The Children

Schools, public responsibility and children's welfare meet in Alexander Darroch's discussion of educational reform. He begins with dissatisfaction over the organisation of education in Britain, arguing that separate institutions need clearer purposes and stronger connections. Primary schools, secondary schools, universities and technical instruction are considered as parts of a national system whose work should serve the wider community.

The discussion also reaches beyond classrooms to the conditions that shape a child's ability to learn. Chapters address medical inspection, school meals and physical education, while the excerpt on underfeeding distinguishes temporary hardship, persistent poverty and parental neglect. Darroch weighs charitable assistance against public intervention and asks how responsibility should be enforced without increasing children's suffering. Readers interested in the history of schooling will find an argument about how educational aims, social provision and the duties of the state fit together.