085. The South Australian Colony, Froebel, and the John Adam St Gang

8/8/2019 085. The South Australian Colony, Froebel, and the John Adam St Gang.

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Origins of the South Australian Colony, the non -conformists and Froebel;

South Australia described as Paradise of Dissent;

South Australia's original diversity in religious beliefs was the key factor to SouthAustralia's Label 'Paradise of Dissent'. When South Australia was first settled in the

1830's, one of the largest factors that attracted immigrants was the absence of a State

Church. Immigrants could migrate to South Australia, without having a particular

religious body to influence government and their own daily lives. The Church had

been a huge factor in England, and other major nations around the globe for past

centuries. (1)

The South Australian Association located in John Adam St, London:

After the historic meeting at Exeter Hall on the 30th June 1834, where the principles,objects, plan and prospects of the New Colony of South Australia were explained to

the public, hundreds of enquiries from prospective immigrants started to arrive at the

South Australian Association's rooms at 7 John Street Adelphi. (2)

(Exeter Hall, located on The Strand, now demolished, was the Freemasons Hall, London,

where anniversaries of the Bible Society and Church Missionary Society, for example, were

held.) (3)

The South Australian Lodge of Friendship also had its first meeting at 7 John St, Adelphi. (4)

Paradise of Dissenters by Douglas Pike, Chapter V, is titled The Adelphi Planners. (5)

George Fife Angas associated with the South Australian Association, establishes the South

Australian Company:

Angas had become relatively wealthy and was concerned with putting his money to

the best use. He became interested in a proposed settlement in South Australia and

formed the South Australian Company. His own views on systematic colonisation

dealt with the exclusion of convicts, concentration of settlers, sending out (preferably

religious) intelligent people with capital, the emigration of young couples of good

character, free trade, free government, and freedom of religion.

Angas was discouraged by the company's failure to get government support, but

continued his involvement with the South Australian Association which was formedin 1834, with Robert Gougeras secretary. During debates on the price of land, Angas

held the opposite view to Edward Gibbon Wakefield's wanting the price to be low.

Difficulties arose in raising money and Angas eventually formed the South

Australian Company. The company purchased land from the South Australian

Association (6)


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The South Australian Company buys land next to its farm in South Australia, called theVillage of Mitcham, a village separate from Adelaide:

Created as a village separate from Adelaide ("Mitcham Village"), it was ancillary to

a sheep station at Brown Hill Creekbelonging to the South Australia Company (7)

George Fife Angus, non-conformist, and the South Australian colony, influential in

education, establishes the South Australian School Society in England;

In 1832 he joined the committee of the South Australian Land Co., claiming less

interest in systematic colonization than in founding a colony where, with no

established church and no convicts, his fellow Dissenters might enjoy civil and

religious liberty

The company was not the only part of Angas's work for the foundation of South

Australia. He lobbied the Colonial Office, subsidized authors and published

magazines and pamphlets. He recruited pious Dissenters, helped to provide the colony

with Nonconformist ministers and chapels, sent out missionaries to the Aboriginals,

founded the South Australian School Society and hoped to plant an advanced college

and even a university like Oxford....

In 1848 Angas decided to go to South Australia, where his German tenants were atlast paying their rents and the South Australian Co. was again paying a dividend. He

resigned as its chairman and director, and with renewed vigour planned a score of

colonial ventures ranging from the export of tallow to drain pipes made by machine.

Again he lectured and wrote and lobbied, this time for the Australian colonies'

government bill. When it was passed in August 1850 (13 & 14 Vic. c. 59) and all hisEnglish property was sold he sailed with his wife and youngest son in theAscendant

and arrived in Adelaide in January 1851.

Angas was greeted by his children and old friends, and praised at a public dinner forhis years of energetic promotion of the colony's welfare in London. At Lindsay Park

near Angaston he made a spacious home, improving the property and building achapel, roads and bridges. As his health recovered he travelled through the settled

areas, attending many public functions and often preaching. Later he acquiredProspect Hall as his town house.

Soon after arrival he had been made a justice of the peace and member of the Boardof Education

On the select committee for education in 1851 he pressed successfully for Bible

reading in schools (8)

George Fife Angas and Sunday Schools:

Soon after his arrival in South Australia, Angas was elected member for Barossa in

the Legislative Council and served the Colony in that capacity until his retirement on28 August 1866. Angas was very interested in the education of the young. He was a


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firm believer in Sunday Schools and organised a school society for South Australia.He was closely involved with the establishment of free schools in the outer districts of

the settlement. In 1865 one school was opened at Bowden and another at Norwood.He brought up his own children with regular morning and evening family worship. (9)

The non-conformists and Froebel:

The German Friedrich Froebel founded the Froebelian theory of pre-school education and

founded kindergartens.

