Imitating Their Betters and Disassociating from Their Inferiors

The mid-nineteenth century was a time of educational stocktaking. Reflection, reform and re-organization were the order of the day. Between 1860 and 1870 three commissions reported on the condition of English schools – the Newcastle Commission on the state of popular education, the Clarendon Commission on the state of ‘public schools’ and the Taunton Commission on the state of the remainder.