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Early life
Alice Mary Victoria Augusta Pauline was born in Windsor Castle on 25 February 1883. Her father was Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, the youngest son of the reigning British monarch, Queen Victoria. Historian Karina Urbach described Leopold as "the most intellectual of Queen Victoria’s children". He suffered from haemophilia. Charles Edward's mother, Helen, was the daughter of the ruling prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont, George Victor, and sister of Queen Emma of the Netherlands. Alice's biographer, Theo Aronson, describes Helen as a "capable, conscientious" woman. Princess Alice was the firstborn child. She was named after the titular character of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, a children's book written by her father's friend Lewis Carroll. She was christened on the 26 March 1883. Leopold died in March 1884 after slipping and hitting his head. Alice's younger brother, Charles Edward, was born in July of that year.

Princess Alice was brought up in Claremont house by Helen. Theo Aronson described the Albany household as "cosy, comfortable, well-ordered". After her husband's death, the UK parliament gave Helen an annual grant from the civil list of 6,000 pounds sterling. This was a reduction from the £20,000 the household had received during her marriage but did allow her to employ several domestic servants including a number responsible for the children. They frequently also visited the Queen's various estates. Princess Helen also took her children on visits to her relatives in Germany and the Netherlands. Alice's later recollections of her childhood were warm. She described her mother, the household servants and various members of her extended family in a positive light. Caring for the children was mainly the responsibility of their nannies but they spent time with their mother for set periods each day. Helen was an affectionate mother but also a strict one. She insisted her children were brought up with stern discipline and encouraged to develop a sense of duty. Aronson indicates that Alice was not negatively affected by this.

Background

American depiction of a family working together to run a pre-industrial home weaving business

The concept of a school for very young children is a relatively modern phenomenon. According to David Salmon and Winifred Hindshaw, this is because the idea that formal education can be tailored to the specific needs of young children is relatively new, and because it has traditionally been seen as best that the fairly limited group of children who have tended to have access to schooling historically start their education at home. There are some examples of infant school-like institutions in continental Western Europe dating from the later 18th century.[5] Before the 19th century, children learnt the skills needed for work and home life from their families at an early age. It was reasonably common for children below the age of eight to attend the village or grammar schools but, as these were single-room institutions which catered to a wide range of ages, no particular accommodation would have been made for the younger children.

A dame's school by Thomas George Webster (1845)

The agricultural and industrial revolutions had a disruptive effect on the lives of many children. New, more punitive, forms of child labour developed in factories. While factory labourers were typically (but not exclusively) older than eight, children as young as three years did contractual work at home or were employed as chimney sweeps. Many young children with working mothers were left alone or in the care of older children. Dame schools provided a cheap childminding service, generally with low standards of care and education. Interest developed in expanded access to education — driven by a desire to protect children from suffering, while instructing them in morality, religion and obedience. The British and Foreign School Society (founded 1808) and the National Society for Promoting Religious Education (founded 1811) were established to found new schools, but these were intended for children over the age of seven and six respectively. Joseph Lancaster (1778–1838), an influential educational theorist of the time, believed that "initiatory" schools should be created to provide safety and education focused on personal character to children younger than seven years old, but neither society did this.

Early infant schools The first infant school in Great Britain was established for the children of mill workers in New Lanark, Renfrewshire in Scotland, in 1816, by manager Robert Owen. The school catered for children aged between one and six years. The teachers were told never to beat or otherwise punish the children. They were to speak in a friendly manner and encourage the children to be kind to others. Lessons were generally conducted through conversations between adult and child about their surroundings, as well as physical activities. Owen had originally not wanted reading to be taught in the infant school, but it was introduced with the aim that it would not be the focus of instruction at this age. Owen described the children in the school as "by far the happiest human beings I have ever seen".[6]

In 1818, the first infant school in England was sponsored by Henry Brougham, and other political radicals, in Brewer's Green, Westminister, London. Two further infant schools were established in London over the next six years. The London Infant School Society was active from 1824 to 1835. It promoted the founding of new infant schools but had less success in training teachers. This was followed by other regional societies, such as in Leicester and Glasgow. Samuel Wilderspin was a major advocate of infant schools across England, the philosophy he promulgated had more emphasis on formal instruction than Owen's though he tried to adapt the instruction to the abilities of young children. In Glasgow, David Stow was a major promotor of infant schools who remained truer to Owen's aims even with an increased focus on class teaching.

Overall in Britain, the early infant school movement was strongest in London and Glasgow. T.B Stephens is sceptical of it suggesting that infant schools gradually lost most of their distinctiveness and failed to become the preferred childcare option for working-class parents.[7] Nanette Whitbread comments that teachers, who were largely untrained and under pressure from the lack of time children had to attend school, often focused on introducing children to discipline and formal instruction. The voluntary societies that increasingly established control over infant schools shared this view of their function — for instance, the secretary of the British and Foreign School Society, Henry Dunn complained "infant schools tuition is so much amusement that the children are not willing at first to work, or to make a serious business of their studies" after moving up to a voluntary school. Whitbread suggests that this did not reflect the priorities of parents, who were often quite happy to send their children to infant schools that offered some entertainment, in preference to dame schools. In contrast, A.F.B Roberts argues that early infant schools had limited appeal because working-class parents did not see the value of schools where children appeared to spend their time playing — and resented what they saw as a middle-class attempt to influence their children.[8] Whitbread considers that regardless of their limitations the early infant schools offered safety and a degree of compassion to young children living in a difficult environment with few other options.

