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The Ragged School This composition focuses on a centrally placed man, whose right hand is raised. He leans on a chair with strips of leather resting over it’s back. Wearing wire rimmed glasses and an apron; he faces a group of children on the left hand side of the composition. Several other groups of barefooted children surround him within the sparsely furnished interior. At the far left, two young boys sit on wooden stools. One is actively reading. The other appears to be holding a puppy while looking towards the central figure. Left of center, a group a small boys sit on wooden boxes. They are involved with each other. Behind them, a standing young girl—framed by a four-part screen—reads a book with another small child. To the right, a group of young girls sits behind several boxes of tools. Three girls face the viewer. They are all busy at various activities. Apart from this group, a girl lifts a plant towards the open window. Light streams in from the window and illuminates the children’s faces as well as the central figure. On the wall, behind the central figure, are two worn letter charts. The shelf contains a half burned candle, and things in disarray. Hanging from the shelf appears to be some tools. An open birdcage sits next to the window. Background The Education Act of 1870 provided England with a system of national schools. Before that date, education was not equal for all. Local grammar schools, private and/or charitable schools provided a child’s education. In poor areas, most children did not have such an opportunity. John Pounds, from Portsmouth, was a schoolmaster and shoemaker. Indications of his trade include his apron, leather straps hanging over the chair, and tools hanging from the shelf. He was a pioneer of free education in England, and, as this painting illustrates, attempted to educate the ‘ragged’ or poor children of his town. Being handicapped did not hamper his commitment to education, as indicated by his foot resting on the chair. Light, beaming through the open window, illuminates the righteous—the schoolmaster and his pupils —within the spartan confines of his cobbler’s shop. It is this energy of individual life and example acting throughout society, which constitutes the best practical education of Englishmen. Schools, academies, and colleges, give but the merest beginnings of culture in comparison with it. Far higher and more practical is the life education daily given in our homes, in the streets, behind counters, in workshops, at the loom and the plough, in counting houses and manufactories, and in all the busy haunts of men. This is the education that fits Englishmen for doing the work and acting the part of free men. On the speedy provision of elementary education depend our industrial prosperity, the safe working of our constitutional system, and our national power…if we are to hold our position among men of our own race or among nations of the world, we must make up for the smallness of our numbers by increasing the intellectual force of the individual. Let the mind’s eye glance for a moment over the country at large. The villages among the hills, the villages on the plains, in the valleys, and beside the streams represent in the aggregate an enormous power. Separately such hamlets seem small and feeble – unable to impress their will upon the world. But together they constitute a vast crowed, which, united, may shoulder itself an irresistible course, pushing aside all obstacles by mere physical weight.
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