OT: Public Schools

[geoff_bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 187796

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Bart Lidofsky <bart at ...> wrote:
>
> Carol wrote:
> > whose very name suggests a prisonyard at no expense to the Dursleys. On one level, JKR seems to be poking fun at "public" (private) schools like Eton and Harrow, with their outlandish and antiquated (or, if you prefer, quaint and colorful) uniforms. (Being American, I don't know where the Smeltings stick and gray uniform fit in.)

> Bart:
>     The term "public schools" refers to who is allowed in rather than 
> the ownership. In other words, you don't have to be a member of some 
> specific group (such as, for example, nobility) to be allowed in.

Geoff;
No, but the history of the public schools is that many of them were endowed 
or founded by people with money or by philanthropists. To get to one, you 
needed money or influential connections.

In later days, there were scholarships offered to pupils bright enough to win 
them. When I was nine, the Headmaster of my Junior school in Tooting, South 
London got my parents to try to persuade me to take the scholarship exam 
for Christ's Hospital in Sussex but I flatly refused, being rather frightened of 
going away from home at that age.

Please remember that, in the UK the terms "public school" and "private 
school" are not synonymous. "Public school" is a term largely used by the 
oldest and most prestigious foundations and was a term first used by Eton
College. They usually belong to the Headmasters' and Headmistresses'  
Conference which boasts 250 members in the UK and Republic of Ireland 
plus about 30 overseas members.

The public schools do not use the term private school often but there are 
many hundreds of schools in the latter category.

The terminology, which is probably confusing to folk outside the UK, arises 
from the fact that these schools were open to the fee-paying public - 
obviously the well-off - as opposed to schools run by the Church.

Just in passing, not all public schools maintain special uniforms. the 
nearest school to where I live - Taunton School - prescribes a neat, grey 
suit for its male pupils. I'm not sure about the female uniform; something 
along similar lines but involving skirts, I suspect.