The Children of Sir Francis Ford by William Beechey, 1793

Tim went to school, but only briefly. He went to a Dames' school lead by an elderly woman in his village named Mrs. Fussbum. Tim is only eight years old and his schooling is over. He has been apprenticed to a chimney sweep named Nicolas Nastyfingers. Tim will work for Mr. Nastyfingers until he is 21 years old. As an apprentice, Lil' Tim learns this trade that will be his future livelihood. He is not paid much, but he is learning skills with which he will support himself as an adult.

Many eighteenth educational theorists believed that poor children did not need quality education. Among these were Isaac Watts and Jean Jacques Rousseau. In fact "Rousseau stated boldly that the poor did not need education at all." ⁷ Watts believed that country children did not need to learn how to read or write. These educationalists thought that providing schooling for poor children was an idle pursuit that would make them unfit for the hard labor that they would undertake as adults. Consequently, many poor boys either did not receive any education or attended Dames' schools nearby.

Elderly women in a village or town usually ran Dames' schools. They were attended by poor children and children of tradesmen. In the eighteenth century, it was not uncommon for a family to have thirteen or fourteen children. Thus, many mothers were willing to give these older women a few pence a week to get some of the children out of the house for a few hours a day. Infants were also sent along even though they were too young to learn anything. The schoolmistress often tied the babies by the ankle to their chairs as they taught. The classroom was usually in the schoolmistress's home. The children were not taught much, especially since the schoolmistress usually had another job on the side. They knit or spun while teaching the children their lessons. The kids learned to read and spell a bit. They might also memorize the Lords' prayer or read from an illustrated Bible. Girls would learn needlework, as well. Children were disciplined by the rod or by the dunce cap. A dunce cap was a cone-shaped hat worn by a child that had failed to learn his lessons.

Poor boys were taken out of school as soon as they were old enough to be of some use. Many young boys were apprenticed. Apprentices were young people who lived and worked with adult professionals. A child could begin an apprenticeship at eight years of age and was bound to his employer until he was twenty-one years old. Ideally, apprentices were taught some sort of trade in exchange for work. However, many tradesmen took apprentices for cheap labor only. In some cases, apprentices were over-worked and treated cruelly. At times, they were mal-nourished, beaten, and forced to work long hours.

Besides working as apprentices, boys also worked in mills and mines for pennies. Another popular job for young boys was bird scaring. For hours the boys would run through fields and scare birds that were attacking crops.

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