Abstract
AMONG the social services which have undergone remarkable developments in Great Britain during the present century is that of education, and particularly of secondary education since the passing of the Education Act of 1902. The actual and potential changes in the structure of society brought about by these expansions of educational opportunity are far-reaching, yet it may be doubted whether their significance is generally appreciated. This is the view of Mr. G. A. N. Lowndes, who in a recent work with an arresting title* says: “Nothing is more exasperating to those to whom social reform is religion in action than the readiness with which the English neglect, forget or minimize their achievements.” Mr. Lowndes recalls and appraises those achievements in the field of public education, elementary, secondary and technical, in the past forty years, thanks to which Great Britain, it is claimed, is becoming “an educated democracy”. Some of the most telling in the series of contrasts through which the magnitude of these achievements is presented illustrate the progress of secondary education—progress which has been rightly characterized as 'revolutionary' by statesmen and historians.
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An Educated Democracy. Nature 141, 487–488 (1938). https://doi.org/10.1038/141487a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/141487a0