If you do decide to explore it for yourself, just be prepared to zip through the first 80 pages, which he spends dissing his critics and rivals, to get to the good stuff. There’s much more to the book than a discussion of ‘the best thought and known’ but we don’t have space to go into that here. (Fans of anarchy will be disappointed at how little Arnold has to say about it). Whether or not you have a horse in that particular race, Culture and Anarchy (1869) is well worth reading for its thoughtful discussion of the principles involved in education and indeed culture more broadly. It is perhaps more controversial today than ever, providing both a rallying cry about the importance of knowledge for educational traditionalists and an emblem of backwards-looking elitism for educational progressives. The phrase ‘we should teach the best that has been thought and known’ (along with its variation ‘…thought and said’) has been contested within education circles ever since it was coined, over 150 years ago, by poet and school inspector Matthew Arnold (1822-1888) in his book Culture and Anarchy. James raised some objections which prompted me to develop my argument here. One was my claim that schools should teach ‘the best that has been thought and said’. And we disagreed, civilly, on several topics during the three hour discussion.

In the often intolerant and tribal world of educational theory and policy, James is to be commended for his willingness to explore differences of opinion in a generous and civil fashion. I was recently interviewed about my essay The Liberating Power of Education for a future episode of Dr James Mannion’s excellent long-form podcast, Rethinking Education.

Arnold culture and anarchy summary