Abstract
The development of public education in England contrasts sharply with both the European and US examples in this study. For the greater part of the nineteenth century governments consistently rejected the continental solution of educational development through the state. The dominant tradition in education remained instead the voluntary system, a form of school organization based on private initiative and independent control. This rejection of centralized state control resembled aspects of education in the northern United States, but it failed to match the vigour and dynamism of the latter’s educational development through concerted local initiative. At no point did educational reform achieve the kind of broad consensus over objectives and means which characterized the American experience. Consequently, England remained almost deadlocked over education for many years, postponing major changes long after their importance had been recognized by many of those most closely involved in schooling.
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Notes
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© 1990 Andy Green
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Green, A. (1990). English Education and the Liberal State. In: Education and State Formation. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-20709-1_6
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