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This series focuses on educational theory and practice, particularly in the context of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Europe and its colonies and America. During this period, the questions of who should be educated, to what age, to what standard and using what curriculum, were widely debated. The reform of schools and universities, the drive towards improving women's education, and the movement for free (or at least low-cost) schools for the poor were all major concerns both for governments and for society at large. The books selected for reissue in this series discuss key issues of their time, including the 'appropriate' levels of instruction for the children of the working classes, the emergence of adult education movements and proposals for the higher education of women. They also cover topics that still resonate today, such as the nature of education, the role of universities in the diffusion of knowledge and the involvement of religious groups in establishing and running schools.

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45 results in Cambridge Library Collection - Education

Page 1 of 3

Letters on Education
  • With Observations on Religious and Metaphysical Subjects
  • Catharine Macaulay
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    20 March 2014
  • First published in 1790, this collection of letters presents the mature views of Catharine Macaulay (1731–91) on education and related topics. Famed as an impassioned writer on history and politics, she defied eighteenth-century preconceptions of what it was possible and appropriate for women to achieve. Ranging across a broad spectrum of subjects, from diet and reading to pastimes, religion and discipline, this work reflects her enlightened thinking. She compares the educational situation in England to the contemporary French and American systems, and even those of ancient Rome and Sparta. Championing equality in education regardless of gender, Macaulay argues for the instruction of girls within a co-educational system, seeing this as the only way to improve female standing in society. Also reissued in this series is her eight-volume History of England (1763–83), which traces the upheavals of the seventeenth century.

Thoughts on the Education of Daughters
  • With Reflections on Female Conduct, in the More Important Duties of Life
  • Mary Wollstonecraft
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    20 March 2014
  • Paving the way for modern feminist thinking, Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–97) dared to challenge traditional eighteenth-century attitudes towards women. First published in 1787, this book discusses how girls can best be educated to become valuable wives and mothers. It argues that women can offer the most effective contribution to society if they are brought up to display sound morals, character and intellect, rather than superficial social graces. Wollstonecraft later developed her ideas in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (also reissued in this series), in which she attacked the educational restrictions imposed upon women. Her writings formed a cornerstone of the battle for women's rights in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Prompting deeper reflection upon the role and status of women in modern society, the present work remains an instructive and provocative read for those seeking to learn about the roots of feminism in its social and historical context.

Letters on the Elementary Principles of Education
  • Volume 2
  • Elizabeth Hamilton
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    23 January 2014
  • The novelist and essayist Elizabeth Hamilton (1756?–1816) received her education at a day school from the age of eight, and later recalled her childhood and schooldays fondly. However, intellectual girls in the period were regarded with some suspicion, and she remembered hiding from visitors those books that might be deemed inappropriate for a young woman. Later embarking on a literary career, she published in 1801 her Letters on Education, republished in this second edition of 1801–2. Owing much to the theories of John Locke as well as the period's standard conduct-book advice on the education of girls, Hamilton's work offers detailed theoretical explorations of how children learn. 'Be not afraid my good friend,' she writes, 'that I intend making speculative philosophers of your daughters.' Volume 2 begins with a comment on the necessity of obtaining knowledge of our intellectual faculties, and how this knowledge is to be acquired.

Letters on the Elementary Principles of Education
  • Volume 1
  • Elizabeth Hamilton
  • Published online:
    05 January 2015
    Print publication:
    23 January 2014
  • The novelist and essayist Elizabeth Hamilton (1756?–1816) received her education at a day school from the age of eight, and later recalled her childhood and schooldays fondly. However, intellectual girls in the period were regarded with some suspicion, and she remembered hiding from visitors those books that might be deemed inappropriate for a young woman. Later embarking on a literary career, she published in 1801 her Letters on Education, republished in this second edition of 1801–2. Owing much to the theories of John Locke as well as the period's standard conduct-book advice on the education of girls, Hamilton's work offers detailed theoretical explorations of how children learn. 'Be not afraid my good friend,' she writes, 'that I intend making speculative philosophers of your daughters.' Volume 1 includes comments on the 'pernicious effects of parental partiality', considering also 'contempt for the female character' and 'pride of station'.

Improvements in Education, as it Respects the Industrious Classes of the Community
  • With a Brief Sketch of the Life of Joseph Lancaster
  • Joseph Lancaster, William Corston
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    23 January 2014
  • The son of a shopkeeper, Joseph Lancaster (1778–1838) received little formal education himself. In 1798 he set up a school in Southwark, waiving fees for poor children. Originally published in 1803, this work sets out in detail the philosophy and practice of Lancaster's system of education, which relied on peer tutoring. He was always concerned with the education of the underprivileged in industrial cities, lamenting that 'poor children be deprived of even an initiatory share of education, and of almost any attention to their morals'. The early decades of the nineteenth century saw the peak of the popularity of Lancaster's system as his ideas spread and inspired the establishment of schools around the world. His book is still significant in the history of educational methods. This reissue of the revised third edition of 1805 incorporates a brief 1840 biography of Lancaster.

