Educating Victorians

Educating Victorians

We are lucky in todays society to be able to have access to such a good education system, even if it doesn’t always seem like it. With the mounting pressure on teachers, pupils and schools as a while it is no wonder that there has been a lot of negative press about our educational system over the last few years.

But we have come such a long way. There is now a vast array of options available to both children and adults alike. The traditional school route of GCSE and then A Levels and then perhaps on to university, or maybe vocational courses followed by an apprenticeship. Each of these can then in turn be taken at school, college or via distance learning.

But this hasn’t always been the case. Back in Victorian times schools certainly weren’t often hard and even cruel places with no space available for the caring and nurturing environment that we hope to have in today’s schools and educational establishments. Children were restricted immensely during these times with wealthy families hiring governesses to home school their children who then according to their gender would either end up going to a public school such as Eton or would continue to be home schooled in etiquette or would perhaps go to a refined school such as the finishing schools we have all heard so much about.

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The teachers were certainly less understanding and there were certainly no maternal or paternal qualities to their pastoral care. Children in today’s society do receive some great pastoral care whether this is from their regular teacher or from a dedicated pastoral team. We are beginning to understand much more about the need for emotionally support our young people and mental wellbeing is high on the agenda for schools, government agencies and the government alike. This is possibly due to the fact that although we have access to much better educational and health care systems children are being exposed to different types of stresses in todays society including that of social media and the pressure of exams and achievement expectations that are being filtered down to them through society. There was also a lot of illness and disease and sexually transmitted infections were at an all time high during the victorian period. Thanks to awareness campaigns and STI Testing London companies that help to diagnose these infections and get the appropriate treatment for individuals this is not so much the case today.

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The outlook for Victorian children was also a lot gloomier, some children would end up in the workhouse or in servant-based jobs and those lucky wealthy few may end up with a job in the city, working for Daddy’s firm or marrying rich and staying at home to look after the house and children. In this day and age we can be whatever we want to be and the possibilities of owning your own business are endless, you just have to know where to start and that’s where online courses business like Common Sense can help you.