The idea of good manners in schools was characterized by the emerging importance
of the rule implemented by children who found that they were to be seen and not
to be heard. This is an extremely symbolic order, as it displays to us that
children were dictated to, they were not to engage but to listen. This to me
also shows that schools were a place of extremely important political value.
After all the children of today are the future tomorrow, and thus it is logical
to presume, those schools were the playground of political upbringing.
The aims of schooling during that epoch are seen to be very narrow, the
relationship between the child and the teacher was one of respect, there was no
real interplay of dialogue, or movement, children were to sit still during the
lesson and listen, i.e. in texts like JJ Prince classes were described as “mere
machines” activated by the agreement and order of the teacher.
The relationship between national identity and schooling is a definite and
defined relationship. The introduction of national identity and pride is evident
in i.e. the increasing features of studying of history in schooling. The type of
history taught was very narrow and extremely patriotic. The emergence of history
is seen by some historians, to be a design to prevent the revolutions that was
so very evident in European societies. To further understand the relationship
between national identity and schooling I will write about the different ways in
which schooling introduced a sense of national identity.
The history of the British Empire was an essential aspect of the history taught
in schools, empire day was a national celebration, it was celebrated differently
in different schools however the theme remained the same, the celebration of the
expansion of British colonial rule, the British Empire.
“The schools pageant told the story of how the British Empire unfolded.
Beginning with the ‘tribal unions that laid the foundations of the British
nation’. The pageant went on to tell ‘of how England began to spread her wings
and then to recount the exploration, settlement and colonization that marked the
spacious days of Queen Elizabeth’. Pupils read excerpts from Shakespeare,
Cowper, Blake and Campbell.”(4)
The language used here is extremely proud and patriotic, Britain is seen as a
powerful and overwhelming force “England began to spread her wings and then to
recount the exploration, settlement and colonization”.
Also the recognition and informed learning of people like “Shakespeare, Cowper,
Blake and Campbell” is symbolic, as it concludes that those who are celebrated
are linked to the British Empire, they are important because they are British,
in the sense that they are to be celebrated as what it is to be British, is to
be important, successful and famous.
Visual references and performances were displayed i.e. “At Chuckery Senior Girls
School, the head teacher and her staff had a devised pageant in which the
various Dominions became linked up with Britannia, seated on her throne, ‘ with
streamers of red, white and blue’, whilst the figure of peace with wings
outstretched, gave the gathering her blessing. ‘England ‘and ‘Land of Hope and
Glory’ were sung.”(4)
The use of the flag in this display at Chuckery Senior Girls School represents a
symbolic and important patriotic display, flags represent different countries,
and the British flag used here is a visual patriotic display that excludes other
counties to what they associate with England. England is personified and
glorified the use of visual displays represent perhaps the psychological belief
that children are more conscious of visual images “ I don’t think there is
anything to compare with allowing them to portray the colonies and
dependencies”(5)
Another element of empire day that was the importance of fitness, fitness was
seen as an attribute to the Empire i.e. at “Chuckery Senior Boys School a short
musical program was accompanied by a display of physical training” (4)
What is the importance of empire day, and how it is that one day can have an
enormous impact to the relationship between national identity and schooling?
This is explained by “where careful preparation” was vitally implemented to the
commemoration of Empire Day ‘it formed a lesson of lasting educational
influence” (?) (Get from (There’s no place like home, Education of History 28,
pg 236, quote number 2)
There are many questions and queries that the celebration of empire day arises
to historians today, due to the lack of primary sources, the effect of Empire
Day on, children, teachers and parents are limited.
The use of images in i.e. ‘race –thinking’ are extremely profound as they
symbolize how children were taught to think about different races, “a black
persons teeth are usually white, so are the whites in his eyes” (4), the fact
that this is an extract taken from 1939 by a twelve year old boy shows that even
at this stage in time, children were still unaware or ignorant and uneducated
about different races, different races were alien to them.
This however may not be the case for all children; it may just be to a
particular school or even child. The two extracts displayed in There’s no place
like home, Education of History 28, pg 237 are extracts taken from children in
1939 and were part of a ‘school survey collected by Mass-Observation for an
anti-Semitic project. Mass-observation believed that childhood was a critical
stage in the formation of attitudes toward minority groups (4).
I am unable to say that such race thinking as these were formed specifically
under the influence of the school, or that these ideas were specifically shaped
by the curriculum, however there are many documents that enable me to believe
that the schooling of children influenced and encouraged children to be proud of
their national identity, and influenced the children to view other nations in a
naive and almost aggressive nature. Joanna Bourke, wrote about how schooling
taught children that “Frenchmen were a lot of frogs and were a little sissy as
they had a great pull with the opposite sex’….that Germans had square heads,
crew cuts, and fancy braces, and were totally without initiative…the violence of
Chin Chin Chinamen” was fearsome. (6)
The type of the text books used at schools can convey to us the type of i.e.
