ABSTRACT
Edward Thring's contribution to English education is substantial and deserves to be honoured. A worthy aim for the centenary will be not complacent congratulation, nor the facile judgment of failure, but a fuller understanding and appreciation of the complex figure of Edward Thring. His life’s work should have a perennial appeal for students of education since Thring was not only a headmaster of a leading English school but he was also that rara avis, a writer in the theory of education. Thring was more than just a pugnacious schoolmaster: he was a man called by Destiny as some of his sermons indicate. Thring’s regime of stern discipline and his strong verbal encouragement of the boys was the product of his idiosyncratic mind. Thring’s writings abound, therefore, in pithy aphorisms which made them so popular with his readers. In the searchlight of Skrine’s critical thoughts on Thring, the task of assessing Thring as headmaster, teacher and man becomes a complex one.
