Matthew Arnold and English Education: The Poet’s Pioneering Advocacy in Middle Class Instruction

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Poet and literary and social religious Matthew Arnold (1822-1888) was a prominent educator. One of Her Majesty’s Inspectors of Elementary Schools for 35 years, he travelled abroad to report on foreign education. Though Arnold is recognized as an early proponent of comparative education, there has been little study of his work in the field. The author examines Arnold’s writings and presents his three closely related arguments-that England was well behind countries like France and Germany in
the civilization of her middle class,
that advances being made abroad were largely due to strong state education systems, and that it was essential for England to establish a state system of post-elementary education modeled on foreign systems.