ABSTRACT
Tupling reconstructs an account of the Lax family of Staindrop. This focus on one family brings a unique perspective to understanding the history of elementary education in the nineteenth century, offering an insight into the experiences of individuals and the influence of family, a feature under-examined in the history of education. Questions are raised about the nature of state-school teaching as a profession, and about the social status of teachers, that are suggestive of troubling contemporary parallels. Nevertheless, this case study of one family shows that teachers, and the teaching profession, were not merely the playthings of government. Individual agency enabled teachers to define a role in their communities quite different from that envisaged for them by those in political power.
