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naturegirl321
Joined: 04 May 2003
Posts: 9041
Location: home sweet home
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 Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 2:14 am Post subject: Brit Eng: private vs. public school |
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| Why in British English is a public school one that's not run by the state and vice versa? |
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Mike_2003
Joined: 27 Mar 2003
Posts: 344
Location: Bucharest, Romania
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| Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 4:07 am Post subject: |
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| Because it is run by the public, not the state? |
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ilaria
Joined: 26 Jan 2007
Posts: 88
Location: Sicily
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| Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 8:46 am Post subject: |
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Historical reasons.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_school_(UK)
Scroll down to the section headed 'Terminology'.
'Public school' is maybe a slightly old-fashioned term. Nowadays we would normally call fee-charging schools 'independent schools' as opposed to the normal 'state schools' which most Brits attend. |
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dmb
Joined: 12 Feb 2003
Posts: 8397
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| Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 9:36 am Post subject: |
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| I went to public school(fee paying) Originally when it was set up in 1870 it was for poor boys who wouldn't otherwise get the chance to go to school. Could this be a reason? |
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Stephen Jones
Joined: 21 Feb 2003
Posts: 4124
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| Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 9:39 am Post subject: |
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A public school is an independent school whose headmaster is a member of the Headmaster's Conference (HMC).
The schools were called public schools because prior to that the norm was for the rich to have private tutors. |
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Timster
Joined: 09 Feb 2006
Posts: 6
Location: London
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| Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 12:40 pm Post subject: |
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| The way I heard it is that back in the days public schools gained there name as being schools open to the public as opposed to religious schools who were open only to those heavily affiliated with christianity. Public schools were/are open to all for the right price |
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mondrian
Joined: 20 Mar 2005
Posts: 658
Location: "was that beautiful coastal city in the NE of China"
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| Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 1:17 pm Post subject: |
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| Timster wrote: |
| The way I heard it is that back in the days public schools gained there name as being schools open to the public as opposed to religious schools who were open only to those heavily affiliated with christianity. Public schools were/are open to all for the right price |
And still are!
Now do you get value for money if you attend one?
Read many articles in the UK newspapers (such as the Guardian) which decry the lesser number of state pupils now attending the elite Universities in the UK.
The capabilities of the young are even on entrance to either system at 11 years old. But how they are allowed to develop their potential, is obviously not the same in the two systems. And so it takes a special kind of student (personality) to overcome the cannon fodder policy that our education system has produced. |
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Stephen Jones
Joined: 21 Feb 2003
Posts: 4124
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| Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 1:43 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| The way I heard it is that back in the days public schools gained there name as being schools open to the public as opposed to religious schools who were open only to those heavily affiliated with christianity |
You heard it wrong. Most Public Schools are heavily affiliated with Christianity, often have their own chapel and chaplain, and in the cases of the better known predate the church schools by many hundreds of years. |
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dmb
Joined: 12 Feb 2003
Posts: 8397
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| Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 1:44 pm Post subject: |
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| (Before my time) Why were grammar schools called grammar schools? |
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mondrian
Joined: 20 Mar 2005
Posts: 658
Location: "was that beautiful coastal city in the NE of China"
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| Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 1:46 pm Post subject: |
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| dmb wrote: |
| (Before my time) Why were grammar schools called grammar schools? |
for dmb read "dumb"! |
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dmb
Joined: 12 Feb 2003
Posts: 8397
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| Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 2:01 pm Post subject: |
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| That's not very nice. My mother passed her 11+ and went to grammar school. She claims that she was NOT taught grammar. |
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jammish
Joined: 17 Nov 2005
Posts: 1704
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| Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 2:58 pm Post subject: Re: Brit Eng: private vs. public school |
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| naturegirl321 wrote: |
| Why in British English is a public school one that's not run by the state and vice versa? |
You've got this partially right. Public schools and private schools are both in essence, private. The reason public schools are called that is that they are members of the Board of Public schools (I think, or something like that). Government schools are of course called state schools (comprehensives, and occasionally grammar) |
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Mike_2003
Joined: 27 Mar 2003
Posts: 344
Location: Bucharest, Romania
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| Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 3:08 pm Post subject: |
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| dmb - Before your time? How young are you? I'm only 34 and I went to a 'grammar' school. We covered very little grammar though... |
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11:59
Joined: 31 Aug 2006
Posts: 632
Location: Hong Kong: The 'Pearl of the Orient'
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| Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 4:36 pm Post subject: |
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| dmb wrote: |
| (Before my time) Why were grammar schools called grammar schools? |
Because, for mystical reasons which still seem quite unbelievable, Latin really was considered to be the 'ultimate tongue' (all other languages were deemed to be corrupted if not degenerate) and all study revolved around its 'grammar' (read, 'inflectional morphology'). There are still remnants of those times to be seen today actually. For example, that prescriptive nonsense about not ending a sentence in a preposition stems from those ridiculous days. |
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dmb
Joined: 12 Feb 2003
Posts: 8397
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| Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 7:40 pm Post subject: |
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| Mike_2003 wrote: |
| dmb - Before your time? How young are you? I'm only 34 and I went to a 'grammar' school. We covered very little grammar though... |
37, maybe grammar schools were faded out in Scotland before England. They weren't around in Edinburgh during my teens. |
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