipline of the Latin and Greek language structure, was seen as character-forming, of encouraging mind over matter and reason over passion. The content of education became equated with education 4. Itself and the means to a vocational end was regarded as a desirable education. The nurturing of the "right" kind of human being, oapable of abstract thought and sophisticated reasoning was valued as the best kind of education and became enshrined in the English public school system. Later it was adapted with ease to the 1- 19th century stress on moral rectitude and social responsibility. After the Industrial Revolution there arose1 In the realm of science a definite distinction between pure and applied science, between the research worker in his laboratory and the technologist who applied skills and knowledge on the job. In the study of tne arts tnere was Implicit tne snob appeal of a contemplative life unsullied by the material world. Tnus there arose the gap which 2. separated what C. P. Snow has oalied "the two cultures.** According to Raymond Williams, in fact, the words "culture" and "art" l ; first began to be used with their present meaning only after the 3 beginning of ithe Industrial Revolution.
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