Paved with good intentions: the Hampstead and Clapton schools, 1873–1878
✍ Scribed by David S. Stewart
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 2000
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 184 KB
- Volume
- 28
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 1354-4187
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Summary
In terms of the history of education, most people think that 1870 saw the beginning of universal elementary education in the UK, yet few consider what provision was made for those with learning disabilities. The present paper seeks to throw light on the provision made by one authority in London, the Metropolitan Asylums Board. Prior to the establishment of the schools at Darenth in 1878, later known as Darenth Park, the Board established a school in Hampstead, and later, at Clapton for pauper children with learning disabilities. Equipped with classrooms and teachers, these were the first such schools to be funded by rates, as opposed to charitable giving. The present study will reveal that there was, in fact, a strong link with the School Board for London and that certain individuals, frustrated by constraints put on them by one authority, used their considerable skills to make provision through other routes. It was not until the 1970 Education Act that all children became entitled to education in the UK, but the example of the Hampstead and Clapton Schools reveal that attempts were being made 100 years earlier to provide rate‐funded education for children with learning disabilities. It might be regarded as a tragedy that philosophies in the intervening years did not reflect the optimism which policy makers in London held in the 1870s