There is one distinctive difference and that is that in both tales; there is no real reference to buildings. Remembering that though, the earlier in time the worse the buildings were, the authors chose not to elaborate on this. Another difference is that there was increasing description of the countryside in “Cider with Rosie” that now may think he is boasting about the “beauty” of his hometown. The similarity is that there is not enough description about the interior of the classrooms.
Charles Dickens vividly describes the teachers as rude people who liked mistreating the children “please sir, he’s weeding the garden.” Mr.Squeers who is the head and most monstrous of the school alongside his wife is violent and negligent claiming he will “take the skins off their backs” he would even cane them if they did not behave. At one moment in time, he shows cruelty towards the children because when they receive some post from their families he reads it himself and judging form the messages received, were happy to get rid of their charges, and the “news” was simply a further addition to their misery. The teachers did not encourage the pupils to study and preferred then to “weed the garden” and “clean the parlour windows.” In “Cider with Rosie,” a dame teacher taught with a sixteen-year-old female assistant, similar to Nicholas's case except Nicholas was the assistant. During the story the teacher “Crabby.B” has a nervous breakdown saying, “I won’t have it!” when the children would not “sit down!” They soon found a replacement teacher “Miss.Wardly from Birmingham.” Lee describes her as having “loose but stronger reins” sharp-tongued, but patient enough. She wanted then to learn, so she encouraged them to and even “wistfully” wished her students “good luck” when they grew up and left.
A further comparison in “Cider with Rosie” the children were not as well disciplined because they drove their teacher insane. The children in “Nicholas Nickleby” would not even dare treat their teacher with disrespect because they knew they could loose everything they had. However, in the twentieth century (Lee’s era) punishment and using the cane was illegal.
There are people/characters in “Nicholas Nickelby” such a boy called “Smike” who is a half-witted inmate of Squeers’s establishment who is treated like a slave. He is the oldest and does not have to do any schoolwork but is treated worse to the rest because at one time, he “received” a “box on the ear” from Mr.Squeers presuming to contradict his mistress. Mrs.Squeers is as bad as Mr.Squeers because she does not care about the children apart from their own spoilt son-Master.Squeers. She is also involved with the scandal of running the school as a business.
Lee introduces his friends “Poppy, Jo, Vera and Spadge” who are all in his class and seems like they are his only friends. He only ever mentions them therefore, we have an impression they are the closest ones he has. He does not like Vera and decides it would be funny to “hit her over the head” with a stick. He describes Poppy and Jo as “the two blonde girls” and Spadge the rebellious class “bully.” Spadge was the boy who decided to mock the teacher “Crabby.B.” another character was the sixteen year old assistant who Laurie liked very much “the pretty, gracious lady.” Laurie has friends but people who he can confide and communicate with a positive, friendly atmosphere.” In “Nicholas Nickleby”, Nicholas has no one to talk to and tell his problems to, except Smike who he eventually speaks to because Nicholas feel sympathetic towards him asking “you are shivering?" “N-o-o.” the children do not have permission to talk to each other because the teacher is too strict with them.
The conditions at “Dotheboys Hall” school in “Nicholas Nickelby” were unprivileged. The school was so poor that the children had to eat “cold, runny porridge” and work in bitter conditions Mr.Squeers feared that if they used all the stuff they could not make a profit out of the school. They could not afford anything and that was the reason why he stole the children’s possessions. The children looked “pale and haggard,” lank and bony figures with deformities “upon their limbs.” Laurie Lee was better off, and could say he was at a greater advantage than Nicholas was. They received “fresh, new books” and had heating in the classrooms “ the tub of warmth.” The school was lively “wild” boys and girls from miles around, “we were packed into the walls with pupils.” The village was “poor and crowded.” Sometimes there would be a “beating” which nobody took notice off except the pupils “red faced mothers.” The conditions seem to be serious as in “Nicholas Nickleby.” The main difference is that there is a different condition, better than in “Cider with Rosie” than “Nicholas Nickleby.” This is due to the difference in time because there are better standards later than earlier and that is what applies to them too. Some conditions are the equivalent to crowded areas and the scare of beating. Money is the foremost reason for the majority of the conditions especially in “Nicholas Nickleby.”
The character Nicholas seemed very depressed and sympathetic for the children. He did not intend to go to school and to find it to be as shocking as he did. He was more than happy to talk to “Smike” about his situation. Nicholas is worried about his sister because he had a “terrible thought” he is concerned. He hopes that his parents do not “consign” her to “some miserable place” he feels “self degraded by the consciousness” of his position and feels guilty, planning to “do some good” for the children. Laurie did not feel the same way Nicholas did. He was young and didn’t want to go to school, who did? “I ain’t going I’m stopping ‘ome!” at the age of four, do you blame him? His intention of not going is so desperate that he was “carried up the road, kicking and brawling.” When replaced with a new teacher Mrs. Wardley, he gets on the wrong side of her. Cue to his lack of motivation she calls him “fat and lazy” which he was quite proud of, when he admits that, “ that was the name she called me!”
Before Charles Dickens wrote he “Nicholas Nickleby” travelled to Yorkshire with a friend to gather some information about schools. Even as a child, he was horrified when hearing such dreadful stories about the conditions of schools.
Charles Dickens education system would have been different because it was in the early nineteenth century. At that time many things were happening like: Church of England operated primary schools in the UK, students had to pay small fees to study the Bible, catechism, reading, writing and arithmetic, in 1833 British parliament passed a law for Government funds and in 1862 UK established a school grant system called payment by results. (Also the year that Dickens died The Education Act of 1870, called the Forster Act, authorised local government boards schools operated by the Government and voluntary schools conducted by the church and other private organisations).
A lot happened but at Laurie Lee’s time of education, more major changes happened. A Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget had a major on the educational theory in the early twentieth century. He wrote extensively on the development of thought and language patterns on children. He believed that children, by exploring their environment, create their own ides/thoughts, or intellectual conceptions of reality. He thought that human intelligence developed in stages, a person’s understanding of the world in a new and more complex way. This switched the way children were taught, and how and why people cared about education compared to before, in the early nineteenth century.
In conclusion, it goes to shows how much of a disadvantage Nicholas was at because Laurie had the chance to have an education but did not even bother. He had no working attitude or effort and frequently “got into trouble.” as you can see that there are a lot of similarities, differences, and facts, which I have expressed. One thing to remember is that they were written at different times and that is why there are so many comparisons. As time moves on, education (school life/systems) and language changes, develops and that is what you have to remember because it is important. I am delighted that I was not born or had to study at school in Dickens’s era; I am counting myself as a very lucky person. I mean, who would not?
Sonal Dhokia