Secondary education and parental choice in enlightenment Glasgow: A case study of the Moore family, with particular reference to the extended tour abroad of (Sir) John Moore with his father Dr Moore (1772-76)

McCallum, Sandra (2014) Secondary education and parental choice in enlightenment Glasgow: A case study of the Moore family, with particular reference to the extended tour abroad of (Sir) John Moore with his father Dr Moore (1772-76). PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

The thesis takes the form of a case study, exploring the educational choices made by Dr John and Mrs Jean Moore of Glasgow for their family. It focuses particularly on the education of their eldest son, John, (Sir John Moore of Corunna) before 1772 and abroad during the next four years till September 1776. It contends that, although the Moore parents’ choices were highly personal, designed to suit their family situation and never part of a dogmatic rejection of contemporary educational provision, elements of these choices indicate a radical approach to the principles and practices of education that preceded the curricular reforms of the nineteenth century.
The thesis examines secondary schooling in Enlightenment Glasgow. The source material is problematic: town records for eighteenth-century secondary education in Glasgow are scant and the evidence gleaned from contemporary newspapers provides a one-sided view of how private enterprise widened the schooling options available to parents. Taking into account the limitations of the sources, the thesis examines the educational milieu in Glasgow, considering opportunities outside the all-male Glasgow Grammar School, including some consideration of the education of females. It discusses why calls for curricular reform, in line with Enlightenment thinking on ‘useful’ education, were not taken up by Glasgow Town Council.
The choice of John Moore as a case study stems from his unique situation. He was educated in Glasgow until 1772, when he was ten. He then accompanied his father on a tour organised for the Duke of Hamilton across Europe, mainly in Geneva, but also in France, Germany, Austria and Italy until 1776, when he was approaching fifteen. His letters home provide good historical evidence of his attainment and progress. Dr Moore’s practice of allowing him to write free of parental supervision makes these sources particularly valuable historically, as a way to investigate the perception of education by school age children. Primary sources also include the published work of Dr Moore, other family letters and journals. The wealth of archival material, some of it studied for the first time in this thesis, enables examination of the views of parents and children on education, an area rarely covered in histories of the subject.
The evidence presented in this thesis has shown that educational pathways in a growing city such as Glasgow left scope for individual family initiatives, as the quality and range of the existing educational provision in Glasgow left room for further experimentation.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Keywords: Scottish history, Glasgow, eighteenth century, Enlightenment; secondary education, parental choice in education, travel, Grand Tour, children's letter-writing, Sir John Moore, Dr John Moore
• Subjects: D History General and Old World > DA Great Britain; L Education > LA History of education; L Education > LB Theory and practice of education
• Colleges/Schools: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Humanities > History
• Supervisor's Name: Bowie, Dr Karin and Munck, Dr Thomas
• Date of Award: 2014
• Depositing User: Ms Sandra McCallum
• Unique ID: glathesis:2014-5770
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 22 Jan 2015 14:27
• Last Modified: 29 Jan 2015 11:04
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/5770