Littlehampton School Logbook 1871-1911, ed.

摘要

This is published as Volume 95 of Sussex Record Society's series of records. As noted, the school log book was a record that all headteachers of elementary schools at the time were required to keep, but this particular log book, kept by Thomas Slatford who was headmaster of Littlehampton Boys' School from 1871-1911, was selected for its vivid content and meticulous recording of details of school life. Wider themes in the history of education - changes in funding and administration, relations of church and state, tensions between parents' desires for their children to earn money and the school's (and authorities' demands) for school attendance are illustrated through localised, one off and recurring incidents in the life of one school. Local community too: growth of tourism, social mobility. Tensions between regulation, limits of the elementary school curriculum, and opportunities of technology and social climbing as a result of individual effort. The log book for 1871-1911 is transcribed in full, with two indexes of names (for local historians tracing individuals, then of subjects). Overall, it provides a subtle challenge to over-theorised, negative narratives of Victorian schooling.