ABSTRACT
The grammar schools of England during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were notable for the unchanging continuity with which they pursued their aims and practices. The main reason for this lack of change was the control exerted upon them by various authorities, such as the Statutes of their founders, the powers which Bishops held in the licensing and examination of schoolmasters, and the prescription of textbooks by the King and Privy Council. The effect of this control was to make the schools agents for the inculcation of religion as practised in the Established Church, and also to establish Latin and Greek as the subjects of the curriculum. Thus the grammar schools did nothing to forward the study of ‘modern subjects’, such as mathematics, the natural sciences, English language and foreign languages. Modern subjects were advocated and pursued in the sixteenth century but mainly by writers and teachers of the nobility, who had more freedom to recommend a curriculum change and who were more open to the need to teach subjects which would provide utilitarian and prestige value for their pupils. The grammar schools remained purveyors of the classical curriculum.*
