Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Apprenticeship in Education
- 2 The Board School Teacher, 1882–1892
- 3 The Schoolmaster
- 4 The London School Board, 1894–1897
- 5 President of the NUT
- 6 The London School Board, 1897–1900
- 7 Parliament, 1900–1902
- 8 The 1902 Education Act
- 9 The End of the London School Board
- 10 The Decline of the Unionist Government, 1903–1905
- 11 Outside and Inside the Government, 1905–1908
- 12 Financial Secretary to the Admiralty I: 1908–1914
- 13 Financial Secretary to the Admiralty II: 1914–1920
- 14 Minister of Labour
- 15 Exclusion
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
- Plate section
2 - The Board School Teacher, 1882–1892
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Apprenticeship in Education
- 2 The Board School Teacher, 1882–1892
- 3 The Schoolmaster
- 4 The London School Board, 1894–1897
- 5 President of the NUT
- 6 The London School Board, 1897–1900
- 7 Parliament, 1900–1902
- 8 The 1902 Education Act
- 9 The End of the London School Board
- 10 The Decline of the Unionist Government, 1903–1905
- 11 Outside and Inside the Government, 1905–1908
- 12 Financial Secretary to the Admiralty I: 1908–1914
- 13 Financial Secretary to the Admiralty II: 1914–1920
- 14 Minister of Labour
- 15 Exclusion
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
- Plate section
Summary
On 21 August 1882 Macnamara took up an appointment as an assistant teacher at Spring Grove School, Huddersfield. The previous December the town's schools had been the subject of a report by A. P. Graves HMI. The board schools, in his view, were
exceedingly handsome ones and are now in a thoroughly efficient condition; they are well-staffed, well-disciplined and well-taught and possess a larger proportion of children in the upper standards and have earned a larger government grant than almost any other set of board schools in the country … The scholars are, on the whole, keen about their work. Prizes for proficiency and regular attendance are well contested. The examination is looked forward to with positive excitement, and during it listless faces are rare, whilst overeagerness rather than inattention causes most of the lapses in order … I have noticed that the natural common sense of Yorkshire children, when it is guided by a capable teacher, produces a class feeling which is a strong support to him against insubordination.
The difficulty in discipline lay in the roughness of the children, who needed firmness combined with kindness: ‘The teacher has, as a rule, a hard time of it for the first few months. He is rarely able to dispense with the rod …’
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- Dr Macnamara 1861-1931 , pp. 14 - 28Publisher: Liverpool University PressPrint publication year: 1999