As Victorian philanthropy evolved into public policy, a cultural unease developed between attempts to assimilate the fractured legacies of Romanticism and Christianity with the push for education. This volume combines an historical interpretation of Victorian debates on teaching and learning with an overview of contemporary educational thought.

As Victorian philanthropy evolved into public policy, a cultural unease developed between attempts to assimilate the fractured legacies of Romanticism and Christianity with the push for education. For some, education represented a denial of the autonomous 'inner life' that so richly defined Romantic and Christian thought. This troubling divergence between 'knowing' and 'feeling' shaped attitudes towards education throughout the nineteenth century. This groundbreaking volume combines an historical interpretation of Victorian debates on teaching and learning with a fresh overview of contemporary educational thought. Written for a diverse audience, the book explores the roots of modern educational anxieties in nineteenth-century thinking and reflects on questions of social class, religion and gender in relation to Victorian educational ideals.

PrefaceAcknowledgements1 Defining Knowledge The Spread of Education Conflicts in Learning Poetry and Teaching: William Wordsworth Imagination and FactPoetry and Schooling: Matthew ArnoldFiction and Memory: Charles Dickens2 Religious Learning Changing Balances Evangelical Seriousness Educating Clergymen A Complete Education The Uses of Ignorance: John Ruskin 3 Teaching Women Gender and Education A Generation of Schoolmistresses Literary Case StudiesThe Educated Heart: Charlotte Bronte Teaching Independence: Ellen Wood Practical Faith: Elizabeth Sewell "School-Time": George Eliot Finding the Way 4 New Conversations Education, Education, Education False Distinctions "To School and Intelligence and Make it a Soul" The Mechanics of Learning Admiration, Hope and Love Notes Bibliography Index