Towards the end of the 19th Century, increases in the supply of teachers in the Reading area failed to keep up with the rapidly expanding school population. According to Stuart Hylton (2007), a single teacher at the Tilehurst Board School in 1880 had to manage 122 children. Pupil teachers helped to fill the gap, although Hylton reports that in one case a pupil teacher and a monitor were expected to teach a class of 67.
Reading’s University Extension College had been recruiting and training pupil teachers since 1892. The courses were hard work for both the students and their tutors. The pupils spent all week in their schools, only to spend two hours every evening at the College plus three hours on a Saturday morning. Much of their time remaining was filled with homework!
In my previous post about Eveline Dowsett, a former student who took her own life, I mentioned that she had been a tutor to pupil teachers during the academic year 1897-98. During this period the courses took four years, were approved by the Reading School Board and Reading Church Schools Council, and were inspected by H. M. Inspector of Schools. A fee of £2 per academic year was paid by School Managers for each pupil.
The College Calendar for that year stressed that:
‘It is earnestly hoped that the Managers and Head Teachers will impress upon their Pupil Teachers the importance of punctuality and regularity in attendance at the College, and of the careful preparation of home work.’ (Calendar, 1897-98, p.42).
The list of text books below reveal the academic demands of the syllabus. There was Logical Method, Parsing and Analysis, Arithmetic Theory. Strangely, it seems some classes were split so that boys did Mathematics while girls did Arithmetic. A similar separation can be found in the course for Uncertified Assistant Teachers: male students studied Algebra, Geometry and Arithmetic while women learnt Arithmetic only (Calendar, 1893-94).
If Eveline Dowsett’s mental state was delicate, dealing with classes of exuberant pupil teachers would not have helped. In 1893 W. M. Childs joined the College. He was to become Eveline’s mentor four years later and, eventually, the University of Reading’s first Vice-Chancellor. Despite his illustrious future, the pupil teachers almost left him in despair:
‘As for the pupil teachers, they almost defeated me … Most of these young people were girls whose passion for whispering shattered me much more than the genial disorder of the handful of boys. I had been told that until lately all these pupil teachers had been taught on traditional lines by their own head teachers in their own schools, and that herding them into central classes was not popular… at first it was uphill work, and sometimes I returned to London more than half inclined to throw up my job.’ (Childs, 1933, pp. 3-4).
Sources
Childs, W. M. (1933). Making a university: an account of the university movement at Reading. London: J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd.
Hylton, S. (2007). A history of Reading. Chichester: Phillimore.
The University Extension College, Reading. Calendar. Sixth Session, 1897-98.
University Extension College, Reading. Calendar, Session 1893-94.