This thesis is concerned with an examination of the influences which affected the curricula of certain Clarendon schools during the mid-Victorian period.
The emphasis initially is on the development of the schools and the Christian classical tradition of education up to the time of the Clarendon Commission. The evidence of the Commission is examined in some detail with the object of determining the extent to which modern subjects had gained a place in the curriculum. The conclusion of this part of the thesis is that despite individual differences the schools generally failed to modernise their curricula to any appreciable extent and several factors are considered in an attempt to account for this. The decision-making processes within the schools are examined in conjunction with the backgrounds and attitudes of the decision makers. In addition an attempt is made to assess the nature and extent of the influence exerted on the schools by the ancient universities and by the Established Church. A later chapter concentrates on the new proprietary schools and the differences between their curricula and those of the Clarendon schools. Educational demands made by parents are also considered, as well as those made by the old and new professions favoured as future careers by public school boys.
The final chapters of the thesis examine the curriculum changes which took place after the Clarendon Commission until the end of the century and attempt to assess the importance of the factors promoting curriculum change and those which inhibited it