Victorian Children

Victorian Work Song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zF_U4VGl1Jk

Rich Vs Poor In Victorian times, many families had 10 or more children. Sadly, many children died as babies, or from diseases such as smallpox and diphtheria. Child-death struck rich and poor families. In a Victorian town, it was easy to tell who was rich and who was poor. Children from richer homes were well fed, wore warm clothes and had shoes on their feet. They did not work, but went to school or had lessons at home. Poor children looked thin and hungry, wore ragged clothes, and some had no shoes. Poor children had to work. They were lucky if they went to school.

Rich Vs Poor Victorians made their own entertainment at home. They had no radio or TV. They enjoyed singing, and a rich family would sing around the piano, while poorer families enjoyed tunes on a pipe or a fiddle. Families played card games and board games, and acted out charades. At birthday parties, a special treat was a magic lantern show. An oil or gas lamp sent a beam of light through a glass lens and onto a screen, to show enlarged images, perhaps of wild animals or a story told in pictures. A magic lantern slide. The picture was painted on glass. Shown on a screen, 'slipping slides' seemed to move. So the dog would jump through the hoop!

Not all children went to school during the Victorian Era….. Why?

This is what school was like for those children that attended in the Victorian Era……..

Victorian Schools http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/victorian_britain/children_at_school/ Day in a Victorian classroom http://logicmgmt.com/1876/schoolday.htm

Important Dates 1870 Education Act Set up a system of 'school boards' to build and manage schools in areas where they were needed. The boards were locally elected. 1891 School became free

So what was school like for Victorian children?

There could be as many as 70 or 80 pupils in one class. The teachers were very strict. Children were often taught by reading and copying things down, or chanting things till they were perfect. In many Victorian schools pupil-teachers helped with the teaching. The pupil-teachers were boys and girls of 13 and over. After five years of apprenticeship they could themselves become teachers.

Equipment Slates - Children wrote on slates with chalk. They wiped the slate clean, by spitting on it and rubbing with their coat sleeve or their finger! Slates could be used over and over. What do we use that is similar?

Writing – Older children learnt to write on paper Writing – Older children learnt to write on paper. An 'ink monitor' distributed ink to the children, who used pens made out of thin wooden sticks with steel needles.  The pen had to be dipped every few words or it would run dry.

Tables and Chairs - The children sat on hard wooden benches or chairs Tables and Chairs - The children sat on hard wooden benches or chairs. Can you see the holes for the ink pots?

Abacus - For maths lessons, children used frames with coloured wooden beads, much like an abacus.  Children learned how to multiply and divide using this apparatus.

Typical lessons at school included the three Rs - Reading, WRiting and Dictation, and ARithmetic.  In addition to the three Rs which were taught most of the day, once a week the children learned geography, history and singing. Boys learned technology: woodwork, maths and technical drawing, to help with work in factories, workshops or the army when they grew up. Girls had lessons in cooking and sewing, to prepare them for housework and motherhood.

PUNISHMENTS! Discipline in schools was often strict. Children were beaten for even minor wrongdoings, with a cane, on the hand or bottom. A teacher could also punish a child by making them stand in the corner wearing a 'dunce's cap'. Another, very boring, punishment was writing 'lines'. This meant writing out the same sentence (such as 'Schooldays are the happiest days of my life' 100 times or more.

Uniforms Victorian schools were often very strict about appearances. 'Cleanliness is next to Godliness' was a frequent saying. Children were inspected regularly. They were expected to have clean clothes, hair and nails. Boys had to have short hair while girls were expected to tie their hair back neatly.

Girls White Blouse Pinafores (to protect their dresses from getting dirty) Blue dress

Boys Cap (not to be worn inside) Tie White shirt Blazer Shorts Long socks

Teachers

Playtime Although most of the Victorian school child's life was rather dull, the bright light was playtime. Children would play with a wide variety of toys: hoops, tops, skipping ropes and marbles. There would be games of tag, British bulldog, hopscotch and football.