1. Sensing the realities of English middle-class education: James Bryce and the Schools Inquiry Commission, 1865–1868.
- Author
-
McCulloch, Gary
- Subjects
BRITISH education system ,EDUCATION of the middle class ,SENSES ,LITERARY realism ,REALISM in art ,EDUCATIONAL change ,SENSE organs ,SECONDARY education ,NINETEENTH century ,HISTORY of education - Abstract
This paper explores the contribution of James Bryce as an Assistant Commissioner to the Taunton Commission from 1965 to 1868. It highlights his criticisms of the English middle class and of middle-class education represented in the endowed grammar schools of Lancashire, England. These criticisms were based partly on finely detailed observation of the buildings of these schools in their local and geographical settings. They also drew on acutely developed responses of a sensory and emotive nature relating to a broad sensory register of sight, sound, taste, touch and smell. The paper therefore helps to develop the potential value of sensory history in the history of education well as to provide a detailed examination of middle-class education in England in the 1860s. It also suggests that the realism characteristic of mid-Victorian writing and art may help to shed further light on the nature and experience of schooling in this period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2011
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