Download or read book Matthew Arnold and English Education written by Brendan A. Rapple and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2017-08-11 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Poet and critic Matthew Arnold (1822-1888) was a prominent educator. One of Her Majesty's Inspectors of Elementary Schools for 35 years, he traveled abroad to report on foreign education. Though Arnold is recognized as an early proponent of comparative education, there has been little study of his work in the field. The author examines Arnold's writings and presents three related arguments--that England was well behind countries like France and Germany in "the civilization of her middle class"; that advances being made abroad were largely due to strong state education systems, and that it was essential for England to establish a system of post-elementary education modeled on foreign systems.