Education - Boys
Erudio puer futurus a vir (Educate the boy to be a man)
‘The earliest I recollect of R.L.S. is his mother running him along Heriot Row in the mornings to warm him up on his way to Henderson's School in India Street (book plate from the school), where we both went,’ recounted James Milne (Number 44), a childhood friend of Robert Louis Stevenson. RLS’s education, partly due to bouts of ill health, unusually encompassed the range of ways boys were educated. Between two spells at this small private preparatory school in the later 1850s when he and Milne were eight years old, due to ill health Stevenson was taught at home by private tutors and then went to the Edinburgh Academy for about fifteen months. He then was moved to an English boarding school for a year or so before returning to Edinburgh and attending another private school in Frederick Street, where he remained until he went to university. In 1800 the pre-eminent boys school in Edinburgh was the High School, then sited in Infirmary Street. It was one of the three Edinburgh schools of the time that existed to teach Latin grammar and prepare boys from the ages of eight and fourteen for entry to university. Unlike the other schools that were under the control of the church, the High School was under the control of Edinburgh Town Council. It attracted many of the sons of the Scottish nobility and landed gentry and many of its pupils became pre-eminent in the city. Albany Street residents who attended the High School included Alexander Brunton (Number 35) and Alexander Macknight (Number 20), a school prize-winner in 1832. The teaching was done by rote, as a visitor to the High School in 1819 observed: ‘(There are) twenty-three classes, each containing nine boys. Every class has its monitor who hears the rest recite. In each room is a custodian, who watches the behaviour of the scholars and notes every instant of remissness. The classes all recite the same lessons at the same time.’ There also was a strong system of streaming that Walter Scott, who attended the High School, criticised: ‘the boys take precedence in their places, according to their merit, and it requires a long while before even a clever boy, if he falls behind the class, or is put in one for which he is not quite ready, can force his way to a situation which his abilities entitle him to hold.’
There also were a number of private schools and individuals offering instruction. In 1824 William Smith, who lived at Number 3, opened a Classical Academy in George Street that taught both Greek and Latin.
One day in the early 1820s, on top of the Pentland Hills on a shared walk, Lord Cockburn, the distinguished advocate, and later a judge, and Leonard Horner, a Scottish merchant, discussed their concern at what they saw to be a decline of classical education in Scotland. They believed the Town Council’s control of the High School had negative aspects so the two resolved to establish a new school, and swiftly found that many others also thought the High School to be inadequate, including the High School’s star ex-pupil, Walter Scott. Within a short time £16,000 had been subscribed and, in spite of fierce opposition from the Town Council, the Edinburgh Academy opened in October 1824 in Henderson Row in Stockbridge. The Academy’s commitment to a classical education was even reflected in their Janitor, John Howell, who wrote an Essay on the War Galleys of the Ancients and A Life of Alexander Selkirk, and built ingenious models of an ancient galley, a Roman Camp, Caesar's bridge over the Rhine, and of some machines described in the classics. In the 1830s two Albany Street residents, John Kinnear (Number 49) and Charles Nairne (Number 22) were directors of the school and the new school’s proximity to the New Town ensured that many sons of Albany Street parents attended there.
In 1829 The High School also moved into the New Town, building a new school on Calton Hill. (engraving) The schools were day schools but many of the pupils came from outwith Edinburgh, a number from overseas where their fathers were serving in the forces or with the East India Company, and a number boarded in the various Albany Street lodging houses during their term time. One issue arose was over whether Latin should be spoken with an English or Scots pronunciation. For a time at the Academy boys in the first three classes were taught to pronounce in the Scots manner, and the boys in the higher classes in the English. While there may have been acceptance of Scots dialect and pronunciation, there appears to have been no sympathy for Gaelic speakers. The number of people speaking Gaelic was declining dramatically, significantly as a result of the Highland clearances and other emigrations, but educators were unconcerned to arrest its decline. The Reverend Donald Masson (Number 57), Minister of the Gaelic Church in Edinburgh, recalled his schooldays: ‘Another curse of this absurd practice (refusing to allow Gaelic in Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge schools) in the hands of ignorant pedantic teachers, was the utter hopelessness on the part of really thoughtful boys, of the most carnal attempts at learning. I well remember one nice bright boy who was thus sat upon with crushing effect. He was kept for more than a year at the alphabet. All that time he was made the sport of the school. His shy attempts at English were mimicked and grossly caricatured. Hours were spent in making fun of him. To crown it all he was almost daily made to wear the fool’s cap – a huge creation of goatskin with the hair outwards and the tail hanging down behind…to this day my blood boils when I recall the cruel and absurd “teaching” of which he was the hapless victim.’
To try to counteract this prejudice many people, including Mrs Hunter (Number 35) championed the Edinburgh Society for the Support of Gaelic Schools, established in 1811. The society stated its purpose as being ‘to teach the inhabitants of the Highlands and Islands to read the Sacred Scriptures in their native tongue...to maintain Circulating Schools in which the Gaelic language only shall be taught.’ The new society attracted much support, with similar organisations being founded in Glasgow and Inverness. The early success of the Edinburgh society was such that by 1828 it funded 85 schools in the Highlands and Islands, with its sister societies enjoying similar levels of success.
The more prestigious schools may not have stooped to the use of a fool’s cap for erring children, but central to their discipline was the equally infamous tawse. This was a thick leather strap with cut thongs at one end that teachers brought down with force onto erring pupils’ hands, causing great pain: a punishment that continued through to the 1950s in Scottish schools - as this writer can confirm!
