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The Victorian Reform of Teaching: Why Self-Improvement Became a Priority?
During the Victorian era, the education system underwent an unprecedented reform. During this period, education was not only seen as a way to acquire knowledge, but also an important means to promote social progress and personal self-improvement. At that time, society generally emphasized the importance of self-improvement, and many reformers realized that education must be combined with real society in order to truly benefit the people.
Victorian education emphasised practicality and sustainability, pushing students to study commercially valuable subjects such as modern languages and mathematics.
The motivations for educational reform vary, from expanding educational opportunities to improving educational quality, all reflecting the urgent needs of society at the time. Thinkers of the time, such as Horace Mann, stressed the need for a solid, state-supported public school system to make education accessible to every child, especially in the context of social inequality of the time. The education Mann advocated should be universal, non-sectarian, and focused on social efficiency and civic virtue rather than just academic advancement.
The story of Horace Mann tells us that education should be everyone's right, not a privilege.
Victorian reforms were concerned not only with changes in the content of education but also with changes in the methods of education. Reformers at the time, such as John Dewey, advocated that education should be practice-based, allowing students to learn through hands-on practice, a concept that was widely used in subsequent education systems. Dewey believed that education is not only the transfer of knowledge, but also a process in which students learn how to think and solve problems.
Education should enable students to become critical thinking citizens rather than just recipients of knowledge.
Although some progress has been made in education reform at this time, there are still many challenges. In the social context of the time, many children from low socioeconomic classes still did not have access to quality education, which further emphasized the issue of educational inequality. Therefore, another motivation for education reform is to reduce social inequality and promote equal educational opportunities. Reformers realized that only by solving these problems could society truly progress.
Victorian educational reforms evolved over time to include more content and methods. For example, the concept of educational equality advocated by Martin Luther King, from theory to practice, promoted an educational revolution, allowing students of all ethnic groups to receive equal education.
During this period, education was seen as a tool to change one's destiny, and self-improvement became an integral part of everyone's life.
The reforms at this stage had a profound impact on the subsequent education system. Both in terms of curriculum and teaching methods, the Victorian era laid the foundation for the subsequent development of our education. This educational philosophy that emphasizes self-improvement and social responsibility still influences our education system today.
Faced with various current educational challenges, we should reflect: In modern society, is self-improvement still the core demand of educational reform?
