description: The Public Schools are a typically British institution. Two hundred years ago there were only half a dozen Public Schools in the accepted sense; by 1870 the picture had changed dramatically and there were ten times as many. In this book Miss Percival analyses the reasons for the rise of the Public School, and finds that they had come into being through the extraordinary efforts of a number of distinguished Headmasters (the "very superior men" of her title) rather than as a result of the social pressures, which are the generally accepted explanation. In this book Miss Percival goes back over the character, life and work of such early Headmasters as Thomas James and Dr. Arnold of Rugby, Samuel Butler of Shrewsbury, Dr. Keate of Eton, and so on. From about 1770 onwards such men had worked strenuously to rescue certain old Grammar Schools from the hard times upon which they had fallen, and had developed them into the institution which has now become nationally known and accepted. Round these figures and round the Public Schools generally have grown up various "myths" and stereo-typed images—this book explores the men behind the images, their origins and their destinies. But the book is not a sociological document; it is a collection of biographies which is to be read by people who want to know what the men who made the public schools were really like and how they did it. An interesting feature of the book is a series of genealogical tables, clarifying the relationships of well-known teaching families down to the present day. Alicia C. Percival was formerly a lecturer of the London University Institute of Education. She has written widely on the subject of education, including articles for the Times Educational Supplement.
language: English
title: Very superior men: some early public school headmasters and their achievements
titlecomplete: Very superior men: some early public school headmasters and their achievements
publisher: C. Knight