Lace schools were common in Britain

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

 from the 17th to 19th century to teach lace-making.

Lace schools were often the living rooms of small cottages and were known for being overcrowded, badly lit and often unsanitary. Girls and some boys were put to work at the age of six or seven and spent long hours bent over their pillows, learning the craft

Craft

A craft is a branch of a profession that requires some particular kind of skilled work. In historical sense, particularly as pertinent to the Medieval history and earlier, the term is usually applied towards people occupied in small-scale production of goods.-Development from the past until...

, until they could produce a marketable product. Some of the children were also taught elementary reading, but there was little other general education

Education

Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...

.