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are paid to the holders in exchange . These tickets are valued at the rate of eight for one penny / ' It is not a mere prospect of reward , by which the pupils are encouraged ; a prize stuck up at the end of a long career , which they must run through to attain it : —no , a reward is immediately bestowed upon every performance of duty , the very same morning or afternoon . * A distant prospect , it is apprehended , might not
act powerfully enough ; thus the children are accustomed to " love a reward upon every cornfloor , " and in - whatsoever they do , instead of doing it , according to the apostle ' s injunction , for the glory of God , to " love gifts , and follow after rewards . " So effectual is the operation of this admirable principle , that the fact has actually occurred in a Lancaster i an school that , upon the mistress proposing a task of rather a novel description , the girls asked her , whether they should have tickets for doing
it , openly declaring , that if there was no reward attached to it , they would not do it . " Point d argent , point de Suisse * The daily getting of a reward for every thing that is called " deserving , " by the British system , is , however , not sufficient , properly to cultivate an hireling spirit . To complete this part of its education , the system gives proper encourage *
ment to a calculating spirit ; first of all by the conversion of the reward tickets into substantial rewards every three months , and , secondly , by a popish sort of indulgence-trade , which the children are permitted to carry on with them before their conversion into real property , and by which those reward tickets come fully under the denomination of the Mammon of unrighteousness . " Under the head " Punishments , ' we are informed
that at the close of each school-time , " the bad boys are classed into divisions , corresponding with the number of their offences , and are required to pay one ticket for each offence ; those who do so are dismissed , and those who have no tickets are confined a quarter of an hour for every offence reported against them . " And lest any doubt should remain on the subject , it is further stated that "in all cases , the parties may be
excused from confinement , if they are in possession of reward tickets , by forfeiting them , at the rate of one ticket for every quarter of an hour ' s detention / 1 Not enough that the child is taught to do his duty , not from conscientious feeling of obligation , but for reward ' s sake ; he is also taught , and that in the most effectual manner , viz ., by practice , that past good conduct amounts to a license for the commission of sin . This may
not be the intention of the framers of those ill-contrived regulations , but it is the necessary effect of them . How easy is it , for instance , for a clever boy to gain reward tickets , to a considerable amount , by attention to reading , spelling , and arithmetic , all of which he may , if he prefer present indulgence to future gratification , convert into as many tickets of
license for the perpetration of such offences as are particularly to his taste . I call upon those that are candid , among the advocates of the British system * to deny , if they can , on the score of principle , that from such causes such effects must follow , or , on the ground of practical
experience , that such effects are actually taking place . And if they have not been observed as frequently as might be anticipated , is there not reason to suppose , that this may partly be owing to the want of close contact , on the part of the master , with every individual child , an evil which is the necessary consequence of the much-extolled machinery of the British system , and which , on more than one ground , calls loudly for a remedy ? Be that as it may . the effect of the remission of punishment , for the
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Bejbrm in Education . 509
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No . 91 . 2 O
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1834, page 509, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2635/page/49/
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