HIST363: Global Perspectives on Industrialization

In the second half of the nineteenth-century, "education advanced notably at its two opposite ends - in the elementary schools and in the universities" (26: 146). One of the most important changes of the Victorian period was also the reform of public schools. Before Clarendon Commission reforms of 1862-64, the state schools did not have a central system of order and discipline. They were corrupted by the tyrannical manners of self-governing boys who were pursuing for their self-independence and freedom by challenging any superior authority over them.

Some junior students were exposed to harsh treatment by senior boys under the fagging system. The roles of masters and students were intermingled. Nobody did not know their place in this jungle where even masters were not admitted. On the other side, these public schools had a very great place in the eye of parents. They believed that the ordeals or trials of this vulgar school environment would contribute to the struggle of survival of each boy in their later life.

As John Chandos expresses, it was believed by parents that "the experience of public-school education would prove in the end the best training for what was expected of him in life that an English gentleman could receive" (27: 67) and even the boy who survived from this warlike school world was described by Tom Hughes as "very much a Victorian hero, an average boy who matures through a series of challenging circumstances and moral dilemmas and translates his sociability into a determined social responsibility" (28: xxiv).

Thus, the public school training was essential for the education and personal development of male youth. However, it was necessary to make reform in these public schools because of their notoriety such as drinking, sex, violence, fagging, fighting, inescapable deaths, uncontrolled cruelty and vice. Thanks to the reforms, the public schools had better living conditions, including improved hygiene and diet, an end to fighting and strict discipline and surveillance over self-governed boys for the sake of a more democratic school environment.

These benign changes led to great improvements in the condition of state schools unquestionably. The symbol of manhood, the unreformed public schools gained a more respectable image and decorum with some alterations and changes in the experience, however much parents support their sons to "scout and scamper, and fend for themselves" (28: 350), which was regarded as a favourable period of male education for practical life.