By the 1850s games began to be included, with cricket, curling and rugby teams established at a number of the schools. Many years later these would be made compulsory at many schools, for as one Headmaster noted: ‘If I were asked what was the most dangerous occupation for a boy's hours of leisure, I should at once name loafing.' In 1879 George Pott (Number 55) was Captain of both the Edinburgh Academy Cricket and Rugby Football Teams.
Other educational establishments included the Scottish Naval and Military Academy. The director in the 1850s was Major-General Frederick Hope (Number 35). The Naval and Military Academy was described as: ‘the only seminary in Scotland which furnishes a complete Course of Instruction to Young Men destined for the Military and Civil Services in all their departments. The system pursued at the Academy, while it has special reference to the examinations prescribed by the Horse Guards, Admiralty, and East India Company, is also designed to qualify Officers for the highest appointments in the service. Apply Military Academy Buildings, Lothian Road.’
There were still many smaller private schools in the town, such as Robert Thompson’s school that Stevenson attended. Thomson’s school had fewer than twenty pupils and like the other schools focused to a large extent on Latin and Greek. Most small private schools focused on either boys or girls but when Hunter’s School opened in Albany Street it offered places for both sexes. It was based in Albany Street from 1850 to 1859, initially at Number 27, but after a year it expanded by taking Number 25. Miss Murray was in charge of the young ladies and special classes in needlework were provided. Hunter was at pains to assure parents that ‘the Masters, with the assistance of the janitor’ would supervise the boys in the playground. Subjects included The Rudiments of Arithmetic, Vocal Music, Geography, French, Drawing, Gymnastics, Grammar, Elements of Ancient History and Scottish History, Problems in the Use of Globes, and the Elements of Botany. Biblical studies appeared at various points in the timetable. The purchase of Number 25 enabled Hunter to extend the facilities, including a new outdoor playground for girls, although the school made it clear that an indoor exercise area was available for times when the weather was inclement.
Thomas McNaughton (Number 52) was the headmaster of The Edinburgh Institution for Languages and Mathematics in Queen Street. This school was founded in 1832 by the Reverend Robert Cunningham and set up in George Street but soon moved to Hill Street. Unusually for the time, the school focused on modern subjects, such as science, rather than classical subjects. Later the school moved again to Melville Street, and in 1936 the name was changed to Melville College, in 1972 merging with Daniel Stewart's College to become Stewart's Melville College, now one of Scotland’s leading independent private schools.
As the century progressed further subjects were added to most schools’ curriculums including Arithmetic, Mathematics. English Literature, History, Geography, German, French, Science and Gymnastics. Yet the teaching was patchy, especially as in most schools teachers were in competition and took their own fees, and so the larger their class size the better. In 1868 Schools Commissioners reported: 'In many, probably the majority, of the schools visited we found that there was no settled curriculum or course. Each school was a congress of classes under different masters, without any definite aim to which all were striving, and without any harmony of action among the teachers. In these schools there was a perpetual struggle for fees among all these masters…the education is sold in these schools like wares in a shop, at so much per pound, and the idea of the seller is to sell as many pounds as he can for his own immediate benefit.'
For those who could not afford to send their children to the private schools, there were parish church schools. (See image for Number 50) The view of John Knox that education was crucially important had led to Scottish landowners being made responsible for establishing schools in their parish. These were overseen by the local Minister, with the Church presbytery having responsibility for appointing teachers. Although the differing economies of parishes meant that not all schools were of a good standard, compared with England the system was progressive, with parish schools teaching mathematics and Latin. Thus many boys went straight to University from their parish school. Also the parish schools led to higher literacy rates in Scotland: in 1855 the literacy rate for males was 89% and for females 59%. However, there was growing opposition, particularly in England, to church control of education. So, in 1839, the Whigs proposed national education that would reduce the church’s influence. In that year, Patrick Dalmahoy (Number 49) was one of many men who attended a meeting in the Assembly Rooms to object to the proposal. Feelings ran high at the perceived threat to the Scottish Parochial System. One speaker expressed concern: ‘The superintendence of the Ministers of the Gospel, hitherto so beneficial in the training of the Scottish youth, is likely to be undermined and ultimately destroyed. Another speaker saw the proposal as: ‘a great evil, and fraught with the utmost danger to our National Faith and Protestant Constitution.’ While another brought cries of agreement when he commented: [Scotland’s] ‘Scriptural System of Education is most influential, in promoting the temporal prosperity and eternal happiness of mankind; and that Ministers of the Gospel are the proper Guardians of Schools, and bound to protect the young from false and dangerous principles.’ Although the proposal did not proceed at this time, pressure continued for education to be non-sectarian. In 1872, the Education (Scotland) Act of 1872 took control of education away from the church, with the exception of the Catholic and Episcopalian churches, and established elected school boards. The Act also made schooling compulsory for children in the age group 5-13.
W.D. Thorburn (Number 19), another advocate, was one of those elected to serve on the Leith Schools Board. In 1883, when he stood as the Conservative candidate for the Member of Parliament for Leith, he gave his view on the subject of free education that was under consideration: ‘You cannot have free education unless teachers agree to teach without charging for their services. The experience of the Leith School Board is that the children who receive free education are not the most regular attendees. The absenteeism in the free schools of America is far greater than in this country. If the Parliament brought in free education, the cost would tell very heavily on the community. To take money from the Church funds, as was suggested, would be insufficient (cheers) and voluntary schools not being able to compete with free schools would be extinguished.’ However, his opposition did not stop the introduction of free education in 1883.
For University education see relevant section in Lawyers, Religion and Doctors