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SECTION XI.: SCHOOLING AND SUNDAY EMPLOYMENT. - Jeremy Bentham, The Works of Jeremy Bentham, vol. 4 [1843]

Edition used:

The Works of Jeremy Bentham, published under the Superintendence of his Executor, John Bowring (Edinburgh: William Tait, 1838-1843). 11 vols. Vol. 4.

Part of: The Works of Jeremy Bentham, 11 vols.

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SECTION XI.

SCHOOLING AND SUNDAY EMPLOYMENT.

Every penitentiary-house, it is observed in the Letters, besides being a penitentiary-house, was liable to be an hospital. Every penitentiary-house—I might have added, every Panopticon penitentiary-house more particularly, might be, and ought to be a school—to children at any rate, since so it is, that even that tender age is not exempt either from the punishment, or from the guilt that leads to it; and why not for the illiterate at least among men? Not many surely will there be, even among the adult members of this community, whose education has been so complete as to have left them nothing to learn that could be of use either to their master or to themselves. To read, to write, and to cast accounts—such ordinary branches of instruction might be common to them all. Of such of them as possessed the seeds of any peculiar talent, the valuable qualities might be found out and cultivated. Drawing is of itself a lucrative branch of industry, and might be made assistant to several others. Music, here as elsewhere, might be made an assistant to the productive value of the chapel. If to a just comprehension of his own interest, the contractor should add a certain measure of spirit and intelligence, he will naturally be disposed to put them in possession, according to their several capacities, of every such profitable talent they can be made to acquire. Who can doubt of it?—their acquirements are his gains. Where is the academy of which the master has so strong or so immediate an interest in the proficiency of his pupils?

Instruction being to be administered, at what times of the week and of the day? Two words—Sunday Schools—resolve every difficulty. In them we see a vacant spot, nor that an inconsiderable one, of which instruction in its most respectable branches, intellectual as well as moral and religious, may take possession, without any opposition on the part of economy. Time was wanting for such employments; employments were wanting for this time: both demands are satisfied by a principle so happily established and approved.

Of what nature shall the employment be at those times? Let religion pronounce, the answer cannot be long to seek. Two modes of occupation present themselves: exercises of devotion; and lessons of instruction in such acquirements as are capable of being inlisted in the service of devotion. That the whole extent of the time could not be exclusively appropriated to the former purpose, is obvious enough: the very sentiment is more than will be to be found, until it be planted by instruction, in such corrupt and vacant minds. Paternosters in incessant repetition, with beads to number them, may fill up, if you insist upon it, the whole measure of the day: but the words, instead of being signs of pious thoughts, would be but so many empty sounds—and the beads without the words would be of equal efficacy.

I speak under correction: but for my own part, I must confess, that among arts capable of being employed in the service of religion, I see none that need be excluded, even on this consecrated day, so long as they are actually and faithfully occupied in that service. Among the most obvious are those already mentioned in a more general view; especially that branch of music which has received the name of psalmody. And if arts of a more refined and privileged texture, such as that of design in any of its numerous branches, could find admittance into so unpolished a society, why should they be excluded even on that day, so long as they wear the habit of the day?*

Mode of Airing and Exercising on Sundays.—To take their lessons they repair, when season and weather permit, to a kind of open amphitheatre in the airing-yard, of which, if necessary, there may be several, placed between the walks of the airing-parade—for which once more see the figure. The form of this erection is circular, with part of the circle cut off as by a secant, in which the instructor stations himself so as to have none of his pupils behind him, nor out of his view. Over the seats may be thrown occasionally a canvass awning, supported by iron pillars, with flaps to let down on the weather side, in case of violent wind or rain. If these flaps be not let down, or not let down on the side towards the look-out, the prisoners in their school are open to the eyes not only of the schoolmaster, but of the inspectors stationed in that exterior lodge. But at the worst, the vicinity of these armed protectors averts from the instructor every idea of danger.

It is not a very slight degree of cold, nor a slight measure of bad weather, that should exclude them, on this only day out of seven, from the healthful influence of the open air. But in case of absolute necessity, the business of reformatory instruction may be transferred to the chapel, there to be carried on between or after the times of divine service.

Introduced into the middlemost inspection-gallery by the correspondent traversing-staircase, in the same order as into the airing-parade, and with similar precautions, they take their stations in the chapel-area and lower-gallery attached to it, two armed inspectors having first stationed themselves in the gallery above. Their station gained, the doors by which they have been discharged into it from the circumambient inspection-gallery are locked.* The schoolmaster may either occupy the clerk’s place under the pulpit, or quit it and go round to them, according to the nature of the instruction to be conveyed.

[* ]Drawing, engraving, and colouring prints of Scripture scenes for editions of the Bible, the Book of Common Prayer, and other religious publications, furnish constant employment for a number of hands incomparably greater than could ever be picked out for such ingenious arts from a penitentiary-house. Reading and writing will, of course, on these days, take religious subjects for their theme; and these vulgar branches of instruction will find sufficient occupation for by far the greater part of the prisoners. But where these inferior sources have been exhausted, what scruple need there be of ascending to the other higher ones? The great object of this consecrated day is to keep alive the sentiment of religion in men’s minds: what exercise, therefore, that contributes to that end can justly be deemed unseasonable?

[]Were the roof a permanent one, a tiled roof for example, it might be difficult to find a situation where it could be placed without affording obstruction in some way or other to the inspection principle.

[* ]Should it be deemed necessary, Mr. Blackburne’s mode of sedentary confinement might here be introduced; viz. that of letting down, upon the level of their breasts or stomachs as they sit, a bar, which, without touching or much incommoding them, prevents their rising till it be removed. Mechanics and anatomy contributed each their share in the production of this simple and ingenious contrivance, which, however, amidst such an abundance of securities, will hardly be deemed a necessary one.

[]For instance, reading and writing portions of Scripture or other devotional books. The profane and worldly-minded study of arithmetic might perhaps be looked upon as ill-suited to this consecrated place.