Classical Scholarship and Classical Learning: Considered with Especial Reference to Competitive Tests and University Teaching

John William Donaldson’s 1856 essay tackles the topic of university reform, a hotly debated political issue in his day. Donaldson presents a series of suggestions for the improvement of university teaching, and argues for the value of a classical education. Drawing upon his experience both as a headmaster and as a scholar at Trinity College, Cambridge, he considers himself well-placed to address the subject of education, maintaining that there are ‘not many who can claim a better right to speak without one-sided prejudice and narrow-minded partiality to some hackneyed system’. He discusses many aspects of the subject, including the meaning of the term ‘university’, the college system at Cambridge University and the merits of studying classics in comparison to mathematics. Donaldson also addresses the class system, emphasising the need for all classes to be educated. This lively and approachable book foreshadows the debates of our own century.