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Training an Elite: The prefect-fagging system in the English Public School

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2017

Paul Nash
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Extract

During the past 150 years England has been ruled largely by leaders who were educated in the English Public Schools. A knowledge of the dominant values and atmosphere of these élite schools is therefore an important clue to understanding the nature of English leadership, and hence the “tone” of English life. Vital to an understanding of the Public Schools is a knowledge of the methods by which their values have been inculcated and discipline maintained. The most distinctive single feature of these methods is the prefect-fagging system. A study of this system should therefore shed light upon some significant aspects of English history and society.

Type
Research Article
Information
History of Education Quarterly , Volume 1 , Issue 1 , March 1961 , pp. 14 - 21
Copyright
Copyright © 1961, University of Pittsburgh Press 

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References

Notes

1. In each of the lower chambers there were to be at least three scholars of good repute (honesti), more advanced than the rest in age, sense and learning, to “superintend the studies of their chamber-fellows, and diligently oversee them, and when called upon, truly to certify and inform the Warden, Sub-Warden, and Master Teacher of their morals, behaviour, and advancement in learning.” Arthur F. Leach, A History of Winchester College (London, 1899), 174.Google Scholar

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