SCHOOLS, PUBLIC AND GRAMMAR. Under their respective heads, GYMNASIUMS, EVENING SCHOOLS, REFORMATORY SCHOOLS, and INDUsTIHAL SCHOOLS, have been treated of at sufficient length for the purposes of an encyclopaedia. The list of' educational institutions would, however, be incomplete were nothing to be said regarding the public and grammar schools of England:. By the term "public schools" are generally desig nated the ancient foundations of Winchester, Eton, Harrow, Westminster, house. Shrewsbury, St. Paul's school, and :Merchant Taylors'. But there exist more modern seminaries, which have been instituted chiefly on the model of these, such as MarIhormndt college, Cheltenham college, and Wellington college. Endowed grammar scheols of old fotindation exist in almost all the principal towns of England, and are frequented both by day pupils and boarders from the country. As almost all the inde pendent and endowed grammar schools of England are taught by men whose notions of school discipline have been formed at one or other of the great public schools, these may fairly lie added to those already enumerated as in point of fact public schools. , The course of instruction pursued, the methods of teaching, and the habits of life and of diseipline, will he found to he substantially similar in all endowed middle schools, whether railed public or grammar schools. A great number of these schools derive not only the fired emoluments of the muters from old bequests, but also the means of board ing and educating it certain nunilliif boys on the foundation. It was originally for these foll lidalioners or collegians that a large proportion of the old schools were founded; but round thorn has grown up a large cominunity composed of pupils from all parts of the British dominions. tutors, and keepers of boarding-houses. The foundetioners eon sequentiv form simply the nucleus of these schools. The course of instruction is intended' to prepare fiir the universities, and is consequently adapted to this purpose. Latin and Greek form the basis of the whole instruction; geography, ancient history, arithmetic, and mathematics being admitted to a very subordinate place in the curriculum. The school time devoted to arithmetic and mathematics is now, however, considerably greater than was formerly given, and modern languages and the elements of science begin to receive a larger share of attention. There are, of course', tutors available at these educational seats for all usual branches of instruction, including music and draw in;; but these subjects are alien to tire proper work of tire school, and do not affect the standing or promotion of the pupils. At Rugby the school course includes both French
and German, and natural science is admitted as an alternative study with these. In the more modern institutions, such as :Marlborough, Cheltenham, and Wellington colleges, attempts have been made to provide a modern course of instruction, running parallel with tire classical, for the benefit of those boys who either show an inaptitude for classical sullies, or who are not destined for the universities. That a sound education may he obtained by nears of science and modern languages cannot be doubted; but its value, as compared, with classical discipline, even for those who do not contemplate a university cotubse, or one of the learned professions, is still an open question. If, how ever, it be tire case that there is a natural inaptitude in some boys for who yet possess capacity for scientific study or the.acquishion of a modern language, we are driven to the conclusion that such a course of study ought to be provided for this portion of the youth of Great Britain. Whether it ought to be provided at the existing grammar and public schools is a subject at present keenly debated. but must be ulti mately very much a question of finance. In Germany many of tire gymnasiums provide a course of modern or reethautly, and this, combined with the wide diffusion of middle schools, under the name of real-schalen, meets all the reasonable wants of that portion of the middle class which does not contemplate a•professional life. In France the lycees provide an ancient and modern course, rucning parallel with each other, for all pupils above a certain age. Up to that age all are taught the same, subjects. In Scotland, the number of midille schools in imp irtant towns, either established by private enterprise or by the town council or endowment, renders it unnecessary for boys to seek away from their homes the preparation necessary for either the Scottish universities or corn nercial life. The Scotch schools are elastic in their system, adapting themselves to the wants of parents, and all of them admit the modern element into their course of study; but the curriculum of study does not carry pupils so far as it ought, and the funds of the schools are wholly inadequate.
The `• schools inqiiiry commission" reported on the grammar schools of England in 1833, and their report led to the appointment of an endowed schools executive commis sion for purposes of reform. The Scotch endowed schools commission reported to government in 1S74-75.
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