A Book Review of Education After the War

Abstract

Published in 1917, at the tail end of the First World War, John Haden Badley’s Education After the War explores the war’s impact on the British educational system. When dissected thoroughly and analyzed carefully, Badley demonstrated compelling, provocative, and legible argumentations that the war ultimately plunged the nation to the point of reconsidering its treatment of the education sector, which often lagged behind other politically backed priorities. In the book, he also promoted the belief that the optics of education should be redirected from being an arbiter of the individual’s future subjecting an individual to a machine-like setup, to a more liberal, student-centered approach, which ultimately encourages inquisitiveness, strengthening of research abilities, and happiness, to a relative extent. While given marginal attention in the work, Badley has also included a promising yet critical evaluation of the issue of militarism and equality in terms of women’s education. Furthermore, like any other referential work, the book has suffered from analytical deficiencies or interpretative shortcomings that relatively limited the presentation of its meritorious contents. In sum, despite being published in the early 20^th century, Badley’s work remains strikingly pertinent in the present, as the essence of its contents is still evident in the intellectual debate of the proper educational approach for the interests of the children.