This book, first published in 1987, attempts to take fresh stock of a man who made a great impact on nineteenth-century English Secondary Education. A quasi psycho-biographical approach is adopted from the beginning so that Thring, the man, is examined from the perspective of his paradoxes, personality and the pervasive influences on him. Specia

The traditional picture of a Victorian public school assumes that it was founded on Thomas Arnold, Tom Brown’s Schooldays and Rugby football. A Rifle Corps, Oxbridge Blues on the teaching staff, and an ethos of esprit de corps were all part of the system. The cult of athleticism reigned supreme. This was not the case at Uppingham School during Edward Thring’s headmastership from 1853 to 1887. Here a balanced physical education of gymnastics, athletics, games, swimming and country pursuits flourished within a sane but revolutionary educational framework. Thring’s Uppingham, however, was an Athens surrounded by Spartan strongholds. The Spartans were kept at bay during Thring’s lifetime, but, after his death, they closed in and even claimed Thring as one of their own. His ideals were hijacked by the sportsmen and then perverted by the militarists. Thring’s theory and practice of physical education lived on outside the traditional public schools, was adopted by the progressive school movement, and eventually found acceptance in all good schools. Its legacy can be found in the first National Curriculum for Physical Education and in all schools that value physical education as a vital ingredient of holistic education. This book will inform trainee teachers, practising teachers and teacher trainers of the men and women who have strived since 1800 to secure a place for physical education in the curriculum for all pupils. Historians of education, gender, society and sport will find new material to illuminate their fields of study.

Originally published in 1926, this volume charts the achievements of Edward Thring, arguably the most original and striking figure in the schoolmaster world of England in the nineteenth century. Abroad, he was the only English schoolmaster of his generation widely known by name. The principles upon which he relied were that every boy should be taught, and the less able the boy, the more able should be the teacher who was set to deal with him; that no class should exceed twenty-five boys; that each boy should have privacy in the dormitories and that trust between boys and masters was paramount. These were revolutionary principles in educational terms at the time but they have endured to form the cornerstones of British boarding-schools which are still recognized today.

Edward Thring features prominently in all the educational histories of his period, and is seen as the foremost figure in independent schools in the generation after the famous Dr. Thomas Arnold of Rugby. This book draws on new material and letters discovered in an archive. And archive it was assumed had perished in a fire; it shows just how ground-breaking his reforms really were; how sound or otherwise his methods of financing Uppingham were, and why he polarized people between passionate supporters and strong opponents. This biography also includes the bitter battle over who should be his literary executor.

This set of 14 volumes, originally published between 1932 and 1995, amalgamates several topics on the history of education between the years 1800 and 1926, including women and education, education and the working-class, and the history of universities in the United Kingdom. This set also includes titles that focus on key figures in education, such as Samuel Wilderspin, Georg Kerschensteiner and Edward Thring. This collection of books from some of the leading scholars in the field provides a comprehensive overview of the subject and will be of particular interest to students of history, education and those undertaking teaching qualifications.