Little Victorians

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• Middelbare school
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• Leerjaar 1

Little Victorians

Learn more about Victorian Times

Learning Objectives 

1) Introduction to Victorian Times.

2) Be able to describe the Victorian times in 3 sentences.

Why was it called the Victorian Era?

Education during the Victorian age 

The Dame School

The standard of education was very low in the Dame or Country school. The “teacher” may even

have been illiterate herself! There may have been slates on which the children wrote letters or

numbers in some Dames schools but not in all of them.

The children learned by rote, that is repeating the same thing many times. This is illustrated in the

Little Victorians workshop or show.

These schools were also fee paying, which means only a few could afford the luxury of even this

basic education. The majority of parents did not have the resources, which means most children

did not any education at all.

Do you have an example of where in the world this could still be the case>? 

Today

• Less than half of India's children between the age 6 and 14 go to school.

• At least 35 million children aged 6 - 14 years do not attend school.

• 1 in 40, primary school in India is conducted in open spaces o

And when you had no other options?

The workhouse......

The only choice for a lot of people was starvation or going to the Workhouse. Women, children and men had different living and working areas in the workhouse, so families were split up. To make things even worse they could be punished if they even tried to speak to one another!

The education the children received did not include the two most important skills of all, reading

and writing, which were needed to get a good job.

The poor were made to wear a uniform. This meant that everyone looked the same and everyone outside knew they were poor and lived in the workhouse.

Upon entering the workhouse, the poor were stripped and bathed (under supervision)

Children could also find themselves 'hired out' (sold) to work in factories or mines.

Pure finders

. Pure finders where the men, women and children who went around the cities picking it up.

Pure was used in tanning leather, so the tanners would pay for it. Pure was astringent as well as

highly alkaline. When the pure has been rubbed into the flesh and grain of the skin (the "flesh"

being originally the interior, and the "grain" the exterior part of the cuticle), and the skin, thus

purified, has been hung up to be dried, the pure removes, as it were, all such moisture as, if

allowed to remain, would tend to make the leather unsound or imperfectly dressed.

Today

Pure is no longer used by leather makers; however children still have to survive by collecting

rubbish from rubbish tips.

What was the most common job for young boys?

Why were the chimney sweeps not given enough food?