SIR,—It was invigorating to read Mr. Bonham-Carter's plea for the
democratisation of the Public Schools. For it must be evident to all but a few Blimps and Haw-Haws that the only practical foundation for true equality in the national life is equality of education. Now Mr. Bonham-Carter complains of the social snobbery prevalent among public schoolboys, and appreciates that it may, directly or indirectly, hinder the establishment of State scholarships. I suggest that a boy's social outlook is formed before he ever reaches a public school, where any modifications of it are usually for the better. That Is to say, the true breeding-ground of class-consciousness and the sense of social superiority is in the preparatory schools. These institutions demand fees as high as, if not higher than, those of the Public Schools ; but with the ideals and principles of the Public Schools they often dispense entirely, and some- times provide teaching which is ludicrously fourth-rate. What they seldom fail to do is to impress impressionable children with the idea that they are very much of the fold in a world of sheep and goats. Psychologically, a child's primary education is of the utmost importance. It must not be allowed to be contaminated by class prejudices. And until the existing system of an exclusive preparatory schooling for the rich has been reformed, attempts to deal with the anomalies of secondary education will meet with little success.
Incidentally, Mr. Bonham-Carter refers to the verdict of a certain top form on the American Civil War. As a contem- porary of his, I would point out that the defence of the rights of property need not be entrusted only to reactionaries and vested interests. Dislike of State socialism, especially in its more extreme forms, is a corollary of the Christian conception of the dignity of the individual human being and his place and function in the world. Let not the Public Schools be con- demned by implication as reactionary because they have voted for Jefferson Davis against the author of the Gettysburg
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