Introduction
Friedrich Engels (1820-1895) was a socialist and a proponent of the capitalistic economy of England during his time. Friedrich was a philosopher and historian who lived in the time of Karl Marx who was one of his esteemed friends.
When working for his father in England as a businessperson, he investigated the lives of workers at night, the results of which persuaded him to publish the book The Condition of the Working Class in England, which was a critique of the existing social and industrial system.
As examples, scanty and secular education, use of house cleaners as factories, and the introduction of theological classes are among the impacts that the conditions of the working class had on education, technology, and religion according to Friedrich Engels’ book as revealed in the paper.
Education
Firstly, during the period of Engels, education for the children of the working class was scanty. The few available schools were mostly run by religious institutions, which were keen on instilling their doctrines into the children rather than the rightful education.
Moreover, there was a little time available for the children of the working class to attend schools because they were often laborers in industries and farms. This posed a challenge with the attendance of classes. As a result, suggestions were made to have evening classes after work.
Most of the children never attended the classes. In fact, those who attended slept through the sessions out of fatigue. Changes were later made to have classes on Sundays for the children who worked during the weekdays. However, this was of no help.
In addition, Engels describes these classes as having few teachers besides being of little significance in eliminating ignorance since students would hardly remember what they had learnt the previous Sunday (71).Teachers are described as being of low motivation, as they struggled to keep their lives in order. They were therefore inadequate and ill equipped to teach.
Engels states that the teachers were, “worn-out workers and other unsuitable persons who only turned to teaching in order to live, usually without the indispensable elementary knowledge…without the moral discipline so needful for the teacher” (70).
Therefore, despite calls by the working class to have education made strictly secular, there was no commitment from government meaning that most of the schools taught theology and did not bother when it came to writing skills since most of the religious sects considered it too worldly.
Education was also a preserve of the wealthy few and some middle class since the government had no regulations in place to make it mandatory for all children. This argument is clearly stated by Engels when he states, “Compulsory school attendance does not exist” (70) to show how education did not receive any priority from the government.
Technology
Besides education, technology was again influenced significantly by the conditions of the working class. In fact, prior to this period, the workers used to work in families with little access to towns and cities. Engels describes that, before the onset of machinery, the workers’ household served as his factory with weaving and spinning taking place there.
The father had the role of weaving while the wife and daughter did the spinning of the yarn (Engels 8).With the invention of the jenny in 1764, change was inevitable in the life of the workers.
The number of workers needed to weave increased following this invention as it consequently happened to the wages per worker (Engels 10). An exodus of traditional workers took place from their household workplaces to the new profession of weaving using the jenny.
Soon after the jenny, the owners sheltered them in large houses where they used power and water to spin thus replacing the hand woven jennies besides reducing costs while increasing production. Richard Arkwright invented the spinning throstle, which further accelerated the factory system already on track.
These inventions were later followed by the invention of the carding engine and preparatory, as well as the mule in 1785 (Engels 11). These are some of the inventions and technological advancements mentioned in the book, which are thought to have altered the course of history based on the conditions of the working class group in England.
Religion
Finally, in the period that the book was written, most of the religious leaders instilled religious morals through theological classes. Before the period, religion was mainly in small units where the family read the bible while others listened as it was being read.
In the period of the book however, Christianity was the main religion to be embraced throughout the land. There arose divisions especially after some people objected the church to run all the schools with the bible being the general reading-book (Engels 107).
In fact, religion was the main foundation for most institutions. The church was a major inspiration for politics and morals. Most people took the religious doctrine of the school to which they went since they had no other option of getting the much-needed education. However, it is described that the bourgeoisie witters noted that the workers were not religious and neither did they attend churches (79).
Conclusion
Friedrich Engels was a proponent of the capitalist system in England. As discussed in the paper, he strategically highlighted the existing conditions of the workforce. The book critically looked at the various avenues of life of the ordinary worker. As highlighted above, the conditions of the working class in England had a great impact on the fields of education, religion, and technology.
Works Cited
Engels, Friedrich. The condition of the working class in England. London: Penguin, 2009. Print.