Monday 11th August, 1-2.30pm
11 August 2025
1 hour, 30 minutes, 01:00 PM - 02:30 PM
CWEA, Christchurch
The growth of the Socialist movement worldwide in the late 19th century coincided with the expansion of compulsory education. Many socialists objected to the rote learning endemic in state education and to what they saw as the indoctrination of state schools. This led to a movement to establish secular schools to teach the values of socialism and to explain socialist ideas and labour theories in simple terms for a child audience. Socialist Sunday Schools originated in Great Britain and spread to other countries, notably the USA, Australia, Canada, Hungary, Belgium, Switzerland but also here in New Zealand. In this lecture I will look at the origins of the movement and its development, before focusing on the Schools in New Zealand, and particularly here in Christchurch.
