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Which European countries did Matthew Arnold study as a school inspector?
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Matthew Arnold
Matthew Arnold, detail of an oil painting by George Frederick Watts, 1880; in the National Portrait Gallery, London.
As a school inspector, Matthew Arnold was commissioned by the British government to investigate and report on the state of education in several European countries. Specifically, he conducted studies in:
- France
- Germany
- Holland
- Switzerland1
These international inquiries allowed Arnold to contrast the limited educational contributions of the English state with the more robust systems he observed in these Continental nations, a comparison that became central to his advocacy for public education reform in England.2