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Ambition, the Canon, and the Arnolds

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2008

Dorothy Mermin
Dorothy Mermin
Affiliation:
Cornell University
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Extract

The idea of a literary canon is inextricably connected in English-speaking countries with the Arnolds: Thomas Arnold, headmaster of Rugby, who was credited with revivifying the classical curriculum while recreating the great public schools, and his eldest son, Matthew, the most influential nineteenth-century spokesman for the moral, spiritual, social, and cultural efficacy of a canon widened to include English poetry and available, at least in theory, to every literate English person. Like his father, Matthew Arnold was a professional educator: he earned his living as an inspector of schools, mostly elementary schools for the poor. For both Arnolds, the canon is the curriculum at the heart of the pedagogical enterprise; and the grand, almost mystical power they attached to it spilled over onto the pedagogue. Their professional careers entailed considerable sacrifice of worldly ambition, but the power of pedagogy as they conceived it became their object and their reward.

Type
Work in Progress
Information
Victorian Literature and Culture , Volume 26 , Issue 2 , fall 1998 , pp. 443 - 462
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1998

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References

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