Welcome to Learning Through the Ages.
I’ve been fascinated by the history of education for many years and blog on the subject at https://historyofeducation.net whenever time allows. I have given illustrated talks about the history of schools and liberal education for researchED, Microsoft Education Group, the East London Science School, the Battle of Ideas festival, U3A Ealing, Derby University and others. I’m proud to have contributed a primer on pre-state education to Routledge’s History of Education for undergraduates (forthcoming).
For many the history of education in Britain begins with the grim Victorian schools described by Charles Dickens or with the 1944 Butler Act which brought in secondary school education for all, but the philosophical, political and practical roots of our modern day system extend back much further than that. I think we can learn a lot from the people, events and ideas that made education what it is today.
To get this Substack going, I’ll be posting some highlights from my blog (https://historyofeducation.net) over the next few weeks, including articles on:
how the first ‘Head Mistress’, Frances Mary Buss, revolutionised education for young women
Matthew Arnold and the meaning of the phrase ‘the best that has been thought and said’
the Latin verse that could save your life in medieval England
the origin of tensions between Town and Gown
and the reason why certain fee-paying private schools are called ‘public’.
I’ll follow those with an all-new essay on the remarkable role that early Sunday schools played in bringing education to the masses in the UK and beyond.
In the meantime, if I’ve whetted your interest, a good place to begin is my essay The Liberating Power of Education, available as a pocket-sized pamphlet as part of the Academy of Ideas’ Letters on Liberty series…
“A masterful historical understanding of why liberal education is the way out of so many problems… people are always saying maybe we can add something to the curriculum, use education as a vehicle for propagandising this, that or the other… and Harley stands firm on the importance of education in its own right.”
Claire Fox, Director, Academy of Ideas
Price: a mere £2+p&p for the pamphlet (or you can download the PDF for free). Available via the Letters on Liberty website.
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