ABSTRACT

This chapter tries to locate the tradition within the broader context of working-class culture, and to establish the links between the two, especially in terms of working-class educational demand. The first point to be made is that for probably most working people, whether in town or village, the working-class private school — to a far greater extent than its public counterpart — was a very familiar part of everyday life. When the writer was on horseback in a part of the Cotteswold range with which he was unacquainted, he dismounted at a cottage, to inquire his way; and on opening the door he found it was a school for children. The whole problem was very much 'the result of leaving education to voluntary exertions and to the "natural instinct and self-interest" of parents'. The many positive explanations — those which do not unthinkingly ridicule or execrate an independent working-class culture — are buried or obscured.