'The school without tears': E. F. O'Neill of Prestolee

History of Education

Volumn 34, Issue 3, 2005, Pages 263-275

  Burke, Catherine ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 27944431772     PISSN: 0046760X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/00467600500065167     Document Type: Review

References (66)

1. Report of the Conference on New Ideals in Education, held at Oxford, 12-19 August 1918 (London: Women's Printing Press), 116.
2. 'Lessons without tears (aka Lessons without fears)', 19 March 1945, British Pathe News, 1215.03. The Schools Inspectorate considered that in the first three years of the experiment such frequency of visits by inspectors and interested individuals was hampering the progress of the school. Correspondence to HMI Markham, 15 October 1921. Public Record Office [PRO] E20/443A.
3. Holmes was the nephew of the ex-Senior Inspector of Schools, Edmond Gore Alexander Holmes (1850-1906) and taught alongside O'Neill at Prestolee in the early years. The Idiot Teacher was reprinted in 1977 by the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation for Spokesman Books, Nottingham.
4. O'Neill recollected, 'We had bus loads of trainee teachers from many colleges and universities on visits and I was also invited to lecture at some of them', Transcript of interview in 1951 by K. Howarth of the NW Sound Archive, Bolton Archives, 6.
5. Sawyer remarked in later life, 'For many years I had believed that it should be possible to have a school in which pupils worked naturally and did not have to be continuously chivvied along by teachers. In the years 1937 to 1944 I saw such a school in action. It was Prestolee.' W. W. Sawyer and M. Alder, 'Mathematics, Emotions and Things' (available at: http://www.marco- learningsystems.com/pages/sawyer/things.htm, accessed 28 October 2004).
6. School Inspector Wilson, summary of visit conducted April 1919. Public Record Office [PRO], E20/443A, EA 5102, 04 July 1921.
7. The Prestolee O'Neill Collection consists of three volumes of materials and is deposited at the School of Education, University of East Anglia. There are two volumes of photographs and cuttings and one box containing memos, notes and instructions for the teaching of certain subjects in O'Neill's hand. The box also contains books on various topics constructed by the children during the 1930s and 1940s.
8. Interview with O'Neill, 1972, N. West Sound Archive recorded by Ken Howarth, Bolton Public Libraries and Archives. At the age of 16, O'Neill had become a pupil teacher at Ordsall Lane School in Salford.
9. Ibid.
10. E. F. O'Neill, 'Developments in Self Activity in an Elementary School', in Report of the Conference on New Ideals in Education, held at Oxford, 12-19 August 1918 (London, Women's Printing Press).
11. Interview with E. F. O'Neill, 1972, N. West Sound Archive, recorded by Ken Howarth.
12. O'Neill qualified at Borough Road Training College, Crewe, in 1913.
13. J. 'Dewey, My Pedagogic Creed', The School Journal, LIV:3 (1897), 77-80.
14. This can be seen through the works of J. J. Rousseau (1712-78), F.W.A. Froebel (1782-1852) and William Blake (1757-1827), all especially admired by O'Neill.
15. The first Montessori classroom was opened in England by Bertram Hawker in 1911. Montessori arrived in England in 1919 to conduct training in her methods, Times Educational Supplement, 28 August 1919, 438.
16. The critique of the physical organization of the classroom was fundamental to Maria Montessori's system and this was becoming known internationally during these years as is discussed in K. J. Brehony, 'Montessori, individual work and individuality in the elementary school classroom', History of Education, 29/2 (2000), 115-28.
17. For an insight into the life of Edmond Holmes (1850-1936) see P. Gordon, 'The Life and Writings of Edmond Holmes', Journal of the History of Education, 12/1 (1983), 15-24.
18. These meetings were held annually from 1914, until just before the outbreak of the Second World War, at Runton near Cromer in 1914; Stratford-on-Avon, 1915; Oxford in 1916; London in 1917; Oxford in 1918; and Cambridge in 1919.
19. Inaugural address by the Earl of Lytton, Chairman of the fifth Conference on New Ideals in Education, Oxford, 1918, in Report of the Conference on New Ideals in Education (London: Women's Printing Press).
20. See also Times Educational Supplement, report on conference proceedings, 29 August 1918, 365.
21. G. Holmes, The Idiot Teacher (London: Faber & Faber, 1952), 36-45.
22. E. F. O'Neill, 'Developments in Self Activity in an Elementary School', in Report of the Conference on New Ideals in Education held at Oxford, 12-19 August 12 1918 (London: Women's Printing Society), 110-26:
23. see also Times Educational Supplement , 29 August 1918, 365.
24. 1898 Board of Education Report, cited in G. N. Bott and A. Clegg, West Riding Education Committee. The Final Ten Years, 1964-1974 (Leeds: Chorley & Pickersgill Ltd), 96.
