National education, Ireland : letter from the Right Hon. Chichester S. Fortescue ... to the Commissioners of National Education in Ireland, on the organisation and government of training and model schools : together with the answer of the Commissioners, and other statements and documents referring thereto.

  • Carlingford, Chichester Samuel Parkinson-Fortescue, Baron, 1823-1898.
Date:
1867
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: National education, Ireland : letter from the Right Hon. Chichester S. Fortescue ... to the Commissioners of National Education in Ireland, on the organisation and government of training and model schools : together with the answer of the Commissioners, and other statements and documents referring thereto. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    for fitteen resident pupils, and a school-liouse capable of accom- modating at least 150 j)upils, the domestic establishment to be erected from funds derived from private sources, and the School- house from private funds, or in whole or in part from a parlia- mentary grant. The Committee view this ])roposed revolution in the Model School System with most serious apprehension. If these pro- posals be carried out, they will be the destruction of United Education in Ireland. Those making them may profess to main- tain the principles of United Education, but they are in reality doing all in their power to subvert them. The changes sketched in this letter are specially adapted, not to say designed, to convert the schools of the religious orders of the Church of Koine into Training and Model Schools. In Convents the domestic establish- ment stands ready for the purpose described, and also the school- house capable of accommodating 150 pupils. And can these Convent Schools ever become Model Schools in the proper sense of the term ? “ The chief objects of Model Schools,” according to the statement of the Commissioners in their rules and reaula- tions, “are to promote United Education, to exhibit the most improved methods of literary and scientific instruction to the surrounding schools, and to train young persons for the office of teacher.” These objects Model Schools under local management, and especially Convent Schools, cannot accomplish. Their teachers are exclusively of one denomination. In their very dress they represent sectarianism in its most distinctive forms. The schools are attended by Roman Catholic children alone. Roman Catholic teachers alone could be trained in them, whilst the teachers of these schools themselves are neither trained nor classed, and are, therefore, not competent to undertake the train- ing of others. On the other hand, in the administration of a Mixed or Non- sectarian plan of Education, it is essential that teachers should have a considerable course of training in an institution where this system is to be found in its highest perfection. In the existing Model Schools, both teachers and pupils are of various religious denominations. The idea of United Education is in them a pleas- ing reality'. Young teachers of different denominations are for a considerable time trained together. Thus they imbibe principles of toleration, mutual forbearance, and respect. It is necessary in such a system that the Training Schools should be under the Commissioners’ supervision and control. In no other way can that unity and uniformity in training be maintained which are essential to success. The Model Schools are under the charge of trained and classed teachers of known ability and tried excellence, and they are thus in every respect preferable to schools under local management, as training institutions for young candidate teachers. In any case, these “local INIodel Schools” would spring up. not