The Old Grammar Schools

Book excerpt: First published in 1968. At the time when the English Grammar Schools were most flourishing, namely the 17th century, they subserved a practical national aim. Puritan England, by no means concerned with the teaching of the Classics per se, looked to the Grammar Schools for that subsidiary help which the study of Latin, Greek and Hebrew afforded to the intensive study of the Scriptures and pietas literata. The question this study looks at is related to the loss of these classic subjects in Secondary schools and therefore to measure in the long-run, the value of our new ‘Secondary’ Schools relatively to the old Grammar Schools—rather than the comprehensiveness of the list of subjects included in the new curricula.