ABSTRACT
So, we have established that the early roots of what we have now as our national system of education in the UK were designed to create children who would respect authority (do what the teachers say), respect God (do what the Church says), obey the Monarch (do what the government says), be good unthinking workers (do what the boss says) and die for their country (do what the general says). And if you don’t believe me on this then surely you will trust the word
of a Tory politician speaking in the House of Commons and recorded in Hansard in 1807:1
Giving education to the labouring classes of the poor … would teach them to despise their lot in life, instead of making them good servants in agriculture and other laborious employments to which their rank in society has destined them; instead of teaching them the virtue of subordination, it would render them factious and refactory … it would enable them to read seditious pamphlets, vicious books and publications against Christianity.
