ABSTRACT
No educational institution is value-neutral in terms of its social organization. Implicitly or explicitly, values are reflected in the type of educational experience a society provides or permits for its young people. In both historical and fictional accounts of schooling, it often appears that the enrichment of the mind is only a secondary function of the British school ; its primary value lies quite explicitly in the social experiences the child must learn to negotiate. There are considerable difficulties involved both in assessing school ethos or 'climate' and in measuring the development of values and attitudes. While the Victorian public school may have been rather unsuccessful at fostering the individual moral values it prized, it clearly had powerful effects on the social values of its pupils. Undeniably the values and practices of the public schools system have exerted a strong influence on the subsequent development of education for the masses.
