Education Ragged Schools 1853

Context

• Ragged schools were set up prior to free schooling.

• First set up as a Sunday school by Robert Raikes in 1780 where children were taught to read the Bible (most widely available book)

• Schools for homeless children, or the children of drunks, abusive parents, convicts etc. (during the day only)

Society and Religion

• Religion is a large focus in this text which shows that it is of great importance to the author Susanna Beever and also that it is something the addressees (rich boys and girls) understand and respect.

• ‘when you pray’ – shows that prayers are a given, regular thing of that time (i.e. there is no question that they will pray.)

• ‘Kind and Christian people’ – shows that these two ideas go hand in hand (to be Christian is to be kind)

Society and Poverty

• ‘Hundreds of poor children who have either no home to go to; or such an one as you would fear to enter’ – a lot of homelessness and poor housing.

• ‘if they went home in good clothes they would take them from them and sell them’ – people were desperate for money. Shows only the children were getting help from this system.

Society and Family

• From Beever’s point of view she sees the parents of the poor as ‘wicked’ and drunkards (‘spend the money on something to drink’) but feels sorry for the children.

• Tries to instil the idea of pitying the poor children and blaming the parents instead. Idea that their minds have been corrupted by the parents and they can still be saved.

Lexis

• ‘obliged’• ‘provided’• ‘neglected’• ‘obtaining’

Some educated polysyllabic lexis considering pamphlet for children – would not be used today as we would use simpler language instead.

Lexis

• ‘good’ ‘kind’ ‘nice’ – empty adjectives no longer would be used for persuasive purposes - don’t mean anything to us.

• ‘basin’ instead of bowl (basin now used to mean sink)

• ‘Him’ – capitalised him meaning God. – word god rarely used at all now – especially not for persuasive purposes

Grammar• The text contains several long complex sentences, the longest 80 words

long, made up of multiple clauses. Modern writers would simplify this into multiple smaller sentences.

• Use of the second person pronoun “you” creates a sense of synthetic personalisation which makes the reader feel as though the text is directed specifically at them. Considering the audience is “boys and girls” this may help to maintain their attention as the text speaks to them rather than describing them as a third party.

• The text contains a lot of descriptive and emotive language especially pre-modifiers such as “poor, neglected, hungry” which would not be as common in modern official public health announcements similar to this letter.

• “Foodless, friendless, in our streets.” – use of the pronoun “our” creates a “them and us” attitude. Suggesting that there is a divide between them due to the social classes. Also suggests that it’s their responsibility as these children as on their streets, moves people towards action.

Graphology & Presentation

• The text describes itself as a “letter” but is presented as a book with binding and page numbers, far more elaborately presented than a modern leaflet.

• The only image used is in the cover and isn’t used illustratively but more decoratively. Modern leaflets concentrate on presenting information and the use of images is usually to exemplify and illustrate the meaning of the text.

Apostrophe

• An apostrophe is a archaic exclamatory figure of speech such as “Oh!” frequently found in older texts and typically associated with Shakespeare and other dramatists and poets. It’s use in the text makes the writer appear deeply worried or concerned for the “poor outcasts”. Used for emotive effect it would not be found in modern texts of the same genre which aim to be more clinical and objective.