Evening star., 1935-12-22
BRITISH WORKERS SONS
TAKE ARISTOCRATS' JOBS
Win Competitive Government Positions
From Exclusive public" School
Class i'm Silent Revolution.

to offer their masters the salaries,
prospects or pensions that every State
school now provides. They are being
more and more forced to rely upon
uncertificated teachers not qualified
to teach in state schools. A little
more than two years ago the Board
of Education appointed a committee
to inquire into these private prepara-
tory schools. 1t was shown that in
large number the teaching and other
conditions were so bad as to constitute
what was described as a public danger.
For all these reasons the secondary
schools are clearly destined to play
an increasingly dominant part in the
formation of the English character.
The public schools have stood not only
for education but for type. and one
Of the most interesting problems Of
the future Is whether the secondary
schools will initiate this type or create
new one of their own.
Public Schools Have Motto.
The public school type has been
evolved by a system of training with
methods and traditions peculiar to
itself. 1t is not particularly spiritual,
but it has its own religion of loyalty,
good temper and public honor. Its
motto is Stick to your pals, never get
ratified and no graft" The public
school discipline is maintained not by
the masters but by the monitors and
projects chosen from among the elder
boys. They have the right to csue
and to mete out other forms of pun
ishment to the younger ones. They
exercise these rights with severity, but
with great judicial Solemnity.
The schools are divided up into
houses" with an intense interhouse
rivalry in games and athletics. The
masters are on very free and easy
terms with the boys, but the head
master is a being apart, who dwellS
in Olympian aloofness.
Public school traditions are so pow
erful that they are slowly imposing
themselves on the secondary schools.
The higher officials of the Board of
Education are all old public school
boys. and are gradually Introducing
the public school spirit into the Sec
ondary schools, which they administer.
Thus, the ancient public schools, at
the moment that they have begun to
be challenged by the secondary schools,
are succeeding in stamping their own
type upon their challengers.
Effect IS VVideSnread
A colonel in command of a we'll
known infantry regiment recently said
TO me with some heat, Upon my soul,
when get a new subaltern nowadays
I cannot tell from his msnners
whether he comes from a public school
or a secondary school," He did not
realize that in that sentence he re-
vealed a profound transition in Eng
lands social structure. The type Of
man who holds our governing posi-
tions will appear in the future much
the same as in the past; but he is
Just as likely to be the son Of a police
man as the son of a duke.
The change produced by the new sec
ondary schools is not confined to the
sphere of government. 1t is having an
equally profound effect on industry
and commerce. Hitherto British en-
ployers have recruited their new labor
at the age of ID years. the school,
leaving age for the ordinary working
class child, and have given the abler
lads promotion after two or three years
Of routine. But now by his system they
are losing the cleverest boys, for these
boys win scholarships and do not leave
school until they are 16 years old. Nat
ural ability is being drained away from
industry and overconcentrated in gov
eminent, university teaching. school
teaching. Journalism, the law and the
professions.
Industry Changing Systems.
Industry is now waking to this fact.
1t is beginning to adapt its recruiting
methods to secure the ablest boys. A
thorough examination Of this question
was made recently by the Committee
on Education in the engineering trade.
1t recommended that boy should be
allowed to enter apprenticeship as late
as II years of age, and that his pre-
vious years in a secondary school
should count as years of apprentice
ship.
But all this is creating new prob
lem. The ordinary boy who does not
win scholarship to a secondary school
will have less chance than ever Of pro-
motion. In other words, England is be-
ing once again divided into two classes
those who can pass scholarship ex-
aminations and those who cannot, with
the dice loaded against the latter more
heavily than ever before. For this
reason the raising of the minimum age
of leaving school is one of the first
planks in the platform of social re-
formers.
The Labor party has been demanding
that the age for leaving school be
raised first to IS years and, a little
later, to 16 The national government
at first resisted this proposal, but later
accepted it-arguing, however, that
practical difficulties neceSSitated delay.
1t can safely be predicted, neverthe-
less, that this reform soon will be car
ried out and the English school system
brought nearer to that Of the United
States.