Children in Victorian England were often worse off than the animals that were almost nonexistent in London because of the lack of food the poor got. Very few kids ever got proper educations, which was one of the main reasons that the poor people stayed poor and never could rise in class like in Dickens, Great Expectations. Instead of going to school many children went to work, often before they were six. They worked along side their parents all day and many went on later in life to have back problems and lung failure from improper stature and breathing bad air in the factories. Sometimes children were so tired that they fell asleep after everyone had left still doing their jobs in a deep stupor. (Rooke 43) Jobs that children were especially numerous in because of their size and agility were often the jobs that were most dangerous and life threatening. Mining was the most popular occupation because there was no shortage in spaces available and their size let them fit into cracks full-grown men couldn't. Sometimes children were sent into mines first and if they didn't come out in fifteen minutes they knew that there was poisonous gas inside and that no one should enter them. Chimney sweeping was another popular one that kids were common in because of their agility. They had to climb up steep roofs and often fell to their deaths below.

Trevelyan, G.M. English Social History. London: David McKay Company, 1942

Rooke, Patrick. The Age of Dickens. Toronto: Wayland, 1970

Clark, Kitson. The Making of Victorian England. Harvard University: Kitson Clark, 1962

Nothing compares to how the poor had to live in Victorian England, their struggles that are so meaningless because we can't relate to the brutality of them, simple things such as getting medical attention, or getting pots and water to clean with. All these things that are so reachable now were only a sliver of a dream to people as brief as one hundred years ago. Their houses were falling down left and right because of hurried building or incompetent workers, the windows were covered with rags, and the basements were inhabited by bootleggers and drug dealers. There were Irish in the halls, starvation in the attics, and clothes drying across the street. The Irish were the racial scourge of the Victorian Era; they always inhabited the worst slums and were looked down upon by everyone. (Trevelyan 476) The roads were elevated a foot from garbage and sewage. When it rained all the garbage turned to mud and the roads were unnavigable for weeks on end. After all that there were the diseases that tenants shared their buildings with. Most of them were water borne and once they got into the village well that was it for most of the town.

School inspectors that went to visit schools were amazed at the complete lack of books and other materials. Schools were compared to day care because of the lack of enthusiasm and complete indifference that teachers had. Teachers who taught at some of the poorer schools usually had no experience teaching and wormed their way in for the extra money. They believed that if the students weren't getting beat enough they were neglecting their jobs. There was also a complete disregard for absences, many students left half way through the day because they had to work, or sometimes they brought lunch to their parents at work if the worked a long way away. The prep schools of the time were a different matter, they had well educated, well taught teachers who actually cared about their students' education. The exact opposite to the prep schools were what Ashley Shaftsbury called the Ragged Schools; they were more like prisons for juvenile offenders. Ashley Shaftsbury was a leading reformist for schools and she invented the first ragged schools, she took in all the poor, delinquents and put them in a kind of temporary home so they stayed off the streets. Dickens respected her efforts towards children, but he thought she was doing it all the wrong way.

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Approximate Word count = 2662
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)