Socialism and Education in Britain 1883 -1902 by Kevin Manton A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (PhD) Institute of Education University of London September 1998 (i.omcN) 1 ABSTRACT This thesis examines the policies of the socialist movement in the last two decades of the nineteenth century with regard to the education of children. This study is used to both reassess the nature of these education policies and to criticise the validity of the historiographical models of the movement employed by others. This study is thematic and examines the whole socialist movement of the period, rather than a party or an individual and as such draws out the common policies and positions shared across the movement. The most central of these was a belief that progress in what was called the 'moral' and the 'material' must occur simultaneously. Neither the ethical transformation of individuals, nor, the material reformation of society alone would give real progress. Children, for example, needed to be fed as well as educated if the socialist belief in the power of education and the innate goodness of humanity was to be realised. This belief in the unity of moral and material reform effected all socialist policies studied here, such as those towards the family, teachers, and the content of the curriculum. The socialist programme was also heavily centred on the direct democratic control of the education system, the ideal type of which actually existed in this period in the form of school boards. The socialist programme was thus not a utopian wish list but rather was capable of realisation through the forms of the state education machinery that were present in the period. It is argued in this thesis that the removal of this democratic machinery in 1902 crucially de-stabilised this unity of the ethical and the material and was one of the factors that led to the growth of state-centred and bureaucratic socialist solutions. 2 Table of Contents Page Abstract 1 Contents 2 Acknowledgements 4 Introduction - The character of socialism, the socialism of character? 6 Chapter One - Socialism and the 23 'religion, education, family question' •The system as it affected 26 parents •Parents as they affected 33 children •The family and education 51 in socialist society •Conclusion Chapter Two - Socialism, education and 58 teachers •Socialism and the place of teachers in the 60 existing education system 'Socialism and trade unions 68 'Socialism and teachers trade 73 unionism 'The ideal teacher 89 'Conclusion 91 Chapter Three - Socialist education: 93 ideals and practice 'The moral and material in socialist 94 education - a healthy mind in a healthy body 'Making healthy minds - socialist 102 education •F. J. Gould's work 105 'Hany Lowerison and Ruskin 110 School Home 'Conclusion 123 Chapter Four - Socialism, work and 125 technical education 'Socialism and work 128 'Socialism and the politics of 140 technical education 'The socialist plan for technical 145 education 'Conclusion 153 Chapter Five - Socialism, education and 155 democracy 'Defining a democratic education 156 •The campaign for a democratic 164 education - socialism and the politics of education •The democratic control of 173 education - socialism and the state 'Conclusion 179 Chapter Six - Socialism and the 1902 181 Education Act •The nature of the 1902 Act 184 'Socialist relations with other groups 188 opposed to the Act 'The socialist response to the Act 191 •Conclusion 204 Conclusion 206 Bibliography 213 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS A great number of people and institutions have helped me during the course of my doctoral studies. They have made my researches more enjoyable and it is a pleasure to be able to express my gratitude to them here. Dr. Dennis Dean of the Institute of Education (University of London) first pointed me at the socialism of the late nineteenth century and has encouraged me along the way ever since. The staff at the following institutions in London have all been extremely helpful and their enthusiasm for the material in their care has been infectious: The Bishopsgate Institute, The British Library of Political and Economic Science, The British Library, Croyden Local Studies Library, Greenwich Local Studies Centre, The Institute of Education (University of London) Library, Lewisham Local Studies Library, The London Metropolitan Archive (formerly the Greater London Record Office), London University Library, The Marx Memorial Library, The National Register of Archives, and The National Union of Teachers Library. However, I owe a particularly great debt to the staff of the following institutions who have dealt with my often rather vague requests over the phone with consummate skill and commendable patience: Durham County Records Office, Leicester County Records Office, Liverpool University Library Special Collections Unit, The Lynn Museum in Kings Lynn (and to Ms Gill Walker in particular for introducing me to Mrs Elaine Auger), Manchester Central Library and its Local Studies Unit, The Modem Records Centre at The University of Warwick Library, The National Museum of Labour History, Sheffield City Library, West Yorkshire Archive Service, and The Working Class Movement Library in Salford. Bob Jones of Northern Herald Books not only told me of some works of which I had been unaware but was kind enough to lend me his own copies. Mrs Elaine Auger was hospitable and very helpful in telling me of her father's work. I also owe a debt of gratitude to S.H.G. Twining, Director of Twinings, for information about his forebears. 