Brief History of the Origin of Sunday School

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Brief History of the Origin of
Sunday School 
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• Although churches established schools of
  biblical and catechetical instruction (eg.  The
  Catechumenate from the ancient church, and the
  Catechism from the Reformation) from the
  beginning, the Sunday School is traced back to
  only the late eighteenth century.

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• England was shifting from an agricultural to an
  industrial society. The Industrial Revolution
  led to rapid urbanization and industrialization
  of England. Social conditions were miserable for
  the growing urban lower class.

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• Even the children were forced to work in
  factories. Because these children worked in
  sweatshops for twelve hours a day, six days a
  week, they were uneducated and often involved in
  crime. On Sunday, their only free day, they ran
  wild in the streets.

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• Robert Raikes (1736-1811) lived in Glouchester,
  England and had compassion on the children he saw
  running around on Sundays. Rakies was a
  crusading newspaper editor who started the first
  Sunday School in 1780.

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• It met in Sooty Alley (chimney sweep territory)
  in the kitchen of a Mrs. Meredith. Raikess
  first students were boys and girls from six to
  fourteen years old. They were taught proper
  behavior and personal hygiene.

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• The primary aim of the school was literacy
  training but Christian education was included.
  They were taught to read from the Bible, they
  memorized catechisms, and were taken to worship
  services.

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• Raikes taught in the first school and others he
  established later. However, he hired women for a
  shilling a day to work in the school. The
  students in the first Sunday school were so
  boisterous that Mrs. Meredith quit, the school
  closed, and the students were transferred to
  another school.

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• The Sunday Schools remained secluded until
  Raikes touted them in a letter to the Gentlemans
  Magazine in 1783. Many supported the idea and
  were supportive of Raikes efforts to improve
  society.

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• Other schools were started in other cities,
  businessmen began to provide financial support,
  and the Sunday School Movement grew. It has been
  estimated that there were 500,000 students
  involved in Sunday School by 1796, and 1,250,000
  by 1831.

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