Victorian London - Education - Education for the poor - School Board Visitors

see also Cassell's Household Guide - click here

"SOLD!"

    School-Board Inquisitor. "GOOD MORNING, COACHMAN. YOUR NAME IS PROSSER, I BELIEVE? HAVE YOU ANY CHILDREN - BOYS OR GIRLS?"
    Old Groom (assuming intense meekness). "YES, SIR; AT YOUR SERVICE, SIR. YES, SIR, TWO GIRLS, SIR -"
    School-Board Inquisitor. "DO THEY GO TO SCHOOL?"
   Old Groom. "SCHOOL, SIR? NOT THEY, SIR!"
    School-Board Inquisitor (fiercely). "AND PRAY WHY NOT?"
   Old Groom (shaking his head). "AH, SIR, THEY'VE GOT SUCH WILLS O'THEIR OWN, SIR!"
    School-Board Inquisitor. "AHA!" - (Producing Note-Book with ardour.)- "THEIR NAMES AND AGES!"
    Old Groom (still more meekly). "JANE AND MARY, SIR. ONE'S NINETEEN, SIR, AND THE OTHER'S JUST TURNED O' TWO-AN'-TWENTY, SIR!"           [Exit Inquisitor hastily.

Punch, September 6, 1879

see also James Greenwood in Toilers in London - click here

see also George Sims in How the Poor Live - click here

The School Board Visitors perform amongst them a house-to-house visitation; every house in every street is in their books, and details are given of every family with children of school age. They begin their scheduling two or three years before the children attain school age, and a record remains in their books of children who have left school. The occupation of the head of the family is noted down. Most of the visitors have been working in the same district for several years, and thus have an extensive knowledge of the people. It is their business to re-schedule for the Board once a year, but intermediate revisions are made in addition, and it is their duty to make themselves acquainted, so far as possible, with new-comers into their districts. They are in daily contact with the people, and have a very considerable knowledge of the parents of the school children, especially of the poorest amongst them, and of the conditions under which they live.

Charles Booth Life and Labour of the People in London, 1903