School’s In - Sovereign Hill

Today, the small classroom at Sovereign Hill is staffed by locals who have the knack of contrasting the whack of a cane across a desk with a smile, so littlies don’t run from the room screaming. The kids don’t quiver at their quills but laugh, coming to terms with trying to write tidily with pen and ink. But, like the kids of those times, they glaze at the prospect of learning their 17 times tables.

In those days teachers, with the only real skill of being able to read and write, earned more than the miners and smithies, but they worked 8:00am to 5:00pm with children and 7:00pm to 8:00pm with adults – seven days a week with three days off at Easter and a whole week at Christmas. Punishment was handed out at discretion. One stroke of the cane was dished out for being a minute late, two stokes for two minutes and so on, so it was wise not to sleep in for an hour. Left-handers were considered ‘sinister’, so the left hand was whacked until students opted to write right-handed. Broken knuckles sometimes made this a necessity.

Of course, not all kids went to school. Some, as young as thirteen, could earn three times as much as a blacksmith for going down the mines. So, why would you choose to become a smithy or get an education? Because these kids only had a life expectancy of 30 to 40 years, as the quartz dust on their lungs would develop into silicosis.