ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts covered in the preceding chapters of this book. The book demonstrates the richness, variety and complexity of school subject history in the context of English secondary education in the period 1870–1940, and particularly during the three decades from 1890 to 1920. The tension between classical and 'modern' emphases in the secondary curriculum from the late nineteenth century is well known and has been well documented in the general history of education. In mathematics, major reactions to the 'practical' shift in school mathematics and to practical mathematics as an alternative paradigm are evident. As Christopher Stray clearly shows, the paradigm of classical education became associated with two distinct ideologies: high culture, and mental and moral discipline. Uniquely, within classics there was a fundamental tension between these two ideologies, which were associated with Greek and Latin respectively.
