The View From 1876

Abstract

In education, which demands ideals, it is often hard to hang onto one’s idealism. This is particularly true in England where education has usually been a frail plant reluctantly given water and nutrients by the state. Ever since the nineteenth century the London Government’s cry has been one of ‘Value for Money!’ which really means ‘How Little Dare We Spend on Education?’ In the nineteenth century Britain was the richest country on earth and Robert Lowe, Vice-President of the Department of Education, when introducing his Revised Code of Regulations of 1861, caught the traditional English mood on education by stating to the House of Commons, ‘If this system is not cheap, I can promise it shall be efficient; if it is not efficient, it shall be cheap’. The resulting ‘payment-by-results’, as has often been the English experience, was neither.