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WHAT WERE MODEL SCHOOLS LIKE?
The schools had an upstairs and
a downstairs. The Principal had a residence upstairs. The
men pupil teachers lived upstairs too but their residence
was not nearly so well furnished as the Principal's. The lady
teachers lived elsewhere. The classroom had a stove or fire
to heat them. The seats were old-fashioned desks which were
made from wood and iron. The schools were very well looked
after, painted every year, and everything was paid for by
the Government.
The school was completely non-dimensional.
J.G. Fleming. Head inspector on the Kilkenny District Model
School, wrote on the first of June 1861:
The institution comprises three distinct departments. viz.,
boys ,girls and infants school under the charge of three principals
and three assistant teachers. In the boys and girls schools
the principal teachers are Roman Catholics and the assistant
teachers Protestants. In the Infants school the principal
teacher is a member of the Established Church (Church of Ireland)
and her assistant is a Roman Catholic.
William Hornan Newell,
the Secretary to the Board of National Education, speaking
to a committee of the House of Lords in 1869 said the advantages
of the Model Schools was they provided a superior class of
education, bringing together children of all denomination
and very often of all classes.
J.G. Fleming, Head Inspector of the Kilkenny District Model
School said: "In the Model School in no instance has the slightest
expression of dissatisfaction emanated from any parent or
guardian in reference to all important subject of Religious
Training" 1st of June 1861.
HOW MANY MODEL SCHOOLS WERE THERE?
There were four Model Schools
in Dublin and twenty-six in other counties. There was going
to be one in every county but because there was so much opposition
they were not all built. All the Model Schools were built
between 1848 and 1861
WHY DID CATHOLIC CHILDREN STOP COMING TO SCHOOL?
The teachers did not teach Religion
in the Model Schools. Different clergy came in to teach their
own children one morning a week.
The Catholic bishops did not like this arrangement. They wanted
to run their own schools. Thr Catholic bishops said in 1863:
No priest was to send any person to be trained in any Model
School. No teacher trained in any Model School after 1863
was to be employed by a priest in a National school. Priests
were to withdraw Catholic children attending Model Schools.
HOW DID THE MODEL SCHOOLS BECOME THE PROTESTANT
SCHOOL?
In 1892 it was decided that in
areas where there was as well as a Model School either an
ordinary Catholic or Protestant School, there would be one
school only for each Religion. So if there was already a Catholic
the Model School became Protestant and if there was a Protestant
School already the Model School became Catholic so most Model
Schools became Protestant.
KILKENNY SUBSCRIPTION SCHOOL
In 1817 the Marquis of Ormonde
gave money for a school for Protestant Children. It was called
Kilkenny Subscription School. In 1818 Joseph Evans left moneyfor
the education and Technical Training of poor Protestants and
for dowries for Protestant girls. The Kilkenny Subscriptions
School was called Evans School. This school closed and the
children were sent to the Model School. Mr. Tom Lewis of John
Street was a pupil of the Evans School un til it closed and
then he went to the Model School.
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