In late 1845, the minister and two deacons from the Collins Street Baptist Church in Melbourne sent a memorial to the superintendent of the Port Phillip District, Charles La Trobe, seeking permission to establish a day school for Indigenous children in the vicinity of the town. They proposed that the school be held in a four-roomed building, formerly occupied by Dr Macarthur, which stood on crown land situated at the confluence of the Yarra River and Merri Creek.… Continue Reading »
Anxiety concerning the fitness of youth for coming adulthood and its responsibilities has had a long history. Towards the end of the nineteenth century in Australia such anxiety rose to the level of a moral panic. Larrikinism was a problem for the respectable middle classes. The behaviour of too many unruly working class youths, larrikins, tended towards criminality, immorality, disorder and violence of various kinds.… Continue Reading »
The Glorious Revolution of 1688 in England was not so glorious for those Christian groupings, puritan and dissenting (also “nonconformist”), that had developed or were developing organizational, cultural and theological traditions separate from the established Church of England. The restoration of the monarchy saw a consolidation of the privileges of the Church of England.… Continue Reading »
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Craig Campbell, PhD DipEd, University of Sydney. Posted .
During the second half of the nineteenth century in England, the cultures of the great public schools were reformed. Even though Thomas Arnold, headmaster of Rugby from 1828 to 1841 gave his name to the reforms, he was only one of a number of school headmasters who influenced the process.
In general the reforms meant schools were more likely to attract wealthier middle class families.… Continue Reading »
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Geoffrey Burkhardt, PhD, Australian National Museum of Education (ANME). Posted .
The Australian College for boys was established in November 1831. It was one of the earliest collegiate schools in the colony to offer a comprehensive curriculum in post-elementary school subjects, although Rev. Henry Fulton’s Academy had offered a limited classical curriculum in his private school at Castlereagh since 1816. Also the Sydney Free Public Grammar School, originally established by Dr Halloran in the 1820s as a private venture, may have taught some students at the junior post-elementary level.… Continue Reading »
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Maxine Stephenson, The University of Auckland. Posted .
In 1874 the Naval Training Schools Act was passed in New Zealand. When the Commissioner of Customs, William Reynolds, introduced the Naval Training Schools Bill to parliament, he stated that the prime purpose of institutions established under the legislation was vocational—to provide boys with ‘a thorough training in seamanship’ (NZPD 1874: 428).… Continue Reading »
