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Healthy Intercourse: The Beginning of the London Working Men's College

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2008

John R. Reed
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Extract

In 1853, a group of earnest Englishmen proposed an experiment that seemed revolutionary – a college in London specifically for the education of working men. Since there was, at that time, no national program of education for the young in England, this surprising proposal for the education of adults, not in technical skills, but in the traditional liberal arts, was all the more remarkable. And yet the plan succeeded and was praised not only by champions of the working class, but by others as well. Moreover, the success of the Working Men's College seemed simple and direct, quickly achieving the clear-cut scheme according to which it was founded. In fact, in a most fortunate irony, the College survived in spite of its declared principles. It was as much a social as an educational success. Despite its high intellectual ideals, cordiality more than classics kept the London Working Men's College alive.

Type
Research Article
Information
Victorian Literature and Culture , Volume 16 , Spring 1988 , pp. 77 - 90
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988

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References

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