Friedrich Froebel (1782-1852), the great German educator, is famous pre-eminently

for his radical insight that the first learning experiences of the very young are ofcrucial importance in influencing not only their later educational achievements but

also the health and development of society as a whole. He devised a set of principlesand practices which would form part of an interactive educational process to take

place in institutions which in 1840 he named kindergarten. (10)

The Empress Friedrich, daughter of Queen Victoria, wife of the Crown Prince of

Prussia, mother of Kaiser Wilhelm.

Her Imperial Majesty the Dowager Empress Frederick was patroness of the FroebelEducational Institute in London, when it commenced in 1892. (11)

The National Froebel Foundation in the UK was housed at the Royal Society of the Arts

Tavern Room, 2-8 John Adam St London, from 1923-1939. (12)

The lack of dogmatism and religious orthodoxy in Froebel's kindergarten appealed to

Nonconformists and especially Unitarians from Early Years Education: Some FroebelianContributions, by Kevin J. Brehony (13)

Froebel in the United Kingdon:

The theories of Froebel and Pestalozzi on the teaching of little children, for example,

expressed themselves in the kindergarten movement, which became an important fieldfor private enterprise. An early Middlesex kindergarten was housed in the 'Iron Room

School' opened in 1863 by the vicar of Christ Church, Hampstead. Its headmistresswas Mrs. Coghlan, wife of the Principal of the Home and Colonial College. Sir

Robert Morant was one of its pupils. (fn. 82) By 1884 there were a number ofkindergartens, many with a particular social emphasis. The Royal English

Kindergarten College in Berners Street, for example, taught 'the children of familiesof position' and their governesses and head-nurses. (fn. 83) Of a more middle-class

character was the Maida Vale Kindergarten where little boys and girls of from three to

eight were 'thoroughly grounded' in a 'perfectly symmetrical education', utilizing theFroebelian apparatus and tasks designed to develop the child's inherent powers and

provided according to a careful system of 'the Gifts, the Games, the Occupations, andthe Object Lessons', under Frlein Steinweg, a pupil of Madame Froebel. (fn. 84) The


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high-schools of the Girls' Public Day School Company had their own kindergartensand at its Maida Vale School students were trained for the examination of the

National Froebel Union. (fn. 85) (14)

(Interesting to note that the Girls Day School Company is a prominent supporter of the

current Academy schools agenda in the UK).

Frobelian theories in South Australia:

George Fife Angas impressed by Froebel, From Founding a Utopia, by Douglas Pike:

Angas was also impressed by Friedrich Froebel's principle of awakening the child to a

sense of unity with nature and his fellows (15)

Also:

it was George Fife Angas whose ideas were to be embodied in the South Australian

School Society (16)

Lydia Longmore:

LONGMORE, LYDIA (1874-1967), infant-teacher, was born on 15 July 1874 atLittle Chilton Colliery, Durham, England, daughter of Rev. Isaiah Longmore,

Wesleyan home missionary, and his wife Martha Susan, ne Lynax. The family

migrated to South Australia in 1884, Lydia and her aunt remaining in Adelaide whileher father and mother followed his calling as a bush missionary.

The mothers' clubs, headed by infant-mistresses, grew from one in 1920 to thirty-

seven in 1931 with over 20,000 mothers being involved; their Froebelian aim was todeepen both mothers' and teachers' understanding of children. The clubs' impact on

school life impressed the superintendent of primary education: 'At no time in South

Australia has there been such living contact between the school and the home'. (17)

De Lissa and Froebelian kindergartens in Australia:

DE LISSA, LILLIAN DAPHNE (1885-1967), educator, was born on 25 October

1885 at Darlinghurst, Sydney, daughter of Montague de Lissa, merchant, and his wife

Julia, ne Joseph; they were Jewish. She was educated at Riviere College, Woollahra.

Musically gifted, she became an accomplished pianist but, on seeing the

transformation of slum children by the Woolloomooloo free kindergarten, shededicated herself to the education of young children. In 1902 she entered the

Kindergarten College, Sydney, and was influenced by the principal Frances Newton

who had trained in Chicago. De Lissa graduated brilliantly and in 1904-05 was a

kindergarten director; she then took a course in training teachers. In 1905 she

accompanied Newton to Adelaide at the expense of Rev. Bertram Hawker, a

philanthropist, to demonstrate kindergarten methods; their work led to the formation

of the Kindergarten Union of South Australia. (18)


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De Lissa also in Western Australia:

Next year de Lissa became director of the first Adelaide free kindergarten, Franklin

Street, in a cottage in the city's slums, where she was assisted by young womenvoluntary helpers. She used Froebelian methods and continually related theory to

practice, regarding improved child welfare and education as the basis of social reform.

