AOSA CENTENARY HISTORY 1841 - 1941
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Contents
Chapter I
Chapter II
Chapter III
Chapter IV
Chapter V
Chapter VI
Chapter VII
Chapter VIII
Chapter IX
Chapter X
Chapter XI
Chapter XII
Chapter XIII
Appendix
The essence of the Lancasterian plan lay in the provision of one master for each school and one only. The actual teaching and repetition of reading, writing and ciphering was entrusted to the older children who were called monitors. Each monitor drilled a small group. All activities went on in a large hall where the master was responsible for order. Lancasterian schools began in the large centres; the British and Foreign Schools’ Society pushed the Lancasterian ideas, but the system never took a deep hold and faced by the opposition of the Church of England, it dwindled.
The Lancasterian method called for the strictest discipline and the most complete order, and George Dixon’s powers were soon proved, for within three months he was able to take charge, with the help of the monitors, of the whole two hundred children who constituted the school. His control testified alike to his own self-confidence and to the soundness of William Shotton’s methods. But his work and training at Skinnergate lasted for only these three months for then the school broke up for harvest and he went back to Staindrop where, before the harvest was gathered, he found other work. The mastership of the Edward Walton endowed school in Bishop Auckland was offered to George Dixon who gladly accepted it.
He started work at once and thus took the next step towards Ayton when he showed himself ready for responsibility. A great personal change impended, too. He lodged with John Dean who was a widower with two young daughters. Their aunt, Alice Swinburn, often came to see them and she proved that though teaching occupied George Dixon’s mind it did not rule his heart. ‘We often met and became interested in each other and eventually Alice Swinburn became my wife.’ This laconic meiosis was his own account of his courtship and first marriage.
The Dixons ‘rented a pleasant dwelling house in the suburbs of Bishop Auckland called Brougham Cottage.’ Here they settled down for five years. The school flourished; George Dixon worked hard. ‘Having no school on seventh days’ he ‘walked to Witton-le-Wear and took lessons in Latin and French of James Regan, the master of the Boarding School and in Mathematics of William Mawson - one of my teachers. This enabled me to give my Scholars lessons in the rudiments of these branches.’
Then in 1840 came the turning point. Jonathan Backhouse, already interested in setting up a school in Durham Quarterly Meeting similar to those at Brookfield, Penketh and Rawdon, where useful manual work both supplemented learning and reduced running costs, went to the Monthly Meeting at Staindrop. Here he had dinner with George Dixon’s father and mother. Jonathan Backhouse mentioned his educational ideas and when he found that his hosts’ son added to skill and experience in teaching a three years’ practical acquaintance with farming, thought Providence was actively furthering his plans.
He forthwith commissioned George Dixon to visit Brookfield and Penketh. He reported favourably on the work there and took a third trip-this time to Rawdon. He was somewhat disappointed at Rawdon, to find no regular farm work for ‘a little gardening seemed the only outdoor occupation of the boys ‘whose leisure time was spent in book-binding ‘and some could bind small books in a respectable manner.’
Discussion and consideration of the proposed school continued for some time, and at the decisive meeting in October 1840, the accounts given by George Dixon proved to be an important factor in the final judgment. They pointed out, too, a possible superintendent. But doubts and uncertainties clouded his mind, and these were not altogether dissipated when John Pease reminded him that he and his wife would become responsible for the children’s ‘mental and physical well-being, but, what was far more important, their moral and spiritual training.’ Doubts about the farming work did not affect him, for he considered that he was trained in both theory and practice, but he did seriously consider his deficiencies in culture. But John Pease further advised him that his future pupils would be no more advanced than his present ones, and that he might use the books of the British and Foreign School Society as well as continue with the monitorial system. He thus dispelled diffidence and self-depreciation, and George Dixon’s application duly came before a general conference held at Sunderland in April 1841.
A fortnight later the Committee accepted the conference’s recommendation and after an interview with the superintendent-elect and his wife resolved that ‘George and Alice Dixon being present and having again expressed their wish to undertake the offices of Master and Mistress to the Ayton School this Committee concurs therein and appoints them accordingly to the stations aforesaid.’
Thus began the long and fruitful connection
between George Dixon and the School. He continued his office without
a break, and with only one serious hitch between himself and the Committee,
until 1865. Then came his formal and final resignation which regularised
and made official the position that his son Ralph had held for eight
years. Early in 1857 George Dixon had ‘expressed a desire for
some diminution of the close attention which devolved upon him as the
principal teacher in the school’ and to satisfy him, and to ensure
the succession, the Committee decided that ‘his son Ralph Dixon
should be engaged in the capacity of a teacher.’ But George Dixon
kept his position as superintendent and added to the ‘general
care of the whole Establishment the direct Scripture instruction of
the boys and much closer supervision of the Orchard Garden.’
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