25. Helen Parkhurst's first experiments began in New York in 1910. H. Parkhurst, 'History-The Dalton Plan', The New Era (October, 1930), 105-7.
26. E. F. O'Neill, 1918, Report of the Conference on New Ideals in Education, 12-19 August, Oxford, 110.
27. See C. Jenkins, 'New Education and its emancipatory interests (1920-1950)', History of Education, 29/2 (2000), 139-51.
28. For school strikes during these years, see D. Marson, 'Children's Strikes in 1911', History Workshop Pamphlet, vi (Oxford, 1973).
29. Interview with E. F. O'Neill, 1972, N. West Sound Archive recorded by Ken Howarth. Bolton Public Libraries and Archives.
30. Ibid., 114.
31. Letter to district inspector, Dean, 5 April 1921, [PRO], E20/443A, EA5102.
32. O'Neill's challenge to classroom teaching is described in detail in G. Holmes, The Idiot Teacher (London: Faber & Faber, 1952), 79-87; there are also accounts of resistance in correspondence between the school inspectorate, [PRO], E20/443A, EA5102.
33. School Inspector Wilson, summary of visit conducted April 1919, [PRO], E20/443A, EA 5102, 04/07/21.
34. This was during the time she was preparing her book. A. Woods, Educational Experiments in England (London: Methuen, 1920).
35. Alice Woods was Principal of Maria Grey Training College, London (1892-1913) and later went on to be active within the New Education Fellowship.
36. Ibid., 146.
37. Ibid., 148.
38. Report of School Inspection dated July 1920, [PRO] E20/443A, EA5102.
39. Formal inspections were carried out by the LEA in 1919, 1921, 1923 and 1927, 1929, 1930, 1931 and 1932.
40. HMI Markham Inspection Report, no 443A, 04/04/1921. [PRO] E20/443A, EA5102.
41. E. F. O'Neill, 'Developments in Self Activity in an Elementary School', in Report of the Conference on New Ideals in Education, 12-19 August 1918, Oxford (London: Women's Printing Press, 1918), 114-16.
42. HMI report, Markham, 04 April 1921, [PRO] E20/443A, EA5102.
43. Ibid.
44. This view extended even as far as allowing ex-pupils to hold keys to the school. W. Seery, O'Neill of Prestolee, unpublished undergraduate thesis, Bolton Public Library and Archives, 28.
45. Muriel Kidd, 'Our daily tasks in school', 7 August 1944, vol. 3, The Prestolee O'Neill Collection, UEA. It was as early as 1921 noted that children had a tendency to return to the school in the evenings to complete their tasks or to play, 'thus showing a strong sense of personal attachment to the school and its teachers'. HMI Markham, report, 4 April 1921, [PRO] E20/443A. EA5102.
46. Interview with E. F. O'Neill, 1972, N. West Sound Archive recorded by Ken Howarth. Bolton Public Libraries and Archives.
47. Opposition initially from some parents, governors, teachers' unions and LEA. There was fear of reduced standards and health and safety. W. Seery, op cit., 4. O'Neill preferred the term 'do it yourself school'.
48. Memories of Prestolee School, Tape 2. Bolton Public Libraries and Archives.
49. HMI Adams and Harding, Report, 8 June 1932, [PRO] E20/443A. 'Quiet' activity was misquoted as 'great' activity in the press, Farnworth Journal, 22 July 1932.
50. 'Education that is Living Well', Manchester Guardian, 18 April 1933.
51. For Open Air Schools see H. Ludwig, Entstehung und Entwicklung der modernen Ganztagsschule in Deutschland (Köln/Weimar/Wien: Böhlau, 1993), 2 vols.
52. A. Woods, 'Outwood and Kearsley', in Educational Experiments in England (London: Methuen, 1920).
53. Correspondence between Inspectors Markham and Richards, 25 April 1921, [PRO], E20/443A, EA5102.
54. Sawyer corresponded with O'Neill during the 1940s and collected an archive of photographs, articles, letters and books made by the children of Prestolee. These were deposited in 1990 at the University of East Anglia. In 1965 he was appointed Professor jointly to the Departments of Mathematics and Education in the University of Toronto, where he worked until 1976, when he retired to Cambridge (England).
55. W. W. Sawyer (1993), 'Mathematics, Emotions and Things', in Mathematics Teaching (available at: http://www.marco-learningsystems.com/pages/sawyer/ things.htm, accessed 3 July 2004).
56. W. W. Sawyer, Mathematicians Delight (London: Penguin, 1943), 17.
57. Kathleen Longworth, age 13, 'An article on the school yard', vol. 3, The Prestolee O'Neill Collection, UEA.
58. Farnworth Journal, 25 June 1937, 46.
59. W. Seery, op. cit., 13.
60. E. R O'Neill, typewritten notes, 'Research Work', 16, in 'Research for Children' file, The Prestolee O'Neill Collection, University of East Anglia.
61. Picture Post, 3 May 1952.
62. Kathleen Longworth, age 13, pupil, 'An article on the school yard', vol. 3, The Prestolee O'Neill Collection, University of East Anglia.
63. G. Holmes (1952), 187.
64. Memo of Inspector Richardson, 25 June 1921, [PRO] E20/443A, EA5102.
65. Report, The Farnworth Journal, 5 January 1951.
66. Interview with E. F. O'Neill, The Farnworth Journal, 22 May 1953.