ABSTRACT
How were schools organized in response to the urban crisis? There was little attempt by teachers to lobby for overall urban strategy. They looked within the school or the education service for solutions. An attempt was made to enhance classroom life for the average teacher and child through improved resources and managerial techniques. There was a plethora of curriculum innovation in urban schools through the 1960s and 1970s. Experimental reorganization within schools themselves – the integrated day in the primary school; pastoral grouping, mixed ability or team teaching in the secondary school – could all be seen as a reflex response to the chronic social disorder and instability which threatened the urban classroom. 1 Indeed, innovations in school organization or curriculum in urban schools during this period were arguably dictated less by educational philosophy than by a sense of panic. The underlying problem was unavoidable: how to deal with endemic maladjustment, how to avoid or spread out the difficult children.
