After that, our current American meaning of public school was not long in coming. In 1647 the first public elementary school was established in Massachusetts using public moneys. In 1669 we find mention of "the Publick Schoole in Roxbury," and in 1710 in Boston a committee proposed "to Erect a Brick Building...to be let out for the Support of a Publick writing School in the Town." Massachusetts eventually required the establishment of a public elementary school in any community of at least fifty families. Communities of one hundred or more families were obliged to have a secondary school as well.

Following the American Revolution, education achieved considerable attention as a unifying factor for the nation, one consequence of which was the concept of state public school systems. In government lands opened for settlement, the Continental Congress of 1785 ordained that "There shall be reserved the lot N 16, of every township, for the maintenance of public schools, within the said township."

During the Middle Ages, the grammar school provided education for poor scholars intended for the church and for the sons of noblemen. This included such schools as Eton and Winchester. By the 18th cent. a number of ‘Great Schools’ had emerged, including Harrow, Rugby, Sherborne, and Canterbury. Other changes during the early 19th cent. stimulated the demand for public schools. Reforms in public schools were introduced by heads such as Samuel Butler at Shrewsbury (1793-1836), and Dr Thomas Arnold at Rugby (1828-42), who were clerics. The school chapel became the focal point of life, discipline was enforced through prefects, and team games emphasized.Criticism of some of the public schools was so persistent that a royal commission was appointed in 1861, under Lord Clarendon, to investigate conditions in the nine large public schools Winchester, Eton, Westminster, Charterhouse, Harrow, Rugby, Shrewsbury, St Paul's, and Merchant Taylors'. Whilst broadly satisfied, the commissioners made a number of recommendations which were embodied in the Public Schools Act (1868). Governing bodies were reformed and schools such as Harrow developed a modern side.Attempts were made in the 20th cent. to bridge the gap between public schools and the state-provided sector. The Fleming Report (1944) and the first report of the Public Schools Commission (1968) (Newsom) were impracticable. The second report (1970) (Donnison) was more positive, but the advent of a Conservative government avoided further threats. The term public school has now been superseded by independent school.

Bibliography

See also V. Ogilvie, The English Public School (1957).

Public school may refer to: