The Educational Thought And Influence Of Matthew Arnold

Drawing on the great wealth of knowledge and experience of education practitioners and theorists, these volumes explore the very important relationship between education and society. These book became standard texts for actual and intending teachers. Drawing upon comparative material from Israel France, and Germany, titles in The Sociology of Education set of the Internation Library of Sociology also discuss the key questions of girls' and special needs education, and the psychology of education.

Poet and critic Matthew Arnold (1822-1888) was a prominent educator. One of Her Majesty's Inspectors of Elementary Schools for 35 years, he traveled abroad to report on foreign education. Though Arnold is recognized as an early proponent of comparative education, there has been little study of his work in the field. The author examines Arnold's writings and presents three related arguments--that England was well behind countries like France and Germany in "the civilization of her middle class"; that advances being made abroad were largely due to strong state education systems, and that it was essential for England to establish a system of post-elementary education modeled on foreign systems.