The Superiority of the “Scotch System”: Scottish Ragged Schools and Their Influence

Ragged and industrial schools for destitute children were established in England and Scotland in the 1840s.Although the movements in the two countries influenced each other, they soon became so distinct that the secretary of the London Ragged School Union was able to classify schools according to whether they had adopted the "Scotch system" (Se!.Comm.!852).The distinguishing marks of this system were the emphasis on Industrial training, and the provision of meals to attract pupils to school.In other respects the schools resembled each other in their restriction to destitute children only, their dependence on local subscriptions, and their careful screening of admissions to ensure that charity was not abused.The characteristic Scottish ragged school was a day industrial feeding school, ~he English one a day, evening or Sunday school, providing rudimentary Instruction with a strong evangelical flavour.The Industrial S~hools Act (Scotland) of 1854 brought the prospect of government aid, and ten Scottish schools were certified within three years.Although the Act was extended to England in 1857, the response from the :agged schools was disappointing, and only six schools entered the scheme initially.Three of these schools, York, Newcastle and Manchester, were on the Scottish model, two were London children's homes and the Bristol school was the creation of Mary Carpenter, who in her Reformatory Schools extolled the Scottish system of industrial feeding schools.The slow start in England reflects the lack of emphasis on industrial training.The provisions of the act had been worked out by the major Scottish schools and suited their needs, whereas to introduce industrial training and boarding facilities meant a costly change of policy for English schools.Moreover, the influential Ragged School Union was against accepting government aid: "our country friends ... will find that Government aid and Government dictation are chained" (Clark, 1967).The number of certified industrial schools in England increased rapidly after a new act of 1866, and the schools who chose that role survived when ragged day schools became redundant in the School Board era.Scottish ragged schools have received little detailed attention as a group, although the pioneer efforts of Watson and Guthrie have been described (Scotland, 1969;Mechie, 1960;Maclaren, 1974).This paper ?escribes their origins and transformation after 1854 into certified Industrial schools.An attempt is also made to set the movement in the Wider British context, and to find the roots of the distinctive features Which led contemporaries to refer to "the Scotch system".This contrast is rooted in fundamental differences in approach between the English and Scottish movements: In Scotland, the schools were Primarily intended for vagrant and destitute children on the way to crime.In England, the anti-delinquent function was increasingly overshadowed by broader evangelical and humanitaria-n aims, and the ragged school net Was cast more widely.