|
Macclesfield Sunday School is in Roe Street, Macclesfield, Cheshire, England. It started in 1796 as a non-denominational Sunday School in Pickford Street, which catered for 40 children. It was founded by John Whitaker whose objective was "to lessen the sum of human wretchedness by diffusing religious knowledge and useful learning among the lower classes of society". Though chapels set up their denominational schools, the Sunday School committee in 1812 elected to erect a purpose-built school on Roe Street. The Big Sunday School had 1,127 boys and 1,324 girls on its books when it opened. Sunday schools were first set up in the 1780s to provide education to working children on their one day off from the factory. It was proposed by Robert Raikes, editor of the ''Gloucester Journal'' in an article in his paper and supported by many clergymen. It aimed to teach the youngsters reading, writing and ciphering and a knowledge of the Bible. It was a full ninety years later, in 1870, before children could attend schools during the week. In 1785, it was reported that 250,000 children were attending Sunday School and there were 5,000 in Manchester alone. By 1895, the Society for the Establishment and Promotion of Sunday Schools had distributed 91,915 spelling books, 24,232 Testaments and 5,360 Bibles.〔 The Sunday School movement was cross-denominational, and through subscription built large buildings that could host public lectures as well as classrooms. In the early days, adults attended the same classes as the infants, as each were instructed in basic reading. In Macclesfield, the Methodists withdrew from the Large Sunday School and built their own, and the Anglicans set up their own "National" schools that acted as Sunday Schools and day schools.〔 These schools were the precursors to a national system of education.〔 Later, a ragged school was set up for the children of the poor, the rough sleepers and children from the workhouse. The role of the Sunday Schools changed with the Education Act 1870.〔 In the 1920s, they promoted sports, and it was common for teams to compete in a Sunday School League. They were social centres hosting amateur dramatics and concert parties.〔 By the 1960s the term Sunday School could refer to the building and not to any education classes, and by the 1970s even the largest Sunday School at Stockport had been demolished. The Macclesfield Large Sunday School was rescued and converted into the Macclesfield Heritage Centre. ==The Sunday School Movement== The first Sunday school may have been opened in 1751 in St. Mary's Church, Nottingham.〔http://www.nottinghamchurches.org/heritage/stm-heritage/stm-history/〕 Another early start was made by Hannah Ball, a native of High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, who founded a school there in 1769.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 Robert Raikes and the Sunday School Movement )〕 However, the founding of Sunday schools is more commonly associated with the work of Robert Raikes, editor of the ''Gloucester Journal'', who saw the need to prevent children in the slums descending into crime. In 18th century England, education was reserved for a minority and was not compulsory. The wealthy educated their children privately, i.e. at home, with a hired governess, or possibly tutors once they were older; boys of that class were often sent away to boarding school, hence these fee-based educational establishments were known, confusingly, as public schools. The town-based middle class may have sent their sons to grammar school; daughters were left to learn what they could from their mothers or from their father's library. The children of factory workers received no formal education, typically working alongside their parents six days a week, sometimes more than 13 hours a day. In 1781, Raikes saw the plight of children living in the Gloucester slums. In the home of Mrs. Meredith, he opened the first school on Sunday, the only day these boys and girls living in the slums and working in the factories could attend. Using the Bible as their textbook, he taught them to read and write.〔Towns, Elmer L., "History of Sunday School", ''Sunday School Encyclopedia'', 1993〕 Within four years over 250,000 children were attending schools on Sunday throughout England.〔 In 1784, many new schools opened, including the interdenominational Stockport Sunday School, which provided a model for Macclesfield. Stockport Sunday School constructed a school for 5,000 scholars in 1805; in the late nineteenth century this was accepted as being the largest in the world. By 1831, it was reported that attendance at Sunday Schools had grown to 1.2 million.〔 Raikes' schools were seen as the first schools of the English state system.〔(Copyright free text from ''The first fifty years of the Sunday School'', W.H. Watson )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Macclesfield Sunday School」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|