School is now part of every child's daily life just as it was for their mothers and fathers and possibly for grandparents but for great grandparents this was not necessarily so, for attendance at school was not compulsory till nearly the end of the 19th century and education for the poor and working class had been non-existent before and during the 18th Century. Through the years various Monarchs had established Grammar schools which taught Latin Grammar, Reading and Script to the sons of the rising middle class, wealthy merchants, yeoman farmers and thriving craftsman and minor gentry.
By the 1780's social reformers had realised, spurred on by the Revolutions in France and America, that if something was not done officially to educate these lower strata of Society, their education could fall disastrously into the wrong hands......
Read more when you buy the full article.