The 'Patron Saint' of Comprehensive Education: an interview with Clyde Chitty. Part Two
FORUM - ISSN 0963-8253
Volume 60 Number 1 (2018)
The 'Patron Saint' of Comprehensive Education: an interview with Clyde Chitty. Part Two
MELISSA BENN, JANE MARTIN pages 11-30
DOI: 10.15730/forum.2018.60.1.11
Abstract
This is the second and concluding part of the interview which Melissa Benn and Jane Martin conducted with Clyde Chitty in the summer of 2017. The first part appeared in the previous issue of the journal, FORUM, 59(3). When Clyde stepped away from regular duties with the FORUM board, Michael Armstrong dubbed him 'the patron saint of the movement for comprehensive education'. Clyde talked with Melissa and Jane about his working life as a teacher-researcher who notably campaigned for the universal provision of comprehensive state education. His unshakeable conviction that education has the power to enhance the lives of all is illustrated by plentiful examples from his work-life history. The interview is structured like a narrative. Phrases or sentences in brackets are interpolations for sense and by way of additional context. The section in italics comes not from the interview, but from Clyde's chapter in the book edited with Melissa Benn: A Tribute to Caroline Benn: education and democracy. As a coda, we append details of all Clyde's articles for this journal from 1981, beginning characteristically with a piece entitled 'Why Comprehensive Schools?', along with details of his editorials from 1995.
To cite this article
MELISSA BENN, JANE MARTIN (2018) The 'Patron Saint' of Comprehensive Education: an interview with Clyde Chitty. Part Two, FORUM, 60(1), 11-30. https://doi.org/10.15730/forum.2018.60.1.11