Over the past few months, readers of the Journal have been appreciating Rosalie E. Dunbar's series on the history of Sunday Schools in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist" section of the magazine. Here, Dr. Dunbar offers a brief look at education pioneer Hannah More, whom Mary Baker Eddy, the first editor of this magazine, admired and mentioned.
It isn't always easy to spot a pioneer. Hannah More was a dramatist and poet, as well as a writer of nonfiction, who later wrote religious tracts and hymns. She knew elegant society and yet helped the poor in several ways—one of which was to establish Sunday Schools in England. The purpose of these schools, the development of which is largely credited to Robert Raikes of Gloucester, was to teach children how to read and write, although the schools did include some religious instruction.
Hannah More established her Sunday Schools in a part of England where the gap between the rich and poor, the educated and ignorant, was wide. She was correctly informed that she would face great opposition from a rich farmer, and after the encounter wrote to a friend, "He begged that I would not think of bringing any religion into the country: it was the worst thing in the world for the poor, it made them lazy and useless." Helen C. Knight, A New Memoir of Hannah More; or Life in Hall and Cottage (New York: M. W. Dodd, 1851). p. 131 .
