Levende Talen. Jaargang 1930

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Public schools.

It is a fact that in the Easter holidays of 1930 I, a Dutch schoolmaster, visited Westminster School, through the kindness of the bursar. It was a great pity that I could neither talk to a colleague at this famous school nor see one of the pupils since, as I said, the holidays were in being, but I was grateful enough to tread the place where the seed is sown, as I try to sow it myself in Holland, among boys and girls of from twelve to twenty years of age.

English schools set us a good example with regard to holidays by giving four weeks at Christmas and Easter and seven weeks in the summer. I mean by English schools the so-called Public Schools, and especially those wellknown boarding-schools for boys which are known as the Big Seven, viz. Eton, Harrow, Winchester, Westminster, Shrewsbury, Charterhouse and Rugby. Where we do not emulate these bigger ones is in the expense incurred by a father who sends his boys there. Eton, for instance, costs £ 300 a year. The school fees at Shrewsbury amount to £ 180 annually and at Charterhouse to £ 175. However, there are many similar foundations that are much cheaper.

The principle of the Public Schools began to be applied very early. In 1382 William of Wykeham founded Winchester College and laid down the system since used by the English boardingschools. In the first place, he connected the school closely with New College, Oxford. Secondly, he introduced the system of prefects, of whom we read in fiction in ‘Stalky and Co.’, ‘The Hill’, ‘Young Woodley’ and such works. Thirdly, in his system games and exercise in the open air play an important part. William made the formation of a boy's character his main task. Mindful of the old proverb ‘Manners Makyth Man’, he insisted upon the cultivation of good manners. Originally Winchester College was founded for poor pupils, choristers and others, who sat side by side with a certain number of paying scholars selected from the sons of noblemen and influential persons. He deemed such a population to be desirable and wished his school to be an avenue for any boy of parts to a rich field of activity. To-day, the old free places are represented by the various scholarships that can be obtained by those who are or intend to become pupils of the College.

In the course of centuries many public schools, through various causes, became so bad that in the XVIII and XIXth centuries more authors than one stigmatised them as corrupt. Even recently

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Dickens could visit a school resembling Dotheboy's Hall. And how terribly did Tennyson fear the schools above the door of which it said: ‘Spare the rod and spoil the child.’

One man raised the level of the public school. He was the father of Matthew Arnold, whom my readers know best through his poetry, including his ‘Rugby Chapel’. He knew how to draw to his school pupils from the well-to-do middle classes which began to demand for their children the same education as the aristrocracy did for its own clay. Moreover, the expansion of the British Empire made many parents who lived in Australia, India of Canada send their children to English boarding-schools in the motherland. According to Arnold, real religion is a living force for the formation of a boy's character. He also added a great number of branches to the curriculum, taught history in such a way that it was void of all barrenness and mechanicalness. By his strong personality he gave an impetus to the founding of many boarding schools, wherein a spirit prevailed that was different from the spirit of former times.

Nowadays the Public School, with between 450 and 750 pupils is divided into Houses, where the House Master is in close touch with the pupil, so that the feeling of home is stronger than that of school, while the common life, formation of character, playing the game and close connection with Oxford and Cambridge are conspicuous. At each school an average of 120 boys passes each School Certificate examination, through which to gain admittance to the University.

As most boys are boarders, much is necessary that does not belong to instruction proper. Buttery, speechroom, chapel: all minister to the development of the boys. Divine service especially, which is not dogmatic, or critical or cavilling, is an inspiration to the young mind, filling it with a realisation of the eternal valures of truth, goodness and beauty as revealed in the life of Christ and showing that conduct is what really matters.

R. MEURER.

(Is continued).

Hilversum.