Jane Eyre 9/07 - Black Cat

In this scene from Franco Zeffirelli’s Jane Eyre (1996) Charlotte Gainsbourg asJane teaches Adèle; you will read about Jane’s new teaching job in the next chapter.Victorian SchoolsWhen Jane Eyre went to Lowood School, she was very unhappy atfirst. There was not enough food for the girls to eat, their clotheswere not warm enough for the cold winter weather and the teacherswere very strict. Not all schools at that time were as bad as Lowood,but life in a Victorian school was still very different from life in mostmodern schools.There were schools for many years before Queen Victoria’s time, butvery few of these were for the children of poor parents. The greatpublic schools, 1 such as Eton, Harrow and Rugby were expensiveplaces for the children of rich parents. There were also the old1. public schools : (in Britain only) private schools.29

The Naughty School Children by the French painter Theophile E. Duverger(1821-86). The little girls are punished by being humiliated.grammar schools, 1 many of them from the sixteenth century. Theseschools were for the sons of merchants and other rich families whohad enough money to pay the fees. William Shakespeare, who wasborn in 1564, was a pupil at the grammar school in Stratford-upon-Avon.Many children of rich families did not go to school. They weretaught at home by a governess or tutor in a special school room.There were few schools for girls. Usually girls had to learn at homehow to look after a house, how to cook and how to sew.There were many children who had no time for learning at all. Theyhad to work in factories 2 from a very young age. Some of the1. grammar schools : schools for clever children.2. factories : buildings where machines are used to make largequantities of goods.30

churches started schools so that poor children could learn to readand write, and learn about religion. In the time of Queen Victoria,many more schools were started for poor children. In 1880 a law wasmade which said that children aged five to ten must go to school.It cost three pennies a week, but in 1891 it became free.Many schools were now built, but they were very different frommodern schools. There were 60 to 80 children in each class, with onlyone teacher and a helper to look after them. The teacher sat at a highdesk so that he could watch all the children. He was very strict andhit the children with a cane 1 when they made a mistake.At first, poor parents didn’t like their children going to schoolinstead of working to earn money for the family. When builderscame to put up schools in poor areas, angry parents often chasedthem away. 21Comprehension checkFor questions 1-7, choose the correct answer – A, B or C.1 All Victorian schools used to beA bad, with strict teachers and not enough foodB very similar to modern schoolsC generally different from modern schools2 What was a public school?A a school paid for by the governmentB a private schoolC a school for anyone1. cane :2. chased them away : forced them to go away.31

INTERNET PROJECTTo find out more about schools in Victorian England connect to theInternet and go to www.blackcat-cideb.com or www.cideb.it. Insertthe title or part of the title of the book into our search engine. Openthe page for Jane Eyre. Click on the Internet project link. Go downthe page until you find the title of this book and click on the relevantlinks for this project.With your partner make a short report on one of these aspects ofschool in Victorian times.punishmentgames and sportsslatesabacusesclassroomssubjects taught – the ‘3 Rs’teachers.33