This book deals with the everlasting problem of war and peace. In it, the author argues that mankind must be predisposed for peace by the right kind of education and he discusses how to devise methods of education which will prevent war.

Contributing to early debates on nature versus nurture, schools and the social environment, town planning and a free comprehensive education, the author discusses key educational issues against the background of a distintegrating Europe in the midst of war.

This book discusses the very nature and purpose of education and provides a foundation upon which more specialized studies in the psychology, history and sociology of education can be based. The book therefore surveys the main problems of human life – the relation of the individual and society, freedom and authority, continuity and change (i.e.growth), and underlying them all, the paradox that aspiration and frustration are continually linked in human experience. The educational implications of these various problems are considered in such a way that the methods as well as the aims of education are discussed.

There are many students who find philosophy of education difficult, because they have never received teaching in the basic essentials of general philosophy. This book begins by asking the basic question ‘what is philosophy?’ and examines a number of possible answers. Step by step the reader is introduced to the modern techniques of linguistic and concept analysis. Whenever a technical term is used it is explained and illustrated by reference to familiar situations in everyday life.

The main concern of the volume is the relation of theory to practice in education but the book also reviews the state of educational theory, and its relation to politics. Beginning with a group of papers on specific areas of the relation between theory and practice, the book goes on to discuss aspects of the curriculum, such as curricular principles in recent official reports, the newly emerging theme of general abilities, and controversial material in the curriculum. The theme of the third group of articles is personal autonomy, one of the very few generally supported educational aims of recent years, and a final group presents a retrospective view of the Plowden Report.

‘Philosophy’ in the context of this book means that the author is looking at education as a whole, without restrictions or simplifications; looking at ends and purposes, not merely at methods and means. He discusses early years education, the sociology and psychology of education as well as education in adolescence and adult education. Well-known as a critical pioneer of intelligence research the author discusses educational psychology as much as philosophy in this book.

The book is divided into two parts. The first forms a survey of the inadequacies of the Swiss school system in the early twentieth century (but the issues it discusses were universal ones which were just as prevalent in the English school system of that time). The second part of the book is a collection of testimonies from former pupils on the worst aspects of their schooling. With reference to the ideals of Pestalozzi the author proposes ways in which to find constructive solutions to the problems of harsh teachers, schools and de-motivated pupils.