Non-PRO English to Serbian Social Sciences History socijalna ekskluzivnost u ustanovama obrazovanja

Numerous strikingly misnamed 'public schools' were founded for the middle classes from the 1840s on, on the model of the nine ancient foundations recognized as such in 1870, and already (especially Eton) nurseries of the nobility and gentry. By the early 1900s they had expanded to a list of - depending on the degree or snobbery - anything between 64 and some 160 more or less expensive schools claiming such status, and deliberately training their pupils as members of a ruling class. A body of similar private secondary schools, mainly in the northeastern USA, also prepared the sons of good, or at any rate rich, families for the final polish of private elite universities.

Within these, as within the large body of German university students, even more exclusive groups were recruited by private associations such as the student 'Korps' or the more prestigious Greek Letter fraternities - whose place in the old English universities was taken by the residential 'colleges'. The late-nineteen-century bourgeoisies were thus a curious combination of educationally open and closed societies: open, since entry was available by virtue of money, or even (through scholarships or other provisions for poor students) merit, but closed insofar as it was clearly understood that some circles were considerably more equal than others. The exclusiveness was purely social.