Manchester Board Schools 1870 1902

In this comprehensive and extensively researched history, John Roach argues for a reassessment of the relative importance of State regulation and private provision. Although the public schools enjoyed their greatest prestige during this period, in terms of educational reform and progress their importance has been exaggerated. The role of the public school, he suggests, was social rather than academic, and as such their power and influence is to be interpreted principally in relation to the growth of new social elites, the concept of public service and the needs of the empire for a bureaucratic ruling class. Only in the modern progressive movement, launched by Cecil Reddie, and the private provision for young women, was lasting progress made. Even before the 1902 Education Act however the State had spent much time and effort regulating and reforming the old educational endowments, and it is in these initiatives that the foundations for the public provision of secondary educational reform are to be found.

In the 1990s education has become one of the major social and political questions of the day. This book has been written to provide an authoritative guide to the issues which underlie the formulation of educational policy. It stands both as a substantial historical study in its own right and as an essential background and introduction to the current educational debate.

In this comprehensive and extensively researched history, John Roach argues for a reassessment of the relative importance of State regulation and private provision. Although the public schools enjoyed their greatest prestige during this period, in terms of educational reform and progress their importance has been exaggerated. The role of the public school, he suggests, was social rather than academic, and as such their power and influence is to be interpreted principally in relation to the growth of new social elites, the concept of public service and the needs of the empire for a bureaucratic ruling class. Only in the modern progressive movement, launched by Cecil Reddie, and the private provision for young women, was lasting progress made. Even before the 1902 Education Act however the State had spent much time and effort regulating and reforming the old educational endowments, and it is in these initiatives that the foundations for the public provision of secondary educational reform are to be found.

Britain has a rich heritage of school buildings dating from the later Middle Ages to the present day. While some of these schools have attracted the attention of architectural historians, they have not previously been considered from the educational viewpoint. Even schools of little or no architectural interest are important sociologically, since the changing architecture of schools reflects changing ideas about how children should be educated and organized for teaching purposes. Documentary material relating to education is often fragmentary, and buildings may thus constitute the only real source of knowledge about the development of particular schools and can also throw light on general educational history. Originally published in 1971 and 1977, these books are, therefore, not only a major contribution to architectural history but also a study in the development of educational ideas and practices from the fourteenth to the twentieth century.

Examines the British socialist movement in the last two decades of the 19th century through its policies on children's education. The author reassesses the nature of these policies and comments on the validity of those historiographical models used in analyses of the socialism of this period.