Cyril Norwood and the Ideal of Secondary Education (Secondary Education in a Changing World)

Tracing the life of Sir Cyril Norwood, one of England's most prominent and influential educators, this book investigates the historical development of secondary education in England and Wales during the early twentieth century. During this time, an enduring ideal of secondary education associated with Sir Cyril Norwood became dominant. This was presented as the authentic English tradition of education, based on the ideals of the great independent or public schools, and culminating in the so-called 1943 Norwood report on the secondary school curriculum and examinations Among the educational issues affecting policymakers, public officials, and citizens in modern, democratic, and industrial societies, none has been more contentious than the role of secondary schooling. In establishing the Secondary Education in a Changing World series with Palgrave Macmillan, the intent is to provide a venue for scholars in different national settings to explore critical and controversial issues surrounding secondary education. The series will be a place for the airing and hopefully resolution of these controversial issues.More than a century has elapsed since Emile Durkheim argued the importance of studying secondary education as a unity, rather than in relation to the wide range of subjects and the division of pedagogical labor of which it was composed. Only thus, he insisted, would it be possible to have the ends and aims of secondary education constantly in view. The failure to do so accounted for a great deal of the difficulty with which secondary education was faced. First, it meant that secondary education was "intellectually disorientated," between "a past which is dying and a future which is still undecided," and as a result "lacks the vigor and vitality which it once possessed" (Durkheim, 1938/1987, p. 8). Second, the institutions of secondary education were not understood adequately in relation to their past that was "the soil which nourished them and gave them their present meaning, and apart from which they cannot be examined without a great deal of impoverishment and distortion" (p. 10). And third, it was difficult for secondary school teachers, who were responsible for putting policy reforms into practice, to understand the nature of the problems and issues that prompted them.In the early years of the twenty-first century, Durkheim's strictures still have resonance. The intellectual disorientation of secondary education is more evident than ever as it is caught up in successive waves of policy changes. The connections between the present and the past have become increasingly hard to trace and untangle. Moreover, the distance between policymakers, on the one hand, and practitioners, on the other, has rarely seemed as immense as it is today. The key mission of the current series of books is, in the spirit of Durkheim, to address these underlying dilemmas of secondary education and to play a part in resolving them. Gary McCulloch's volume explores the development of secondary education in England in the later nineteenth and early twentieth century up to World War II. This was a time of ferment for secondary education, in England as in the United States and in other parts of the world, as the provision of secondary education became established and defined itself in a drawn-out process of contestation between rival ideals and interests. Within this broader context, the educational career of Cyril Norwood stands out as he made a key contribution as a teacher, educational administrator, policymaker, and opinion maker over a period of forty years. He is both a representative and an idiosyncratic figure, and his life is a remarkable and fascinating story in its own right.This book constitutes the first extended study of Norwood himself, a highly controversial figure at the time and since, and of the educational, social, and political ideals that he represented. It also provides an original and significant contribution to our understanding of the social relationships of secondary education as they have played themselves out over time, including the emotions of social class. The range of middle-class attitudes revolving around secondary education is analyzed in depth, from the highest academic and social aspirations to the snobberies, anxieties, and fears that were no less apparent. The rivalries between the elite independent or "public" schools and the new secondary grammar schools supported by the State are also on display in McCulloch's volume, as are the everyday experiences of pupils, schools, and reformers. The problems involved in reform are examined closely to explain both the aims and the ultimate failure of the well-known Norwood Report of 1943 on examinations and the curriculum in secondary schools. Amid all this, we can follow Norwood's own project-deeply flawed, yet passionately argued-to unite the different agencies of secondary education under the auspices of the State, drawing on the ideals of Plato, Thomas Arnold of Rugby, and Matthew Arnold. We can also relate the English case to the currents of educational and social ideas as they developed worldwide, for example, around hierarchy, equality, and education for citizenship, and the defense and mediation of established traditions and ideals, in the face of encroaching class interests and the rising global threats of fascism and war.Cyril Norwood and the Ideal of Secondary Education is a powerful example of the kind of historical, social, and comparative accounts of secondary education that can help to explain the character and problems of secondary education in our changing world. It continues the process of helping to frame further explorations of the important issues that will characterize future volumes in this series. Barry Franklin Series Editor Preface vii Delegation to Canada on the "Duchess of Bedford," 1930. Norwood third from right in the front row. Source: Norwood Family Collectionx Norwood and his eldest daughter, Enid. Front Matter....Pages i-x Introduction: Cyril Norwood and Secondary Education....Pages 1-10 Middle Class Education and the State....Pages 11-25 The Education of Cyril Norwood....Pages 27-44 The Higher Education of Boys in England....Pages 45-61 Holding the Line?....Pages 63-77 Marlborough and Harrow....Pages 79-99 The English Tradition of Education....Pages 101-116 The New World of Education....Pages 117-135 The Norwood Report and Secondary Education....Pages 137-153 Conclusions: The Ideal of Secondary Education....Pages 155-157 Back Matter....Pages 159-197 Tracing the life of Sir Cyril Norwood, one of England's most prominent and influential educators, this book investigates the historical development of secondary education in England and Wales during the early twentieth century. Tracing the life of Sir Cyril Norwood, one of England's most prominent and influential educators, this book investigates the historical development of secondary education in England and Wales during the early twentieth century