Many persons, eminent by their charitable acts, and who
express
themselves generally desirous of aiding in any plan which may
contribute to the improvement and happiness of the poorer classes,
have, nevertheless, been unwilling to assist in the establishment of
Infant Schools, fearful that the superior method pursued in these
schools should render the children educated therein, much better
informed than the children of the richer classes, who might thus
be supplanted in numerous lucrative and honourable situations in
after-life.
From this circumstance one of the two following conclusions must be
drawn; either that the system of education pursued in the higher
schools is very faulty and imperfect, or that the fears of those
persons are entire groundless.
If the first be true, then it cannot be denied that the consequences
feared by the richer classes must necessarily take place, if, either
from prejudice or apathy, they continue the same faulty and imperfect
method of education, which, by the expression of these fears, they
positively declare is usually pursued in the higher schools; but the
remedy is easy. Let the same good principles of tuition be introduced
into nurseries, and into those schools to which the children of
the rich are sent, and the latter will not fail to maintain their
patrimonial ranks in society. They need then have no fear least the
poorer classes should become too intellectual, but, on the contrary,
they will soon find that their own welfare, security, and happiness
will not only be insured, but will increase in proportion as the
poorer classes gain knowledge; for by the method of instruction
pursued in the Infant Schools, the knowledge there acquired is
necessarily accompanied by the practice of industry, sobriety,
honesty, benevolence, and mutual kindness; in fine, by all the moral
and religious virtues.
That the system of instruction recommended in the foregoing pages is
equally applicable to the children of the rich as to those of the
poor, there can be no doubt; and it might be adopted either in schools
established on its principles or in the nursery. It is, indeed,
obvious that it might be carried to a much greater extent, where the
means of so doing would not be wanting. Many things might be taught,
which it is neither advisable nor practicable to teach in the schools
established for the instruction of poor children.
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