Edmond Holmes
 and 'The Tragedy of Education

Review

“I must admit that I didn’t exactly relish the prospect of reading this account of the life and work of the Senior Chief Inspector of Schools at the turn of the century; I expected a worthy but dull biography.

How wrong I was. I was riveted by the story of Edmund Holmes’ working life, and by Chris Shute’s accompanying heartfelt plea for us to radically rethink our perceptions of what ‘education’ should be.

Chris Shute outlines Holmes’ passionate critique of schools in his own time and shows the relevance of Holmes’ analysis of what is going on in education today. It is not dry and worthy at all, but is refreshingly angry about how the education system – then and now – is under a stranglehold of prescriptive, examination-based instruction … guaranteed to get you thinking.”
Christine Bridgwood