Today's church-affiliated Sunday schools, with their less than mind-bending mixture of songs, story-telling and activities for youngsters, are a far cry from the serious intent of their predecessors. Sunday schools were first established in England in the 1780s, with the object of educating the poor in "the principles of religion and the duties of their lowly station in life."
   However, they were frequently overtly political -- linked to such movements as Chartism -- as well as educational, and religion often came a poor third. Sometimes it disappeared altogether. In such cases, the Sunday schools fell foul of the established clergy, one of whom in the mid-19th century, thought it necessary to warn his congregation from the pulpit that parents sending their children to such schools were destined for hell.
   But for many of the working class poor of all ages, Sunday schools offered the only education available to them, and they grasped the opportunity eagerly. Many who had risen from their ranks to become the political reformers and teachers of the period, saw the church as the main obstacle to reform. One historian, commenting on the Sunday school teachers' influence observed, "They were creating thought among the hitherto unthinking masses."