The English Spelling-Book
  • William Fordyce Mavor
  • Published online:
    05 December 2014
    Print publication:
    12 December 2013
  • Variously a teacher, clergyman and town mayor, William Fordyce Mavor (1758–1837) wrote prolifically on a range of literary, historical and educational topics. This work, first published in 1801 and reissued here in a corrected and improved edition of 1843, is Mavor's most famous. Intended to 'sow the seeds of useful learning', it is both a reading primer and a compendium of general knowledge. Beginning with the alphabet, with each letter illustrated by the delightful wood engravings of Thomas Bewick, the book presents vocabulary of increasing complexity together with simple and amusing stories for reading practice, as well as guidance on spelling and grammar. General knowledge is addressed through sections on such topics as weights and measures, geography, key dates in history, and the solar system. So successful was the work that it ran to 500 editions, had sold more than 2 million copies by 1823, and was translated into Hindi and French.

Letters on the Improvement of the Mind
  • Addressed to a Young Lady
  • Hester Chapone
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    21 November 2013
  • Originally published in 1773 in two volumes, and now reissued here together in one, this work by the writer Hester Chapone (1727–1801), a renowned proponent of female education, contains advice delivered in the form of letters to her niece. The first volume deals primarily with matters of religion and morality, while the second volume addresses questions of behaviour and schooling. Unusually for self-improvement books of this era, Chapone recommends that a young woman should have a rigorous education in a wide variety of subjects, including ancient history and geography, as well as instruction in ladylike deportment and mastery of household matters. She exhorts young ladies to avoid vanity and other vices through devoted study of scripture, and writes of the importance of choosing worthy and sensible friends who can be trusted to offer good advice. Chapone's posthumously published works, in two volumes, are also reissued in this series.

Schools for Girls and Colleges for Women
  • A Handbook of Female Education Chiefly Designed for the Use of Persons of the Upper Middle Class
  • Charles Eyre Pascoe
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    31 October 2013
  • The author of handbooks that reflected the Victorian emphasis on bettering one's prospects, Charles Eyre Pascoe (1842–1912) addressed the topic of female education in this work of 1879, at a time when the Cambridge colleges of Girton and Newnham were in their infancy. 'Chiefly designed for the use of persons of the upper middle class', the guide aims to assist parents in making informed choices about their daughters' education. The coverage extends from kindergarten through to university, before focusing on career options for women in the late nineteenth century, in fields such as teaching, the arts and medicine. Throughout, Pascoe's recommendations are based on consideration of the breadth of the curriculum, the qualifications of the teaching staff and the results achieved in examinations. For higher education, details of entrance examinations are provided, together with information on the subjects and lectures that were open to women at that time.

Labour and Childhood
  • Margaret McMillan
  • Published online:
    05 March 2014
    Print publication:
    26 September 2013
  • Celebrated for her pioneering work to improve the education, health and welfare of slum children, Margaret McMillan (1860–1931) was an active socialist campaigner and member of the Independent Labour Party. Her involvement with Bradford school boards drew her attention to the poor state of health of the pupils - rickets, scurvy, anaemia and malnutrition were commonplace. Working with her sister Rachel (1859–1917), as well as lobbying for improved standards, Margaret opened the country's first school clinic in Bow in 1908. The sisters' most famous enterprise, the Deptford Camp School, soon followed, and the Rachel McMillan College for training nurses and teachers was founded in 1930. One of her many influential books on pre-school and primary education, this work of 1907 considers the vital role of the school doctor and argues that the practice of poor schoolchildren engaging in part-time labour is detrimental to their well-being.

The Governess
  • Or, The Little Female Academy
  • Sarah Fielding
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    26 September 2013
  • First published in 1749 and reissued here in its 1765 printing, this novel by Sarah Fielding (1710–68) attempts to encourage young women to lives of virtue and benevolence through the story of nine girls living with their governess, Mrs Teachum, in a school in the north of England. The girls, aged between eleven and fourteen years old, learn the feminine graces and manners from various lessons and field trips organised by their teacher, as well as through the tales they tell each other. Skilled in conveying moral messages in this educational context, Fielding, whose brother was the novelist Henry Fielding, had also published anonymously The Adventures of David Simple (1744). The present work is particularly notable for being the first novel written in English expressly for children. An important text in eighteenth-century literature, it will appeal especially to readers interested in the history of women's education.

