Much Ado about Greek

Greek was to be started only after a good grounding had been attained in English, French and Latin. Forceful views were expressed: first, that a boy should not be allowed to begin Greek until the foundations of Latin and French had been securely laid and he had received a systematic training in English; secondly, that French and English were to be given substantial weighting in entry scholarship examinations in ‘order that these subjects may not be sacrificed to a premature study of Greek’. This elevation of English as the core subject in the curriculum, characteristic of the 1920s and 1930s, was reinforced by a simultaneous relegation of Latin as the prime study for the majority of boys. The right education for the great majority of secondary school pupils was ‘a sound education based on our English culture intended to produce sane English citizens’.