Genre:

Essay

Subjects:

Education, Schools, Universities, Societies, Scientific Practitioners, Status, Charlatanry, Mapping

    Warns middle-class parents to 'put little faith' in teachers who advertise themselves as 'F.G.S., F.R.G.S., F.A.S., F.S.S., F.E.I.S. (whatever this last may mean)' because the 'baptism which imparts these capital letters is commonly a trifling affair, and is mostly a matter of a few guineas'. Although the author does 'not mean to say that it is not all right and proper for men distinguished, or even engaged, as geologists, or geographers, or statisticians to write F.G.S., F.R.G.S., or F.S.S. after their names', he insists that nothing is added to a man's teaching ability by 'having these letters, or, if he likes, the whole alphabet tagged to his name'. (51) Before 'the National Schools came into existence' in 1818, the standard of middle-class education was so poor that many pupils 'had never seen a map, except perhaps those in Goldsmith's Geography, which were never used' (55). Nowadays, however, pupil-teachers are trained exhaustively in a variety of subjects, including 'mathematics' and 'physical science' (56). In addition, 'Cabinets of chemical apparatus are granted to every school where the master has proved, by examination, his ability to use it' (55).