The Educational Thought and Influence of Matthew Arnold: International Library of Sociology

321 Pages·2003·1.04 MB·English

by  W.F. Connell

The International Library of Sociology

THE EDUCATIONAL THOUGHT
AND INFLUENCE OF
MATTHEW ARNOLD

Founded by KARL MANNHEIM
The International Library of Sociology

THE SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION
In 28 Volumes
THE EDUCATIONAL THOUGHT
AND INFLUENCE OF
MATTHEW ARNOLD

by
W. F. CONNELL
With an Introduction by
SIR FRED CLARKE
First published in 1950 by
Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2002.

© 1950 W. F. Connell
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying
and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publishers.

The publishers have made every effort to contact authors/copyright holders
of the works reprinted in The International Library of Sociology.
This has not been possible in every case, however, and we would
welcome correspondence from those individuals/companies
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A CIP catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library

ISBN 0-203-00001-3 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN 0-203-17534-4 (Adobe eReader Format)
The Educational Thought and the Influence of Matthew Arnold
ISBN 0-415-17761-8 (Print Edition)
The Sociology of Education: 28 Volumes
ISBN 0-415-17833-9 (Print Edition)
The International Library of Sociology: 274 Volumes
ISBN 0-415-17838-X (Print Edition)
CONTENTS

PAGE
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vi
THE LIFE OF MATTHEW ARNOLD vii
INTRODUCTION BY SIR FRED CLARKE, M.A., FORMERLY
CHAIRMAN OF THE CENTRAL ADVISORY COUNCIL FOR
EDUCATION ix
CHAPTER
I SOCIAL AND EDUCATIONAL TRENDS OF THE MID-
NINETEENTH CENTURY 1
II MATTHEW ARNOLD’S THOUGHT IN 1851 14
III THE CONFLICT OF OPINION ON NATIONAL EDUCATION 37
IV THE STATE AND EDUCATION 68
V NATIONAL EDUCATION 88
VI FREE, SECULAR, AND COMPULSORY 121
VII EDUCATION AND CULTURE 157
VIII SCIENCE AND CULTURE 170
IX CULTURE AND THE REVISED CODE 203
X MIDDLE CLASS EDUCATION 243
XI MATTHEW ARNOLD AS PROPHET 273
APPENDIX 282
BIBLIOGRAPHY 288
INDEX 299
v
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author wishes to acknowledge the guidance and assistance he
has received both from Sir Fred Clarke, at whose initial suggestion
the study was undertaken and whose invaluable insights into and
understanding of the English tradition of education have proved to
be a constant source of inspiration, and from Dr. R. W. Greaves, of
Bedford College, London, whose friendly support, professional
advice and critical judgment have been of the greatest value and
encouragement.
The following have generously given permission to quote from
and make use of unpublished material in their care: Miss Dorothy
Ward, Professor Arnold Whitridge, Rear Admiral F. D. Arnold
Forster, Lord Lansdowne, The Librarian, Oriel College, Oxford,
and The Librarian, Sheffield University. My thanks are due to the
Oxford University Press for permission to quote from Lowry’s
Letters of Matthew Arnold to Arthur Hugh Clough.
vi
THE LIFE OF MATTHEW ARNOLD

1822 Born at Laleham, Surrey (December 24th), son of Rev. Thomas
Arnold and Mary Penrose.
1828 Father became Headmaster of Rugby.
1832 Father bought Fox How, Ambleside.
1836 Sent to Winchester College.
1837 Removed to Rugby School.
1841 Scholar at Balliol College, Oxford, under the tutorship of R.
Lingen.
1842 Father died.
1843 Newdigate prize poem on “Cromwell”.
1844 Second Class in Literae Humaniores.
1845 Taught at Rugby. Fellowship at Oriel College, Oxford.
1846 Journey to France and Swiss Oberland.
1847 Private secretary to Marquis of Lansdowne, President of the
Council.
1849 “The Strayed Reveller, and Other Poems,” Arnold’s first volume of
poetry.
1851 Appointed one of Her Majesty’s Inspectors of Schools. Married
Frances Lucy Wightman, daughter of Judge Wightman. Arnold
henceforth spent much time in travel, both on circuit with the
Judge and on inspectorial duties.
1857 Professor of Poetry at Oxford. Inaugural Lecture on “The Modern
Element in Literature”.
1859 Foreign Assistant Commissioner to Newcastle Commission. France,
Holland, Switzerland. “England and the Italian Question”.
1861 “The Popular Education of France”.
1862 “The Twice Revised Code”.
1864 “A French Eton”.
1865 France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland for Taunton Commission.
“Essays in Criticism” (First Series).
1866 “Thyrsis”.
1867 Professorship ended.
1868 “Schools and Universities on the Continent”.
1869 “Culture and Anarchy”.
1870 D.C.L., Oxford, “St. Paul and Protestantism.” Senior Inspector of
Schools.
vii
1871 “Friendship’s Garland.”
1872 “A Bible Reading for Schools: The Great Prophecy of Israel’s
Restoration.”
1873 “Literature and Dogma.”
1875 “God and the Bible.”
1877 “Last Essays on Church and Religion.” Declined nomination to
Lord Rectorship of University of St. Andrew’s.
1879 “Mixed Essays.”
1882 “Irish Essays.”
1883 Civil List Pension of £250. Visit to America. “Isaiah of
Jerusalem”.
1884 Chief Inspector of Schools.
1885 Declined re-nomination for Oxford Professorship. “Discourses in
America.”
1886 Resigned Inspectorship. “Report on Certain Points Connected
with Elementary Education in Germany, Switzerland, and France.”
1888 Died. “Essays in Criticism” (Second Series).
1889 “Reports on Elementary Schools (1852–82)”, ed. Sir Francis
Sandford.

viii
INTRODUCTION
by SIR FRED CLARKE, M.A.
MUCH good work has been done, and is being done, on the history
of English education in the nineteenth century. We shall understand
ourselves and our situation better when that work has been carried
nearer completion. It cannot yet be called “adequate” (if we may
use the term that was one of Arnold’s favourite criteria). The
educational story needs to be brought into closer relation with the
accelerating pace of social and economic change which became so
marked after the turn of the century. Particularly does it need to be
told in the light of an analysis of that ferment of conflicting ideas
which presaged the new era. For such an analysis a study of Arnold’s
life and work is indispensable, for he was himself a powerful
fermenting agent.
Some of the ideas were new and disturbing, others were old and not
always obstructive. But some were endowed with a traditional authority
to which they had no real claim. An example is the notion of the “Poor”
as a fixed institution, even held by some to be divinely ordained. * How
revealing, for instance, is Robert Lowe’s remark about his Revised Code
for the elementary schools, with its rigorous insistence upon the Three
R’s, and financial penalties for deficiencies in teaching them! He
confessed that the Three R’s were “more a financial than a literary
preference”.
A further feature of the time, of which historians of education will
need to take notice is the steady, if slow, weakening of national insularity.
Doubts were creeping in, there was less of Palmerstonian insolence and
Podsnap had already become a fit subject for caricature.
So an interest in comparative education could arise, a study which
in England has had no greater pioneer and illuminator than Arnold.
Through it our sense of the need to study education and the history of
education in their social and cultural setting has been awakened and
strengthened. It is not too much to say that Arnold was the creator in
this country of what may be called, as a study, the “politics” of
education.

* It was at this time that the final clause of My Duty Towards My Neighbour
came to be so generally misquoted by those who should have known better. It runs,
o course, “and to do my duty in that state of life into which it shall please God
to call me”; not “hath pleased”. 1*
ix