EducationEducation in Britain was largely the creation of the church. The early monks had a great love of learning and later every cathedral appointed a schoolmaster.
After the Reformation in the sixteenth century many new schools were founded.
A law was passed in Scotland ordering every parish to provide a school and schoolmaster. In England, Christians who did not belong to the Church of England established their own academies. In Wales, and Anglican ministers, Griffith Jones, developed ‘circulating’ schools which moved from one area to another every three months.
Twenty years before state education began in 1870, a government commission found that two and a half million children in England attended day schools. Almost all of these were run by churches, chapels and Christian charities. They included Ragged Schools for the very poorest of children. There were also Gaelic schools for children in the Highlands of Scotland.
Robert Raikes of Gloucester started a Sunday School in 1780, and by 1903 six million children across the country regularly attended Sunday School. For many this was the only education they received, and Sunday School outings and anniversaries were the only ‘treats’ many children had.
The Christian church continues to have an impact on education today. For example, almost one third of all schools in England are church schools. Christian teachers, chaplains, youth leaders and school workers play an active part in the lives of many children throughout the United Kingdom. Click Here to find out more
Copyright Day One Publications, used with permission |
