the behest of the Church of England to educate "the lower orders" of villages
and towns up and down the country. The discipline was to follow the teachings
of the Church, and to prepare the illiterate young for work. "The more it changes, the more it stays the same!" The National Schools were instituted by Parliament after numerous Parliamentary reports from 1816-18 culminating in the 1834 report when funds were finally voted for Elementary Education. And it surely was "elementary"!