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From Monks to Modern Schools




Text 2. School

No Time to Go to School

Nine-year-old Susie refuses to go to school. She says she hasn’t got time. This is how she proved it:

“There are 365 days in a year. I sleep eight hours a day so we have to subtract 122 days for sleeping. I eat three times a day and it takes about an hour each time, so we have to subtract 45 days for that. From the remaining 198 days, take away 90 for summer holidays and 21 for Christmas and Easter holidays. That leaves only 87 days for going to school but we haven’t yet talked about Saturdays and Sundays.”

 

4.Act out the dialogue between Alice, the Gryphon and the Mock Turtle (beginning with “When we were little…”). Be ready to justify your choice of intonation patterns and comment on the behaviour of the characters.

 

5.Prepare to describe the course you took at school, its advantages and disadvantages.

I 1.Study the words.

secular – светский, мирской

staple – основной

provision –положение, условие, мера предосторожности

convent – монастырь

cram – впихивать, переполнять

confined – ограниченный

herald – предвещать

scrutiny – внимательное изучение

to pull smb up to scratch – подготовить к сдаче экзаменов

two-tier – состоящий из двух слоев, ярусов, классов

II 1.Read the following text.

In the Middle Ages only a privileged few were taught —by the Church. Progress through the ages has been slow.

The principle that the state should provide education for all boys and girls, regardless of family circumstances and ability to pay, is relatively new in Britain.

It resulted from a 19th-century belief that the state had a responsibility to give every child the chance to learn the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic. Some people thought limited schooling might help control a potentially unruly population; others thought that it was essential to educate youngsters to cope with increasingly complex technology. In 1870, faced with growing pressure, Parliament passed an Elementary Education Act. This was the first step towards a national system of state schools.

Before this, education had not been seen as a general right for all children. Schooling beyond the basics had been the privilege of the wealthier classes.

In the early Middle Ages, the Church played the leading role in formal education. It was mainly for boys who were going to become monks and priests. During the 12th century, many cathedrals set up schools which concentrated on teaching boys Latin grammar — the language of the Church.

Gradually “grammar schools” became more secular — that is, they were not staffed exclusively by clergymen. Many were founded by guilds, the associations of craftsmen and merchants.

The Renaissance encouraged the emergence of a new pattern of teaching in the early 16th century. This concentrated on the classics, the languages and literature of the ancient Greeks and Romans. This curriculum was to remain the staple diet in grammar schools for more than three centuries. It would also be the focus of learning in “public schools”. These were exclusive institutions, some of them formerly grammar schools, mainly for the sons of the upper and professional classes.

Until the 20th century, grammar schools and public schools were virtually male preserves. In the Middle Ages, there was practically no provision for the education of girls outside the home, except in convents.

Educational provision for the poor was patchy for centuries. The Reformation of the 16th century gave new encouragement to the poor to learn to read, and to read the Bible for themselves. Some learnt at home; some went to women — “dames” — who ran small schools in their homes. This was more common than attendance at a place identifiable as a school.

Charity schools, which gave free teaching and clothing to children of the poor, emerged in the 18th century. Scattered throughout the country, usually in urban areas, these schools were supported by private contributions, often run by religious organizations. These efforts expanded greatly at the beginning of the 19th century.

Many adopted the so-called “monitorial” teaching method, in which the older students (monitors) learned their lessons from the adult teacher and passed them on to the younger children. This developed into a more formal system in which boys and girls were apprenticed for five-year periods as “pupil-teachers” to a school.

The 1870 Act aimed to plug the gaps in this patchy system for children of the poor and labouring classes. It provided for “elementary schools” to be set up in areas which were not adequately covered by voluntary institutions. The term “elementary” referred to the basic nature of the teaching.

But many children did not go to school, often because their families needed them to earn money. In 1880 elementary education was made compulsory across England and Wales. By 1900, in theory at least, free education existed for all children — including girls — to the age of 11. The curriculum, however, was still largely confined to the three Rs.

In 1902, local councils were given control of state schools and encouraged to expand secondary education. They could set up their own schools and they could give cash to existing grammar schools, which continued to be selective in the pupils they accepted.

Shortly before the end of the first world war in 1918, state education was expanded and the school-leaving age raised to 14. From now on education authorities had to provide education up to this age to pupils who could not afford the fees at grammar schools or failed to pass their entry examinations.

State education was expanded again during the second world war. The 1944 Education Act raised the leaving age to 15 and encouraged the development of a system of grammar and “secondary modern” schools, with a small number of technical schools. At the age of 11, children sat an examination called the “11-plus”. The successful few went to grammar schools or occasionally to a technical school. The rest went to the secondary modern.

For the next 30 years a debate raged over selection. Many agreed that to make a decision at 11 which would drastically affect a child’s future was unfair and flawed.

The 11-plus exam largely disappeared over the 1960s and 1970s as more education authorities replaced grammar and secondary modern schools with comprehensive schools. These state schools did not select their pupils but accepted children of all academic capabilities. But selection at 11 has not entirely disappeared and some local authorities have this system.

In the past five years, state education has seen further reform. Schools in England and Wales must now teach a “national curriculum”. Scotland has a recommended curriculum for 5- to 14-year-olds. Northern Ireland now has a curriculum which differs only slightly from that in England and Wales.

Schools can now become “grant-maintained” — they can “opt out” of local-authority control. The Government says that schools will provide a better service if they have more control over their own affairs. Critics suspect that this heralds a return to a selective system and the 11-plus.

 

A fact-filled diet In Hard Times, Charles Dickens depicts a “ragged school” for poor children, in a grimy northern industrial town. The school follows the theories of its founder – the town’s leading citizen, Thomas Gradgrind – concentrating on cramming facts into its pupils. Gradgrind, a supporter of the new “Utilitarian” philosophy, believes education should consist exclusively of imparting facts and should not seek to develop children’s imagination or ability to think for themselves. Dicken’s disapproval is shown in the effects this has on the younger characters.

 

2.Trace the history of the development of British school system.

 

3.Read the text. Replace the italicized link-words by their synonyms, or change the sentences, making sure the meaning remains the same.

 




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