CHAPTER III - Towards the Science and Art Department

Abstract

The opening of the 19th century saw the country moving toward a greatly expanded provision of elementary education for the poor under the aegis of voluntary effort. The Royal Lancastrian Society was founded in 1808 under the leadership of Dr. Joseph Lancaster, a Quaker. Three years later, the Anglican reply came with the National Society for promoting the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the Established Church, with Dr. Bell as its central figure. In 1839, a Committee of the Privy Council on Education was established for the regulation and administration of government grants to the two societies. The various subject headings included linear drawing. Attainments at which the schools should aim involved the ability to draw and shade simple rectilinear figures, and the acquaintance with linear drawing as applied to some mechanical art such as carpentering, house-building, and land surveying. This early interest in the teaching of drawing within a system that declared its intention of giving such a character to the matter of instruction in the school as to keep it in close relation with the condition of workmen and servants can only be traced to a source far removed from children and their education.