Ragged Schools, Child-Centred Education and the Struggle for Egalitarian Politics

Abstract

In the previous chapters we have explored the changes taking place in relation to the management of poverty and its ‘diseases’ as industrialisation and liberal capitalism were transforming the economic, social and political landscape across Europe and North America. In England and Wales in particular, the rapid pace of urbanisation, the consequent displacement in population from rural areas to cities, the related increase in slums, the changes in the labour force and the opportunities afforded by the growth of colonial economies have together introduced disruptive pressures that triggered the development of new forms of administration and regulation that, following Foucault, we have described in terms of governmentality and biopolitics. Our genealogical approach has revealed the key moments in the institution of practices framed by the new technologies of power targeting juvenile destitution, and crime as key problems requiring more effective state intervention. Our account has highlighted the preference for punishment and the gross exploitation of the young victims of poverty. Education, though suggested as part of the solution by some reformers, had been greatly neglected in practice. Yet, as pressure for a more skilled workforce mounted in the course of the 19th century, education and schooling became more of a focus for both reformers and governmental policy.

In many cases juvenile delinquency is a mere accident arising from particular circumstances. When these are altered and the child is so placed that his nature can freely develop, nothing is wanting but wholesome and natural restraint and ordinary instruction. (Carpenter, J.E., 1879: 164)