5 Sections of this thesis have been presented at The History of Education Seminar at The Institute of Historical Research, University of London, in January 1997. And, at The Leeds Centre for Victorian Studies, Sixth Northern Victorian Studies Colloquium, 'Citizenship and Duty - re- moralising the late Victorian city', at Trinity & All Saints, Leeds, in March 1997. I am grateful to the organisers of these events for allowing me to present my findings and for to the members of the audiences (especially Robbie Gray and Keith Laybourne) for their encouragement. Some of my findings have been published in History of Education and I owe yet another debt to this journal's editor, Professor Gary McCulloch, and to its anonymous reviewers for their help and guidance. My gratitude to all these people must extend to my absolving them of any responsibility for what their assistance has enabled me to do. Introduction 6 INTRODUCTION The character of socialism, the socialism of character? Socialism must attack all social evil, all moral wrong, and put an end not only to the exploitation of man, to oppression and iniquity, but also to egoisms, to hardships, to all avoidable suffering, must be inspired by every noble inspiration ... Do not therefore let us repel that which is most irrepressible, that which is best in human nature - sentiment, if thus you choose to call the ideal. ... Realist and idealist, both are welcome in our ranks. If well they learn the message of socialism to all those who suffer, to all those who hope, the idealist will recognise the economic, the realist the human question, and the two will be made one. J. Hunter Watts, 'Socialism, Idealist and Realist', Justice, 19 Nov. 1892. It would probably be quite difficult to underestimate the importance of education as a social and political issue in Britain in the closing decades of the nineteenth century. Frederick James Gould, whose work features in this thesis, observed in 1890 "this age is characterised by an extraordinary enthusiasm for education." The socialism that grew up in this society both imbibed and developed this concern and it was thus not surprising that education occupied the key position in the triptych socialist slogan 'Educate, Agitate, Organise'. In this phrase, which occuned repeatedly in the literature of the period, education could have two meanings. It could imply propaganda amongst adult workers but equally often, if not indeed more commonly, it could refer to the education of children. It is this second use of the term that will be examined in this thesis. The education of children was described by one author in Keir Hardie' s paper, The Labour Leader, as "the crux of the social problem" and by another in Justice, the paper of the Social Democratic Federation (S.D.F.), as "a sacred cause". 2 Socialism in this period was highly rational and had as one of its cornerstones the belief that ignorance was the lifeblood of the 1 Gould, 'The Noble Path', in, Gould, Stepping Stones to Agnosticism, 78. 2 Compo, 'Child Labour', The Labour Leader, 28 July 1900. 'Socialism and the School Board', Justice, 27 Oct. 1894. Introduction 7 conservatism of the British workers and, as a corollary of this, that knowledge would lead to radicalism. J. Hunter Watts phrased this thus: "we have a large faith in human kind and believe that a generation of men and women whose physical and intellectual capacities have been fully developed in youth will soon sweep this foul society into the limbo of dead things, and ... will establish socialism." Education was thus central to socialism in the last two decades of the nineteenth century. The reviewer of William Morris's News From Nowhere in Seed-time, the journal of the Fellowship of the New Life, wrote that, "in truth educational reform is so dependent upon social reform that the two cannot be considered apart."2 This means that education is an extremely useful means to highlight the ideas and politics of the movement as a whole. Therefore, it is argued that this thesis will be able to evaluate critically the conclusions of general histories of socialism, and general histories that comment upon socialism, as well as histories of socialist education policy. In this latter group the path-breaking work of Brian Simon is pre-eminent.