The Education Act of 1870 opened up the academic world for the lower/working classes. Before this act, only kids of the upper and middle class could afford to go to schools. It also was uncommon for the lower class kids to go to school because they were working in the factories or in their families buisnesses/farms. Once this act was established it allowed kids of lower and working class to attend for a reasonable amount of money. Now, while reading the novel Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens I began to noitice that education was hardly mentioned within the novel.

A governess is a women employed in a private household to educate pupils (usually girls) in a range of “accomplishments” ranging from reading to drawing. Governesses became increasing popular through the Victorian era for both the Upper and Middle-classes. Women who became governesses were generally “ladies” of an upper or middle-class upbringing themselves that had fallen on hard times and required to work for their living. Generally, governesses would live in the household and receive a salary along with their room and board.