Education of Charles Dickens in brief (his schools)
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Evidence of Dickens's interest in the important subject of education appears in his fiction, journalism and public speeches. While he was sensitive to the various educational developments which occurred in his lifetime, he stopped short of offering practical solutions to problems, and his work only reflects a selected range of issues and institutions. He was a strong believer in universal, non-sectarian education, though not necessarily under a state system. He never joined any of the reforming societies, and seemed more comfortable dealing with particular cases and large principles, rather than legislation and administration. His general outlook on the subject is encapsulated in a speech he gave in Birmingham in 1844; he said, "If you would reward honesty, if you would give encouragement to good, if you would stimulate the idle, eradicate evil, or correct what is bad, education -- comprehensive liberal education -- is the one thing needful, and the one effective end" (Speeches 63).
Dickens's early years coincided with the state's growing sense of responsibility for the instruction of its citizens. Access to education varied tremendously, according to location, gender, and class. Those who could pay for their schooling had access to several types of institutions -- though quality was by no means guaranteed. Dickens's own experience is case in point: his education, which he acknowledged to have been "irregular" (letter of July 1838), and relatively slight, began in Chatham, where he was a pupil at a dame-school -- a deficient private establishment with an unqualified woman at its head, similar to the one run by Mr. Wopsle's great-aunt (GE 7). Then in 1821 he moved on to the Rev. William Giles's School, where his experiences were more positive. He parted with Giles in 1822, when the Dickens family transferred to London, and in 1824, when they moved into the Marshalsea, Dickens went to reside with a Mrs. Roylance, the original of Mrs. Pipchin (DS 8). His formal schooling resumed in 1825, when he was sent to Wellington House Classical and Commercial Academy, run by the sadistic William Jones, who was the original for Mr. Creakle, and whose school was the inspiration for Salem House (DC 5-7). Dickens's experiences prompted two other recollections of Wellington House: in his essay "Our School' he noted that Jones ("the Chief") had a penchant for ruling ciphering-books, and then "smiting the palms of offenders with the same diabolical instrument" (HW 4, 11 October 1851); in a speech of 1857 he remarked that it was Jones's business "to make as much out of us and put as little into us as possible" (Speeches 240). There were, however, positive aspects to Dickens's time at the school: he spoke well of the English teacher, Mr. Taylor, who had features in common with Mr. Mell (DC 5-7, 63), and the Latin master, who "took great pains when he saw intelligence and a desire to learn" (HW 4, 11 October 1851). By the time Dickens left in 1827 he had won the Latin prize.
While Dickens, as the son of a clerk, acquired some formal education, provision for the poor was far less readily assured. Wider access was facilitated by the non-sectarian British and Foreign School Society (founded 1808), and the strongly religious National Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the Established Church (founded 1811); both used the large-scale monitorial system, and between them they administered over 18,000 schools by 1851. Dickens objected to the National Society's insistence on church intervention in education, declaring that the "Catechism is wholly inapplicable to the state of ignorance that now prevails" (letter of 16 September 1843). This comment is characteristic of a larger controversy: for much of the nineteenth century the issue of religious education proved to be the key obstacle in developing a pervasive national school system. Dickens developed this idea imaginatively in "A December Vision," which contains a portrait of priests and teachers arguing over -- but never agreeing on -- what to teach (HW 2, 14 December 1850).