history and geography that children were taught according to W.E.Marsden “The
assertion that history and geography text books have exercised a negative
influence on attitudes towards other countries is of long standing. It
manifestly drives from conceptions of nationhood, national character and
national identity, which have in turn spilled over into aggressive forms of
nationalism, and have injected their ‘poison’ into social and political
attitudes , and thence into the educational system.” (1)
However many queries that are raised by historians about the influences of the
textbook, include questions about the effectively of the textbooks, the number
of school, classrooms, or even pupils that had access to such books. The format
of the lesson and the way in which the books were used? Etc
The features of national identity are clearly defined by A.D.Smith as national
identity is seen as a concept that affects the political community, ‘a single
code of rights and duties, and a social space and territory’ (7)
This perhaps explains why the approaching years leading to the First World War
“saw a flood of nursery tales, recitation materials, and children’s books,
juvenile literature ands historic novels, which faltered the British and
stereotyped the world’s non-white populations. (8)
The approaching war affected the schooling of children during that epoch to such
an extent that “In the boy’s pubic schools, where it was presumed that many
pupils would be considering the armed forces as a career, military and political
history was granted some priority”(9)
The link between national identity in schooling, and war, was seen as so
important that some of the more popular newspapers of the day argued schools
should wholly integrate the education about war beyond specific subjects and
“that the topic of war, on the successful conclusion of which the future of the
race depended, should be approached through the whole curriculum, and not
through individual subjects.”(10)
The use of stereotype to identify national characteristics is clearly evident in
this piece of “Orwell’s celebrated essay on boys weeklies published in 1939.
They are as follows:
FRENCHMAN: Excitable. Wears beards, gesticulates wildly.
SPINIARD, MEXICAN etc.: Sinister and treacherous.
ARAB, AFGAN etc.: Sinister and treacherous.
CHINESE: treacherous. Wears pigtail.
ITALIAN: Grinds barrel-organ or carries stiletto.
SWEDE, DANE etc.: Kind hearted Stupid.
NEGRO: Comic, very faithful.
(11)
The use of such stereotypical views of the characteristics of the people due to
their place of origin, is so profoundly blatantly in compliance with the
writings of F.L. Hagendoorn and H.Linssen “widespread and irresistible
inclination to attribute personality traits to certain nationalities”(12)
Religious, political and social bias in text books contributed to the
implementation of a national identity within schooling, as the link between
wider social and political change and the school curricula.
Governments were extremely aware of the importance of schooling to the social
stability of Britain in the future. They were constantly reminded of the civil
unrest in countries dominated by the influx of unsatisfied citizens who wanted
to change the way that the authorities governed society, and thus revolution
were the results, and the fear of War lingered. British authorities constantly
feared a revolution, and constantly saw the dissatisfaction of i.e. the poor
laws, the conflict over the price of bread and corn and the industrial
revolution and it’s consequences on society and the law brought about via
demonstrations, campaigns, attacks on factories and machines, attacks on
legislations and Acts introduced by the government. Thus the education in
schools, which were constantly being dictated to by the governments via the
national curriculum and legislations was taken extremely seriously, this can be
shown by the financial administration of schools by the government, and the
introduction of mass compulsory schooling and legislations brought forward by
the government.
Schools are seen as places of functionalism, they have a purpose to help society
to operate, and it is inevitable not to say that they are places of influence,
where ideologies and political beliefs are constantly in the air.
But whose ideologies do the children pick up, who are they influenced by, and to
what extent do school children they accept the ‘national identity’ that they
learn about in i.e. history and geography lessons?
The clear cut definition of what is it to be a good citizen is so entirely
embedded with the ideologies of firm patriotism and pride in the empire, and
thus it is thought that the purpose of education is to shape children into good
citizens. However how effective is it to believe in this, according to Paul
Goalen “ there is little evidence beyond the assertion of some politicians and
administrators that the history curriculum is capable of turning children into
‘better citizens’” (13)
Marxism histories would argue that national identity is a form of social
control, created to keep the social and economical order of society.
Perhaps if school children in Britain were integrated with their fellow ‘rivals’
then perhaps they would see that indeed ‘it is not the differences between
people that is the difficulty but the indifferences’.
Education has been romanticized as a heroic force with the ability of “saving
the world, in the cyclically repeated expectation that this can realistically be
achieved by educational means” (1) However The relationship between national
identity and schooling, and the critical way in which it has been used quite
clearly as a weapon for and nationalism to such an extent as racism during that
epoch, has encouraged me to believe that the studying of national identity in a
bias manner in schools can easily become dangerous and provocative.
Reference:
1. (W.E.Marsden, Nationalism, propaganda and war and peace, pg29-47)
2. (P.M.Kennedy, ‘The decline of nationalistic history in the west, 1900-1970’,
Journal of Contemporary History, 8 (1973)88.)
3. (History today, History and national identity in the classroom, pg 6)
4. (There’s no place like home, Education of History 28, pg 236-237)
5. (1 Mass Observation Archive FR878)
6. (J.Bourke, Working-Class Cultures in Britain, 1890-1960. Gender, Class and
Ethnicity (London: Routledge, 1994), 186)
7. (A.D.Smith, National Identity, London, 1991, p.9-11)
8. (J.M.Mackenzie, Propaganda and Empire. The manipulation of British Public
Opinion, 1880-1960 Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1984), 176.see k.
Castle, Britannia’s children. Reading Colonialism through Children’s Books
(Manchester: Manchester University Press 1990)
9. (T.Hearl, ‘Military education and the schools curriculum 1880-1870, History
of Education, 5 (1976 ), 261)
10. (Anon., ‘The war from the school-room window’, Supplement to The Times (14
January 1916), 2.)
11. There’s no place like home, Education of History 28, pg 246, extract 54)
12. ( F.L. Hagendoorn and H.Linssen, ‘National characteristics and national
stereotypes: A seven-nation comparative study ‘, in Nationalism, Ethnicity and
Identity : Cross National and Comparative Perspectives, edited by R.Farnen (New
Brunswick , 1994), 103-26)
13. (Paul Goalen, History Today,47, (June 1997).p.6)