Our Victorian Education

by Birch, Dinah

• ISBN13: 9781405145060
• ISBN10: 1405145064
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-12-03
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

This groundbreaking book combines a historical interpretation of Victorian educational debate with a critical overview of contemporary educational thought. Traces the roots of contemporary educational practice in the values of Victorian thinking Combines detailed consideration of Victorian sources, literary and non-literary, with reflections on their legacy in the 21st century Reflects on questions of social class, religion, and gender as the Victorians defined them in relation to educational ideals Suggests challenging connections between literary and social history and contemporary dilemmas

Author Biography

Dinah Birch is a Professor of English Literature at Liverpool University. Her work on Victorian literature includes Ruskin’s Myths (1988), Ruskin on Turner (1990), and John Ruskin: Selected Writings (2004). She writes regularly for the Times Literary Supplement and the London Review of Books, and is General Editor of a forthcoming revised edition of the Oxford Companion to English Literature.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. vii
Acknowledgements	p. x
Defining Knowledge	p. 1
The Spread of Education	p. 1
Conflicts in Learning	p. 4
Poetry and Teaching: William Wordsworth	p. 12
Imagination and Fact	p. 19
Poetry and Schooling: Matthew Arnold	p. 23
Fiction and Memory: Charles Dickens	p. 30
Religious Learning	p. 42
Changing Balances	p. 42
Evangelical Seriousness	p. 44
Educating Clergymen	p. 51
A Complete Education	p. 56
The Uses of Ignorance: John Ruskin	p. 68
Teaching Women	p. 76
Gender and Education	p. 76
A Generation of Schoolmistresses	p. 79
Literary Case Studies	p. 89
The Educated Heart: Charlotte Bronte	p. 89
Teaching Independence: Ellen Wood	p. 95
Practical Faith: Elizabeth Sewell	p. 98
'School-Time': George Eliot	p. 105
Finding the Way	p. 120
New Conversations	p. 121
Education, Education, Education	p. 121
False Distinctions	p. 124
'To School an Intelligence and Make it a Soul'	p. 128
The Mechanics of Learning	p. 130
Admiration, Hope and Love	p. 134
Notes	p. 146
Bibliography	p. 158
Index	p. 164
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