RAGGED SCHOOLS. The ragged school, as distinct from the certified industrial school, is a voluntary agency providing education for destitute children, and so prevent ing them from falling into vagrancy and crime. Vagrant children, and those guilty of slight offenses, are provided for in the certified industrial school; but the two institu tions are frequently combined. See article ScHooLs. The movement which established ragged schools was almost simultaneous with that which instituted reforma tories. John Pounds, a poor shoemaker at Portsmouth, has the honor of originating the idea. For 20 years. up to the time of his death in 1839. he gathered the ragged chil- _ dren of the district round him as lie sat at work. They came freely, and were taught gratuitously. .The success attending his humble efforts soon led many more influential friends of the "outcasts" to engage in the same work. In 1838 London had a ragged Sunday-school, which eventually became a free day-school. Field Lane followed in 1848. But the first ragged feeding-school was opened in 1841 by sheriff Watson, in Aberdeen. In 1815 Dr. Robertson, not then aware of the existence of sheriff Watson's, opened a similar school in the Venue], Edinburgh. Soon afterward Dr. Guthrie's famous Plea Ar Ragged Schools appeared, a work which gave an irresistible impetus to the movement, and caused the author to be generally regarded as the father of ragged schools. After this ragged schools spread over all the land, until there was scarcely a
town of any importance that had not one or more. The recent education acts, how ever—that for England, 1870, and that for Scotland, 1872—introduced the principle of compulsory attendance at school; under this provision, a large number—especially in England—of such as were merely free day-schools have become public schools. But as the education acts make no provision fcr feeding the children, the managers of feeding schools find themselves compelled to continue their efforts. In places where the system has been efficiently conducted juvenile crime has sensibly diminished. The governor of the Edinburgh prison has stated frequently in his reports, that since the establishment of ragged schools, the number of young persons committed to prison has gradually decreased. It may be mentioned that in one large ragged feeding-school, where in the course of 10 years 4,000 children have been enrolled, only 7 deaths have occurred during the period of school attendance. The ragged schools do pot receive government aid. The capitation grant of £2 10s., allowed by a privy council minute in 1856, was withdrawn in 1859.