Abraham Isaacs of Catherine-street was summoned to Exeter's Guildhall by the School Board for neglecting to send his son to school:
"Isaacs said his lad was eight and a half years of age, and was a notorious little customer.
"Mr Austin (the prosecutor) said he had known the lad to go to as many as four schools, but the masters could do nothing with him.
"Defendant said he had punished the lad severely, had chained him up to the bed-post, but he would break away.
"The Inspector said he would go into public-houses and stand on his head to amuse the company. - (laughter).
"Mr Austin said he was a sharp little fellow, and ought to be educated. If he had not really committed any crime he was on the high-road to it. Several masters had refused to take him in consequence of his refractory conduct.
"Defendant said he had taken him to school, but during the morning he had been known to conceal his cap under his coat, and managed to get away.
"Mr Austin said the Board considered the case was out of their hands, and was more for the care of the parents. It was rarely that they could keep him to school more than one day in the week.
"The Bench enforced a conditional fine of 2s 6d, to be enforced if the child was not regularly sent for the next fortnight,"
One senses the utter helplessness of the parents and the School Board, not to mention that of the schoolmasters, faced with a sharp little fellow who wanted only to go into pubs and stand on his head,
For all our 'social science' I don't think we have much more idea today how to deal with 'refactrory conduct' in children. We don't chain them to bedsteads but the worst of them we lock away in the regional secure unit.
And so, it would seem that, in Victoria's Exeter, schoolmasters, if they so wished, could refuse to take a difficult child into class. What a prerogative!
Source: The Western Times, 1st September, 1874.
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