Summary: Changing Intentions Of Public Education In Victorian England

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Uneducated Gentlemen: The Leaders and Businessmen of the Victorian Era Changing Intentions of Public Education The public education system in Victorian England was originally intended for the education of the poorer working classes, and the training of clergy (Landow, par. 2). The children of the upper classes were often educated at home by private tutors, and therefore it was assumed the public schools would be a place for members of the lower classes. Despite the original intentions of public education, the schools eventually became a primary means of helping to elevate the status of the middle classes. In fact, rather than being primarily concerned with the imparting of knowledge, “the whole educational process was designed to mold …show more content…

15). Before attending further education at Oxford or Cambridge education focused greatly on the classics of Ancient Greece and Rome. Students could then go on to possibly learn mathematics, law, philosophy, and modern history. Still the education was lacking as knowledge, “took second place to the maintenance of a rigid division between the classes” (Hobsbawm qtd. in Landow, par. 4). The result of a poor education meant that while children were developed into gentlemen, they were unprepared for the, “economic, political, and technological challenges facing contemporary England” (Landow, par. 2). Despite this fact, those who attended these schools were still often the ones to go on to become members of Parliament and government officials (“Victorian England,” par. …show more content…

1). With such connections between England and the rest of the world, as well as the advent of Industrialization, would the middle class have not needed a more developed education than simply learning how to become gentlemen? In fact, Eric Hobsbawm claims that the British, “entered the twentieth century and the age of modern science and technology as a spectacularly ill-educated people” (qtd. in Landow, par. 4). The reason attending a public school was still beneficial was because of the social connections established while attending school (Loftus, par. 3). There are many examples of men who were able to succeed in the business world because of the connections they made while attending school. Beau Brummel (http://antonio.iies.es/brummel.htm ) and James Nasmyth (http://www.pioneers.historians.co.uk/nasmyth.html) are two examples (Loftus, par.

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