After the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, interest developed in the educational theories of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi. He believed that lessons should be conducted in a way that, though still guided by a teacher, gave the child more autonomy to think for themselves. For instance, the pupil might be allowed to examine an object before being told what it was. He was not primarily interested in teaching young children, but in Britain, it was infant schools where he had the most influence. In 1836, the Home and Colonial Infants School Society was established which trained infant teachers and promoted Pestalozzi's technique. By the 1840s, school inspectors preferred infant schools which used teachers trained by the society. Meanwhile, the monitorial system was being used in some infant schools with children up to the age of 9 years being employed as assistant teachers. In 1840, guidance issued for newly-introduced school inspectors in England and Wales mentioned specific questions for them to ask in infant schools. For instance, "What amusements have the children?" and "‘Are the children trained in walking, marching, and physical exercises, methodically?".[10]

During this period there was a degree of ambiguity about what infant education was expected to achieve. School inspectors believed that an infant stage of education was beneficial even if it "did nothing but contribute to their [the children's] health and cheerfulness" but also said children should be taught "To read an easy little narrative lesson, have the first notions of numbers, and be able to write on a slate". The Glasgow Herald reported on a local infant school in 1835 that "They seldom sit on their seats more than fifteen minutes at a time without exercise. All is joyous activity—only pictures and objects are in use, and one-third of their time is spent in amusements in the playground." Research by a Royal Commission in 1861 suggested that older schoolchildren who had attended an infant school tended to be significantly ahead of those who had not. Nanette Whitbread commented on infant schools in this period that:

Infant schools in England and Scotland by mid-century had certain characteristic features. The schoolroom was a large hall complete with gallery for simultaneous instruction, and the walls were lined with black boarding for the children to draw and write on. A playground, equipped with such apparatus as swings and see-saws, was required in any new infant school applying for grant. The curriculum included drawing, music, physical exercises, sewing, knitting, gardening, at least the preliminary steps towards reading and sometimes writing, and Pestalozzian ‘object lessons’ on natural objects and domestic utensils.

By the middle of the 19th century, the number of infant schools was growing rapidly. Part of the reason for this was that the British population was growing, due to another wave of industrialisation related to steam-power and Irish immigration due to the Great Famine. In 1851 around 25% of people in Britain were children under the age of 10 years. With this young, expanding population becoming even more urbanised, conditions worsened in the industrial slums and dame schools, increasing the appeal of infant schools that were often outstripped by demand. Skilled workers' wages also began to gradually increase after about 1842 making it easier for them to pay the quite low fees charged by infant schools.

Integration into state system and rote learning The number of children under seven in schools for older children also rose. The first effective restrictions on the labour of children under the age of about 9 or 10 years were being introduced in some industries and technological advancement was reducing the usefulness of child labour. This meant that the number of seven- to ten-year-old children available to attend school increased. But parents often relied on older children to provide childcare for younger children so sent their three- to six-year-old children to school with their older siblings. In 1861 19.8% of three- to six-year-olds were in this situation. School inspectors felt that large numbers of children younger than seven in schools for older children were disruptive to teaching. However, they did not want to entirely exclude these younger children both to avoid older children being kept home to provide childcare and to make use of all of the relatively short periods when children were available to attend school. In 1840 the Council on Education in England and Wales "directed that a collateral series of plans of school-houses should be drawn, in which an infant school and playground are added to the schoolroom for children above six years of age, in the hope that these plans may promote the adoption of arrangements … for the combination of an infant school with the [older] boys’ and girls’ school".

In 1862 the payment by results system of funding schools was introduced. While children under six were exempt from individual examinations and the exemption was expanded to children under seven a decade later, the system encouraged more emphasis on teaching the three r's at the infant stage. The focus of teaching in infant schools moved towards rote learning. The 1870 Education Act made 5 years the minimum age at which school boards could make education compulsory. This was somewhat controversial at the time, with some people feeling it was too young. However, it was believed young children could be taught moral lessons at an early age, were safer in school and children who started school sooner could be released to start work sooner. The 1880 Education Act made 5 years the start of compulsory schooling across England and Wales.[11] Britain was unusual in the Western World in having that early a start to compulsory schooling. In addition, many children as young as 2 or 3 years were also enrolled at school both before and after these acts. The proportion of children between 3 and 5 years at state-funded schools increased throughout the remainder of the 19th century from 24.2% in 1870 to 43.1% in 1900. The number of children under 3 years in school fell. The skilled working classes, whose wages were broadly going up throughout this period, made use of infant schools as childcare for their preschool children. When fees were abolished at state schools in 1891, many more of the less financially secure working classes sent their children to school before the age of five. This largely brought about the end of dame schools.

An investigation into infant schools, conducted in 1870, found that they were typically broken into two classes. In the "babies class", for the under 5's, children were taught "to speak clearly, to understand pictures, to recite the alphabet and to march to music". The "infants class" for the 5- to 7-year-olds taught "a curriculum based on the three Rs, simple manual tasks and sewing." Babies' classes were somewhat inadequate for the youngest children; often overcrowded, using pens to keep children in their seats and led by adolescent or unqualified teachers. This was a period when the ideas of Frederick Froebel, who believed in a variety of more experimental education methods, were being imported into Britain through "kindergartens" aimed at the middle classes.[12] A mixture of practical considerations and class prejudice meant that his ideas were broadly considered unsuitable for infant schools. The government wanted to quickly establish basic literacy and numeracy in children who would leave school at an early age. Theories about what it meant to give children a broader education were somewhat irrelevant to this goal. Whitbread comments that officials "were not concerned with the development of rational human beings but with ensuring a literate proletariat". However attempts were made to introduce some of Froebel's methods into infant schools, often turning them into whole-class activities that lost much of their original value.