The Educational Writings of John Locke
  • John Locke
  • Edited by John William Adamson
  • Published online:
    07 September 2011
    Print publication:
    01 January 2011
    First published in:
    1922
  • John Locke (1632–1704) is widely regarded as one of the most influential of the Enlightenment philosophers. This volume, edited by J. W. Adamson and published as a second edition in 1922, contains two of John Locke's essays concerning education; Some Thoughts Concerning Education (1693) and Of the Conduct of the Understanding (1706). Some Thoughts Concerning Education expands on Locke's pioneering theory of mind by explaining how to educate a child using three complementary methods: the development of a healthy body; the formation of a virtuous mind; and the pursuit of an academic curriculum including the emerging sciences, mathematics and languages. Of the Conduct of the Understanding continues the theme of the earlier essay by describing how to develop rational thought. For over a century after the publication of these essays, John Locke's views on education were considered authoritative, and his work was translated into almost all major European languages.

Educational Charters and Documents 598 to 1909
  • Edited and translated by Arthur F. Leach
  • Published online:
    01 March 2011
    Print publication:
    31 October 2010
    First published in:
    1911
  • The most important historical documents relating to the origins and development of British educational institutions are collected in an accessible way in this volume. From the earliest cathedral schools, through the universities, to the foundation of the late Victorian Schools Trusts, these charters reveal the intentions of the founders and allow comparisons to be made across the centuries. The documents are edited down to the essentials and those originally in Latin are translated. Arthur Francis Leach (1851–1915) was best known for his study The Schools of Medieval England (1915), the first connected history of English schools to the time of the accession of Edward VI. In the field of educational history, Leach was a controversial figure whose sweeping conclusions failed to convince his colleagues, while they admired his research. This volume shows him a careful and sensitive editor of the historical documents central to his work.

English Works
  • Toxophilus. Report of the Affaires and State of Germany. The Scholemaster
  • Roger Ascham
  • Edited by William Aldis Wright
  • Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    31 October 2010
    First published in:
    1904
  • The Tudor writer Roger Ascham (c.1514–1568) was royal tutor to Princess Elizabeth. Ascham is best known for his works Toxophilus (1545) and The Scholemaster (1570) which were edited, together with his Report of the Affairs and State of Germany (1570), by the renowned literary scholar William Aldis Wright (1831–1914) and published in 1904 as part of the Cambridge English Classics series. Toxophilus, a Ciceronian dialogue between Philologus (the lover of study) and Toxophilus (the lover of the bow), articulates the importance of physical training to a gentleman's education. The Scholemaster, which was published posthumously, consists of two books. The first describes the character and teaching methods of the ideal tutor and the second advocates teaching languages by double translation. Ascham's English prose came to be seen as a model for how classical principles of form and organisation could be applied to the vernacular.

Early Yorkshire Schools
  • Volume 2, Pontefract, Howden, Northallerton, Acaster, Rotherham, Giggleswick, Sedbergh
  • Arthur Francis Leach
  • Published online:
    05 March 2014
    Print publication:
    18 April 2013
    First published in:
    1903
  • Published for the Yorkshire Archaeological Society in 1903, this second volume of a two-volume survey sets out to collect and put into historical context the extant documentation relating to the foundation and early history of seven Yorkshire schools: Pontefract, Howden, Northallerton, Acaster, Rotherham, Giggleswick and Sedbergh. Although none is as ancient as the three cathedral schools surveyed in the first volume, the documentation - the earliest of which is typically in Latin, while later documents tend to be in English - extends from 1139 and the founding of Pontefract Grammar, takes in Rotherham College from its foundation in 1483, and includes a full record of Sedbergh School, from its genesis in the 1520s through its re-establishment in 1551 and up to the end of the seventeenth century. Arthur Francis Leach (1851–1915), dubbed 'the father of the history of education in England', provides an introductory narrative to accompany these primary sources.

Early Yorkshire Schools
  • Volume 1, York, Beverley, Ripon
  • Arthur Francis Leach
  • Published online:
    05 March 2014
    Print publication:
    18 April 2013
    First published in:
    1899
  • Published for the Yorkshire Archaeological Society in 1899, this first volume of a two-volume survey sets out to collect and put into historical context the extant documentation relating to the foundation and early history of three ancient Yorkshire schools - in York, Beverley and Ripon - from their origins up to the Reformation. The earliest of these is what later became York's St Peter's School, founded in 627 by St Paulinus of York and where Alcuin was an early headmaster. An extract from his Latin poem The Bishops, Kings and Saints of York relating to his time at the school is printed here, alongside a wealth of letters, charters and other documents (many in Latin) concerning the history and traditions of all three schools. Arthur Francis Leach (1851–1915), dubbed 'the father of the history of education in England', provides a narrative account to accompany the primary sources.

