David Stow was a Scottish

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 educationalist.

Life

Born Paisley

Paisley

Paisley is the largest town in the historic county of Renfrewshire in the west central Lowlands of Scotland and serves as the administrative centre for the Renfrewshire council area...

, Renfrewshire

Renfrewshire

Renfrewshire is one of 32 council areas used for local government in Scotland. Located in the west central Lowlands, it is one of three council areas contained within the boundaries of the historic county of Renfrewshire, the others being Inverclyde to the west and East Renfrewshire to the east...

, the son of a successful merchant

Merchant

A merchant is a businessperson who trades in commodities that were produced by others, in order to earn a profit.Merchants can be one of two types:# A wholesale merchant operates in the chain between producer and retail merchant...

, he was educated at Paisley Grammar School

Paisley Grammar School

Paisley Grammar School, known for a period following 1896 as the Paisley Grammar School and William B. Barbour Academy, is a non-denominational state comprehensive secondary school in Paisley, the largest town in Renfrewshire, Scotland. The school was founded in 1576 and was formerly a selective...

 before entering the Port-Eglinton Spinning Co. in 1811, an affiliation he was to maintain to the end of his life. His early involvement in Sunday School

Sunday school

Sunday school is the generic name for many different types of religious education pursued on Sundays by various denominations.-England:The first Sunday school may have been opened in 1751 in St. Mary's Church, Nottingham. Another early start was made by Hannah Ball, a native of High Wycombe in...

 teaching led him to believe in the importance of effective training for teacher

Teacher

A teacher or schoolteacher is a person who provides education for pupils and students . The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out at a school or other place of formal education. In many countries, a person who wishes to become a teacher must first obtain specified professional...

s at all levels. His motto was "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it."

A leader of considerable ability and energy, in 1827, Stow set up his first school in Glasgow

Glasgow

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...

. Its success led to the establishment of the influential Glasgow Educational Society. In 1836, Stow established a Normal School for teacher training. The school attracted students and observers from across the UK

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, including James Phillips Kay-Shuttleworth

James Phillips Kay-Shuttleworth

Sir James Phillips Kay-Shuttleworth, 1st Baronet was a British politician and educationalist.-Early life:He was born James Kay at Rochdale, Lancashire, the son of Robert Kay...

, education in England

Education in England

Education in England is overseen by the Department for Education and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. Local authorities take responsibility for implementing policy for public education and state schools at a regional level....

 still being comparatively undeveloped at that stage.

Stow's school became part of the establishment and, following the Disruption of 1843

Disruption of 1843

The Disruption of 1843 was a schism within the established Church of Scotland, in which 450 ministers of the Church broke away, over the issue of the Church's relationship with the State, to form the Free Church of Scotland...

, a legal ruling of 1845 held that the school was part of the Church of Scotland

Church of Scotland

The Church of Scotland, known informally by its Scots language name, the Kirk, is a Presbyterian church, decisively shaped by the Scottish Reformation....

. Stow and most of his colleagues and students were adherents of the Free Church of Scotland

Free Church of Scotland (1843-1900)

The Free Church of Scotland is a Scottish denomination which was formed in 1843 by a large withdrawal from the established Church of Scotland in a schism known as the "Disruption of 1843"...

; for this reason, they were compelled to resign from what had become state-funded teaching posts. Stow established a new college in Glasgow as the Free Church Normal Seminary

Free Church Training College

The Free Church Training College was established by the Free Church of Scotland in 1845 as a college for teacher training.In 1836, David Stow had established a Normal School in Glasgow but, following the Disruption of 1843, a legal ruling of 1845 compelled adherents of the Free Church to resign...

.

The Glasgow System

The Glasgow System had been named "The Training System" by Stow. The system originated during the controversy over Bell-Lancaster method

Bell-Lancaster method

The Monitorial System was an education method that became popular on a global scale during the early 19th century. This method was also known as "mutual instruction" or the "Bell-Lancaster method" after the British educators Dr Andrew Bell and Joseph Lancaster who both independently developed it...

. Gladman

Frederick John Gladman

Frederick John Gladman 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:...

, citing the British and Foreign School Society handbook, wrote "Failure occurred, as it always will, when masters were slaves to "the system," when they were satisfied with mechanical arrangements and routine work, or when they did not study their pupils, and get down to Principles of Education."

Gladman

Frederick John Gladman

Frederick John Gladman 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:...

 goes on to write that Stow, a young merchant, who, in his anxiety to "stem the torrent of vice and ungodliness, turned his attention to the young," and established a school on Sabbath evenings in the Saltmarket, "the very St. Giles of Glasgow," in 1816. Gladman writes that Stow realised that the training of the street was more important than any individual. Adding to the institution Stow had started, he also formalised his method. "The Training System cultivates the whole nature of the child, instead of the mere head - the affections and habits, as well as the intellect."

"The peculiarities of the Training System may be stated in one sentence, as - Picturing out in words, direct moral training, with suitable premises, and various practical methods by which these objects are accomplished, under well instructed and well trained masters or mistresses."

Honours

• The David Stow Building of the University of Strathclyde
  University of Strathclyde
  The University of Strathclyde , Glasgow, Scotland, is Glasgow's second university by age, founded in 1796, and receiving its Royal Charter in 1964 as the UK's first technological university...
  
   is named for him.
• Stow College
  Stow College
  -History:The college is named after David Stow, whose primary teaching seminary was founded close to the college at Dundasvale. Stow was the first purpose-built Further Education college in Glasgow, celebrating its 75th anniversary in 2009....
  
  in Glasgow is also named for him.