She was not a practising Jew but applied general biblical moral precepts in teachingand encouraged the children to celebrate the major Christian festivals. She held extra

classes for older children, arranged mothers' meetings and made visits where she gave

informal instruction in hygiene and child care. Her compassion was tempered by a

sharp intellect, while her personality, beauty, and logical claims for kindergarten

principles attracted support for the Kindergarten Union. She persuaded it to establish

the Adelaide Kindergarten Training College for teachers which opened in 1907 with

eleven students; she was principal and also director of the union.

Modelling the two-year course on the Sydney curriculum, de Lissa taught the

professional subjects; specialist lecturers included ProfessorWilliam Mitchell, Dr

Helen Mayo and Mrs Lucy Morice, secretary of the union and her close friend. Thecollege flourished in spite of lack of funds and makeshift accommodation; in 1915

Robert Barr Smith donated a substantial house. From 1908 more kindergartens hadopened, mainly in poor areas, using de Lissa's advice. Her visit to Perth in 1911

resulted in the establishment of the Kindergarten Union of Western Australia. In 1913she began a successful evening course for Sunday school teachers. (19)

The Thornbers school, Froebel, at the Village of Mitcham: (The Thornbers from Harpurhey

in Manchester, Harpurhey meaning "hedged enclosure by a man called Harpour", the nameHarpour being a form of harper, the one who plays the harp.

Although Unley Park School's reputation was quickly established, its zenith occurred

under Miss Catherine, born on 17 November 1837 at Harpurhey, near Manchester,Lancashire. A music governess in private homes, she became the school'sheadmistress after her mother's death in Adelaide on 14 May 1894. Ellen, born on 7

September 1851 at Mitcham, was then in England, attending conferences, visitingleading girls' schools and assessing educational trends. Catherine made a similar trip

six years later. In its methods and curricula the Thornbers' school was among SouthAustralia's most progressive: it offered chemistry, physiology, geology and botany,

taught by university-educated women. By 1898 it had an enrolment of 125 pupils.Preparation for the university was emphasized, but the school's successes there did

not prevent the sisters from deploring the university's restrictive entrance

requirements.

With buildings and equipment worth 4000, Unley Park School had an imposing

appearance. Its teaching reflected the owners' interest in method: geologicalexcursions, lantern-slides acquired by Miss Ellen in England and a skeleton (kept

behind a satin curtain) enlivened senior lessons; in 1894 pupils had studied history,geography and literature by following Miss Ellen's journey overseas. German was

taught and French was popular: one teacher was sent to Paris to study for a year as a

means to 'keep us in touch with the old land and its modern systems'. Some ofAdelaide's leaders in art, music and elocution taught at the school, while club-

swinging, drill, tennis, cricket and swimming were also provided.


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Because the Thornbers espoused 'the glorious principles of Froebel', in thekindergarten (which included boys) time was devoted to structured play; the sisters

supported Lillian De Lissa, an advocate of Montessori's system, who stayed withthem on her return from England. With her, Miss Catherine was a promoter of the

Kindergarten Union of South Australia. (20)

It was noted in the article Methodism in the Paradise of Dissent, 1837-1900 by RB Walker,

that in 1901 almost one quarter of the population on South Australia were Methodist, andthat Wesleyan Methodists had always been the numerically largest component. (21)

References:

(1)http://www.writework.com/essay/south-australia-paradise-dissent(2)http://historysouthaustralia.net/Ships.htm(3)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exeter_Hall(4)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Australian_Lodge_of_Friendship(5)http://www.questia.com/read/23490391(6)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Fife_Angas(7)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitcham,_South_Australia(8)http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A010018b.htm(9)http://www.southaustralianhistory.com.au/angas.htm(10) http://www.froebel.org.uk/(11) http://www.friedrichfroebel.com/vicky.html(12) http://www.thersa.org/house/rooms/the-tavern-room(13) http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a743929852(14) http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=22125(15) http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a918869368(16) http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a918868569(17) http://adbonline.anu.edu.au/biogs/A100132b.htm(18) http://adbonline.anu.edu.au/biogs/A080294b.htm(19) http://adbonline.anu.edu.au/biogs/A080294b.htm(20) http://adbonline.anu.edu.au/biogs/A120706b.htm(21) http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.14679809.1969.tb00319.x/abstrac

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085. The South Australian Colony, Froebel, and the John Adam St Gang