ABSTRACT
John Wesley once claimed that if the Methodists were not a reading people the work of grace would die out in a generation. Thirty years ago Frank Pritchard described Wesley’s pragmatism, seeing the need for the teaching of reading to enable Bible study for both preachers and congregations.1 He established both the Orphan House in Newcastle, and Kingswood school, supported the Grey Coat Charity School in Oxford in the 1720s and a school in Georgia. His sermons ‘On Obedience to Parents’ and ‘On the Education of Children’, and his ‘Thoughts on the Manner of Educating Children’ of 1783 stressed the centrality of religion in education.
