. Conditions and life varied from sub-soil and climate. The open field village was well suited for the needs of a community that produced grain and a small amount of livestock for its own subsistence. It was however somewhat limited because it tended to hold by the methods of cultivation and economic conditions of the past. Enclosure had been taking place almost continuously from as early as the thirteenth century. Its development had been connected with production no longer just for subsistence. The Industrial Revolution changed the perspective of the worker as well as the society and the economy. New skills had to be learned. Jobs began to exit from the countryside and started to take place in the factories of mass production of raw materials. At the onset of England’s Industrial Revolution half of its adult population could sign their names. On the eve of the Industrial Revolution England lacked a centralized organization for the propagation of education. It became the goal of Industrial England to educate its work force so that the necessary skills could be acquired. “Perhaps the most pervasive educational development if the Industrial Revolution was the rise of the Sunday school” (Mokyr, 1993: 280).
One of the fundamental transformations of the Industrial Revolution involved the work experience. Factory workers sometimes faced an increase in poverty, as wages were kept low and prices of some goods rose. The new working class had little margin over subsistence, and various crises such as illness, a recession, or old age had potential to bring extreme misery. Job conditions imposed many hardships. Factory life subverted the traditional work rhythm the labor force brought from craft or agricultural backgrounds. Because the new machines worked quickly employers thought that hard work was the stuff of life. Work was meant to be steady as well as fast with no interruptions, for if one worker stopped a whole ma...