Frederick John Gladman (1 February 1839 – 12 November 1884) was an Australian educationist and author whose work had an influence on the formation of Australia's educational system. His textbooks were used as late as the 1930s to train teachers.

Biography

Gladman was born on 1 February 1839 in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

. He attended a monitorial school

Monitorial schools

Monitorial Schools are schools where classrooms are organized with sub-groups of students based on ability. The teacher would teach the higher group of students and then let them help teach the children who were of a lower ability...

 until he was fourteen. Gladman then served an apprenticeship

Apprenticeship

Apprenticeship is a system of training a new generation of practitioners of a skill. Apprentices or protégés build their careers from apprenticeships...

 as a pupil-teacher at the British and Foreign School in Bushey, Hertfordshire. Later he received a year of teacher training from Borough Road Training College in London.

He had a successful career teaching at a small school in Surrey

Surrey

Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...

 from 1859 until 1862. In 1863, at the young age of 24, he was given the position of headmaster of a larger school in Great Yarmouth

Great Yarmouth

Great Yarmouth, often known to locals as Yarmouth, is a coastal town in Norfolk, England. It is at the mouth of the River Yare, east of Norwich.It has been a seaside resort since 1760, and is the gateway from the Norfolk Broads to the sea...

. In 1869 he entered the University of London

University of London

-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...

, ultimately receiving two Bachelor's degree

Bachelor's degree

A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...

s. Gladman then returned to Borough Road Training College to serve as a headmaster.
Gladman was employed by the British and Foreign School Society

British and Foreign School Society

The British and Foreign School Society offers charitable aid to educational projects in the UK and around the world by funding schools, other charities and educational bodies...

, and in his capacity of notable educator, became an Inspector of Schools in pre-federation Australia. He was an advocate for the Lancasterian System for the Education of the Poor.

School Work

Published posthumously in 1886, this textbook, which had two parts, was the de facto teaching resource in Australian Schools prior to world war 2.

JP Rogers was A High School Principal of the prestigious Sydney Boys High School for some thirty years. He had a personal copy of Gladman's School Work from his teacher education days.

The timetables published in School Work were in fold out sections. The small foldout was for small country schools, with populations below 150 students. The large fold out was for larger, city schools, which had a population averaging 1000.

Schooling in the 1880s was compulsory for all children from years one to years 7, or ages 5 to 14. Different colonies having different requirements.

Published works

• The Handy Book of English History (London, 1874), As co-editor with Rev. William Legge
• School Method (London, 1877)
• School Work in 1886 part of his Jarrold's Pupil Teachers series.