At Westminster School the move from teaching classical subjects only to a more modern-style syllabus prompted this 1829 article. Prizes to be given for excellence in English and arithmetic, who would have thought ?
“Westminster School no longer limits itself to the teaching of Latin and Greek ; it now gives instruction in “English, writing, and arithmetic ;” and they are so much honoured, now that they are received into goodly company, as to be the subjects of prizes, and promotion to upper forms. And Merchant Tailors’ School (where also every thing was rejected but Greek and Latin, and consequently despised by the scholars as vulgar and unnecessary) has followed Westminster’s example, or has announced that it is about to be adopted. The “march of intellect” is making sad havoc with the monastic institutions and systems. The parents and friends of the youths at Westminster School have expressed their approbation of the enlarged system of instruction, and the reign of avarice, indolence, and fraud, is sinking before the common sense of the age.”
Stamford Mercury, 20 November 1829