Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 63, No. 391, May, 1848Various
General
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 63, No. 391, May, 1848
Various
England -- Periodicals; Scotland -- Periodicals
And Mr Vaughan Johnson, in examining the church school of Holyhead, in
the Isle of Anglesey, reports as follows:--
"_Holyhead Church School._--A school for boys and girls,
taught by a master and mistress, in separate rooms of a
large building set apart for that purpose. Number of boys,
96; of girls, 47; 10 monitors are employed. Subjects taught,
reading, writing, and arithmetic, the Holy Scriptures and
Church catechism. Fees, 1d. per week.
"This school was examined November 9. Total number present,
117. Of these, 20 could write well on paper; 40 were able to
read with ease; and 22 could repeat the Church catechism, 15
of them with accuracy. In knowledge of Holy Scripture and in
arithmetic, the boys were very deficient. Scholars in the
first class said that there were 18 gospels, that
Bartholomew wrote one and Simon another; that Moses was the
son of David. These answers were not corrected by the rest.
By a lower class it was said, that Jerusalem is in heaven,
and that St Paul wrote the gospel according to St Matthew;
another believed it was written by Jesus Christ. The oldest
boy in a large class said, that Joseph was the son of
Abraham. A child about 10 years old said, that Jesus Christ
was the Saviour of men; but, upon being asked 'From what did
he save mankind?' replied, 'from God.'
"Having heard from the patrons that the scholars were
particularly expert in arithmetic, I requested the master to
exhibit his best scholars. Thirteen boys accordingly
multiplied a given sum of £ _s. d._ by (25 + ½.) The
process was neatly and accurately performed by every boy. I
then examined the same class in arithmetic, and set each boy
a distinct sum in multiplication of money. Instead of (25 +
½) I gave 5 as the number by which the several sums were
to be multiplied. I allowed each boy for this simple process
twice as much time as he had required for the preceding,
which was far more complicated; but only two of the 13
could bring me a correct answer. This is well worthy of
remark. The original sum appears to be one which they are in
the habit of performing before strangers; many had copied
the whole process from those next them, without
understanding a single step.
"The girls were further advanced in arithmetic and in Holy
Scripture. But the 2d class asserted that St Matthew was one
of the prophets; that Jesus Christ is in the grave to this
day; and two stated that Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary
were the same person. Although these questions were put in
English and in Welsh, few of the children could understand
what they heard or read in the English language. The
questions were therefore interpreted."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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