The Woman Question in Europe
  • A Series of Original Essays
  • Edited by Theodore Stanton
  • Introduction by Frances Power Cobbe
  • Published online:
    05 November 2015
    Print publication:
    30 April 2015
    First published in:
    1884
  • The American journalist Theodore Stanton (1851–1925), son of the leading feminist and suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton, published this remarkable collection of essays in 1884. His intention had been to get from each European country 'the collaboration of one or more women, who … had participated, either actively or in spirit, in some phase of the women's movement'. In seventeen chapters, all but two written by women, the progress of 'the woman question' - the debate on the rights of women to financial independence, higher education and the franchise - across Europe (and in the Ottoman empire) is described, largely for an American and British readership. The work, introduced by the veteran feminist Frances Power Cobbe, has among the contributors (each given a short biography) many famous names in the struggle for women's rights at the end of the nineteenth century, including (from Britain) Millicent Garrett Fawcett, Jessie Boucherett and Maria Grey.

The Conflict of Studies
  • And Other Essays on Subjects Connected with Education
  • Isaac Todhunter
  • Published online:
    05 May 2014
    Print publication:
    22 August 2013
    First published in:
    1873
  • The nineteenth century was a time of great reform in education, with debate focusing on such questions as who should be educated, in what manner, and to what degree. Given the technical advances brought about by the Industrial Revolution, rigorous mathematical education was seen by many as essential. A mathematician, educator and examiner for the University of Cambridge, Isaac Todhunter (1820–84) was also known as a prolific and very successful author of mathematics textbooks. In his day, he was considered an influential, albeit somewhat conservative, figure in mathematical education. In these six essays, first published in 1873, he discusses topics raised by the reform movement (for which he had little sympathy), such as the examination system, teaching methods and materials. Born of Todhunter's vast experience in the field, this work reflects an insider's perspective and remains relevant to students and scholars interested in the history of mathematics teaching and the University of Cambridge.

Where There's a Will, There's a Way!
  • Or, Science in the Cottage; An Account of the Labours of Naturalists in Humble Life
  • James Cash
  • Published online:
    05 May 2012
    Print publication:
    22 December 2011
    First published in:
    1873
  • During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries many scientists, naturalists, engineers and inventors from humble backgrounds, largely self-taught, made significant contributions to British science. This 1873 book by James Cash (1839–1909) celebrates their achievements in natural history, while promoting a 'self-help' ideology, stressing how disadvantages could be overcome by those with ability and determination. Many of his subjects corresponded with great names such as William Jackson Hooker, and sent specimens or local information which helped build up the larger picture. Cash gives particular attention to men from the north of England, where many men engaged in the cloth trade were also notable plant collectors. His subjects include George Caley, a weaver self-taught in Latin and French, and whom Sir Joseph Banks employed to go to New South Wales as a collector; Edward Hobson, a factory worker; and John Horsefield, a self-taught weaver who memorised the Linnaean orders at his loom.

Exercises in Idiomatic Italian
  • Through Literal Translation from the English
  • Maria Francesca Rossetti
  • Published online:
    05 November 2014
    Print publication:
    17 April 2014
    First published in:
    1867
  • This innovative aid to the study of Italian was published in 1867 by Maria Francesca Rossetti (1827–76), the older sister of Dante Gabriel, William Michael and Christina. A scholar and teacher of Italian, she was later to publish A Shadow of Dante, a guide to the Divine Comedy, also reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection. Her purpose here, as she explains in her preface, is to demonstrate idiomatic Italian usage by providing short passages translated very literally into English, so that the 'unnatural' English phraseology demonstrates the correct Italian construction. The passages are to be translated back into Italian, with the help of some supplied vocabulary and an opening chapter which elucidates some of the more difficult aspects of Italian grammar, often by comparing Italian with French usage. The technique had long been used for Latin and Greek prose composition, but was innovatory for modern languages.

The Higher Education of Women
  • Emily Davies
  • Published online:
    07 September 2011
    Print publication:
    23 September 2010
    First published in:
    1866
  • Emily Davies (1830–1921) was an English early feminist and suffragist who is best remembered for her pioneering campaign to allow women access to university education. Davies was one of the founders of Girton College, Cambridge and served as Mistress between 1873–1875. This volume, first published in 1866, discusses the state of female education after the ages of 16-18. Davies explores the contemporary differences between male and female education and advocates women's entry into higher education, providing specific suggestions on how this could occur and the benefits it could bring to both men and women. The concerns of early feminists and the differing contemporary attitudes towards female education are presented in this volume, which also includes the 1854 pamphlet Remarks on the Education of Girls by feminist Bessie Rayner Parkes and an influential 1854 pamphlet summarising the legal restrictions of married women by feminist activist Barbara Bodichon.

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