By the Edwardian period many socialists were interested in the possibilities offered by moral education. Ramsay MacDonald was convinced that citizenship was essential to the promotion of socialism and civilisation, saying in 1901: A state can live for a century on wealth; if it desires to live forever,its foundation must be human character. A people whose reading is the sensational Press can neither live nor die for a state. They can shout for it and drink for it, but that is all.
Robert Blatchford similarly believed that ideologically uplifting education and culture were essential for the well being of the working classes. His `Cinderella' clubs offered working-class children hospitality, entertainment and the socialist message alongside ideas that had been popularised by followers of the craft socialism of William Morris.
By 1914, Gould had constructed a syllabus of `Moral and Civic Instruction' which reiterated his earlier ideas. Advocaring the value of stories and positive role models Gould maintained a firm conviction that such an education should also avoid addressing the sexes differently in any way, nor should it consider children as anything other than young adults. A section on `civics' portrayed the model citizen as one anxious to participate in the governing process and to improve upon defective laws, echoing modern concerns about educating the next generation in the workings of the democratic process. Even the seeds of multi-cultural education were here since Gould wanted his pupils to consider British citizenship as a phenomenon that embraced `many races, colours, creeds'.