Middle Class Education and the State

Abstract

Secondary education in England in the second half of the nineteenth century was highly diverse and differentiated, but it broadly maintained a social position between the elite education of the great independent or public schools, and the new forms of mass elementary education provided under the auspices of the State. This was the heartland of English middle-class education, provided through a large number of locally endowed grammar schools. However, although it could boast fine traditions and ideals, local provision of grammar schools tended increasingly to suffer from a lack of organization and resources. The potential for the State to provide support for secondary education on a national basis attracted many, but others were resistant. In spite of the recommendations of the Taunton commission of the 1860s and the clarion calls of Matthew Arnold to organize secondary education under the auspices of the State, it was not until the Education Act of 1902 that this major step was achieved.KeywordsNineteenth CenturySocial ClassPublic SchoolSocial AnxietyMiddle ClassThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.