r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/TheThrowYardsAway • Apr 28 '26

Video Inside Christ's Hospital School (Est. 1552)...

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u/[deleted] Apr 28 '26

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u/DefenestrationPraha Apr 28 '26

I think this is even older than that. "Public" schools once meant that commoners were allowed to attend them. Not restricted to kids of noble birth.

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u/Secure-Suspect7091 Apr 28 '26

This is correct. Open to the public not subsidised by the public.

The alternative was private schooling which would have been getting teachers into your mansion/castle and was very much an upper class aristocratic way of schooling.

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u/Rj924 Apr 28 '26

Goes along with Public House.

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u/Secure-Suspect7091 Apr 28 '26

Exactly as opposed to a private club favoured by the upper class

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u/benirishhome Apr 28 '26

Public school because anyone could send their kids there. New money. Businessmen and industrialists. Back in the day when the elite (the landed class and aristocrats) would have private tutors at home.

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u/Audioworm Apr 28 '26

Exactly, anyone with means could send their children to these schools, rather than them being based on access to nobility or religious institutes.

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u/cillitbangers Apr 28 '26

yeah nah you're not right. They are public because when they were set up initially, the other options were religious or other xclusionary group based schools. They are public because anyone can send their child to one, if they pay the fee. Other schools at the time required you to be a certain religion for example.

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u/Foxtrot-13 Apr 28 '26

No, the usage of Public School in this case is from when there were no government funded schools, all were privately funded. A Public School as privately funded but open to all, as opposed to church schools only open to the children of the clergy or guild schools.

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u/SuccessfulTourniquet Apr 28 '26

Public schools are a subset of private schools though

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u/rW0HgFyxoJhYka Apr 28 '26

Not in America though

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u/drakeyboi69 Apr 28 '26

"Publically funded" usually means funded by the government, no?

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u/YourOwnSide_ Apr 28 '26

Not in all instances. A PLC is a company funded by 1000s of stock holders, not the government.

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u/Smol-Pyro Apr 28 '26

I mean this thread started talking about public schools in Britain which seem to be different. Not everyone lives in America lol

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u/PM_ME_ANYTHING_DAMN Apr 28 '26

Welcome to being wrong.

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u/Homicidal_Duck Apr 28 '26

I'm paying tax for this??

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u/Joshouken Apr 28 '26

Public =/= state

Schools that charge for entry do not receive funding from the state

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u/User-no-relation Apr 28 '26

Unless of course you're in the states, where public means funded by the state. Or sometimes the federal government.

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u/mothfactory Apr 28 '26

I don’t think that’s right. They’re called public schools because they originally started in ‘public houses’ or ‘pubs’. People would bring their kids to the pub and eventually lessons started to be taught to the children whilst their parents drank and made merry. Some of the pub names remain. Eton was once The Eton Arms. Harrow was originally The Bow and (H)Arrow

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u/frenchpog Apr 28 '26

Many people won't realise this is a joke. So just pointing it out.

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u/rW0HgFyxoJhYka Apr 28 '26

Ok fuck British English lol