Public Schools

Question 1

What are the nine characteristics of public schools?

Answer 1

Boarding, expanding, non local, spartan, controlled by trustees, endowed, fee paying, gentry, boys

Question 2

How did boarding affect public school?

Answer 2

There was time available which was increasingly spent playing games

Question 3

How was expanding a characteristic of a 19th century public school?

Answer 3

As numbers increased, houses were formed which became the hub of games

Question 4

Why were the games in public schools non local?

Answer 4

A great variety of regional games were adopted and adapted by individual schools

Question 5

Why was spartan a characteristic of public schools?

Answer 5

Harsh treatment and living conditions prepared boys for the rigours of competitive sport and adult life

Question 6

Why were the public schools controlled by trustees?

Answer 6

Trustees were influential people keen to promote the school, so keen to invest in sporting success

Question 7

Why were public schools endowed?

Answer 7

Well endowed school that received large gifts of money or property could build facilities and employ more assistant masters and coaching professionals

Question 8

Why were public schools fee paying?

Answer 8

Fees could develop facilities e.g. gymnasia, swimming baths. Fee payers were influential pupils and less restricted than scholars or choristers who often had assisted places

Question 9

Why were they gentry?

Answer 9

Influential families brought status and money and influenced the types of activities brought into the schools

Question 10

How did the boys influence games in public schools?

Answer 10

Great energy and enthusiasm to be channelled into games

Question 11

What is stage one called?

Answer 11

Boy culture, bullying and brutality

Question 12

What happened in stage one?

Answer 12

It was a time of public school expansion. School boys created the melting pot where they brought games from their own cultures. Therefore the sporting culture began and it caused the expansion of house systems. However rebellion and hooligan behaviour by the boys shaped the norm at this stage.

Question 13

What is stage two called?

Answer 13

Dr Thomas Arnold and social control

Question 14

What happened in stage two?

Answer 14

Arnold used games as a vehicle for establishing social control. He established a more trusting relationship with the sixth form students by giving them responsibility in return for acting as positive role models and being his ‘police force’. They became the link between the masters and the boys. His main aim was to produce Christian gentlemen, which is part of muscular Christianity. This is referred to as a combination of godliness and manliness

Question 15

What is stage three called?

Answer 15

The cult of athleticism

Question 16

What happened in stage three?

Answer 16

There was a craze for team games and comparative disinterest in academic work. Military drill also became part of public school life. Being the leader of a team game on a field, it was assumed that they could lead a regiment on a battlefield.

Question 17

What did ex public school boys become?

Answer 17

Teachers, industrialists, parents, community leaders/politicians, community members, army officers, vicars/priests

Question 18

Why was there a delay in athleticism for girls?

Answer 18

Regarded as a threat to the behavioural norms of society, anxiety over wearing revealing clothing, it was not considered necessary to give girls the same sporting opportunities as their brothers, it was thought to be unladylike to be competitive, medical concerns because some believed it could complicate or prevent child bearing, girls would not be able to cope with strenuous physical activity