This book documents an informal system of education that emerged in Ireland between the late 1750s and the end of the century, a system that operated largely without funding or direction by church or state. In a society as divided as eighteenth-century Ireland, it is remarkable that such a system could succeed, paving the way for the more formal…

The blurring of the distinctions between pedagogy and curriculum, and experience and knowledge, has resulted in a generation of teachers who are confused about the part that each of these plays in the education of children. Schools may still teach through subjects, but there is little consensus about what constitutes a subject and what they are…