This article is based on an inaugural professorial lecture given by Jane Martin at the University of Birmingham on 3 December 2014. It grew out of research in progress on the life and work of the leading educational reformer, Caroline Benn, wife of one of the most prominent and controversial post-war socialists in Britain, Tony Benn.

In the United States, people think of elementary and secondary education as fundamentally different from higher education. The first two levels are where students are expected to learn the building blocks for lifelong learning, while college is meant to confer higher-order thinking and more-specialized skills. How students are treated flows…

The "National Physical Activity Plan", as well as professional and government agencies (NASPE, 2008a; US Department of Health and Human Services, 2000) acknowledge pre-kindergarten (pre-K) children should be part of comprehensive school physical activity initiatives anchored in quality physical education programming. These…

This monograph examines James B. Conant's works on American education. Emphasis is placed on three major works--"The American High School Today: A First Report to Interested Citizens,""Education in the Junior High School Years," and "The Comprehensive High School: A Second Report to Interested Citizens." Attention is…

For more than a century, American educators and education policymakers have chosen sides in a great debate about the nature and function of American high schools. The origins of this long-running argument can be traced to 1893, when the influential Committee of Ten, a bluechip panel of educators, issued a report proposing that all public…

AN INTERMEDIATE EDUCATION UNIT, ORGANIZED AT THE REGIONAL LEVEL AND COVERING SUFFICIENT AREA TO WARRANT EMPLOYMENT OF A STAFF OF SPECIALISTS, IS CAPABLE OF OFFERING A WIDE VARIETY OF ESSENTIAL SERVICES, AND THUS OCCUPIES A UNIQUE NICHE IN THE EDUCATIONAL SETTING. THE ACTIVITIES OF AN INTERMEDIATE UNIT MAY BE CATEGORIZED INTO (1) ARTICULATIVE, OR…