Use the reading(s) to describe Sinclair’s attitude towards the kind of education that was prevalent at the time.
“Holiday house,” written by Catherine Sinclair, is a mixture text that has both ethical and carefree views. Sinclair agrees that children need the guidance of adults since they have faults, although they also need freedom for them to grow independently. The author is not pleased with the education system that was used during that time. She states that the learners were being filled with facts, and reading, which should have been a relaxing moment for the learners, was a burden itself. Sinclair, in her tale, displays how stressful education was in the past to the extent of learners neglecting their lessons and using their school books to make boats. Children during that time never took education very seriously as compared to how education is valued in the modern era. Harry, one of the characters in Sinclair’s tale, states, “I wish everybody who writes a book is obliged to swallow it. It is such a waste of time reading when we might be amusing ourselves” (Sinclair 24). Children, during that time, believed that knowledge was naturally acquired as one progressed in life.
Sinclair, in her book, also displays how unpleasant English education was during that time, stating that the education system concentrated more on teaching and training the youngsters to involve themselves with the industrial revolution. The children worked in factories as chimney cleaners since their small bodies could easily fit in between machines, and they also offered cheap labor. Sinclair believes that children need to be allowed to explore their curiosity by having an education system that is enjoyable to them. She feels that the education system should be more practical than the one that teaches children facts that are not that helpful. Through creating children’s books, she wanted her audience to have a different perspective on education, something that was different in the youngsters’ books of the period.