DCHP-2

public DCHP-2 (July 2016)

• adj. — Education

  designating educational resources funded by the government.

  COD-2 lists public school as a school that is part of the public school system, which is defined as "a system of publicly-funded non-denominational schools" (see COD-2, s.v. "public school system"), and both terms are marked "Cdn" (see COD-2, s.v. "public school" (2), which is marked "Cdn (Ont.)", and "public school system", which is marked "Cdn"). According to OED-3, the term public school, in the same meaning, "was used in New England and Pennsylvania from the 17th cent., and became the standard term in all the states" (see OED-3, s.v. "public school" [3.a]"). OED-3 also notes that the term is in use "in some countries of the former British Empire, notably Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa" (see OED-3, s.v. "public school" (3.c)). Canadian quotations fall under this meaning. As US attestations listed in the OED date as far back as 1636 and up to 1991, indicating current use, it seems unlikely that the term is a Canadianism. The term also appears in DAE with the earliest quotation from 1636 (see DAE, s.v. "public school" [1]), DA dating to 1636 (see DA, s.v. "public school" [1]), AND dating to 1813 (see AND, s.v. "public school" [1]), and DNZE with the first quotation from 1813 (see DNZE, s.v. "public school") .

  • 1774  Also for such other purposes of public education, or the relief of the province, as in your Majesty's great wisdom shall hereafter be set forth, or found to be necessary or useful: power always being reserved to your Majesty to grant any of the said estates of ecclesiastical bodies, for the rewarding any commander in chief, or other officer, or soldiers, concerned in the conquest of the said province, or others of your Majesty's faithful subjects and servants, for their public services. 
  • 1791  The former Bishop of Autu[n] in his report on public education, considered the schools of medicine, of law, and of that consecrated to the art of war. He then passed to the organization of the public libraries; and on this, as on many other subjects, he threw much light, which was highly applauded. 
  • 1820  We are aware that great tenderness and delicacy are necessary to bring the truths of the Gospel home to their youthful minds; and this may be the reason why so many parents shrink from the task; but let such remember that religious instruction and religious habits must go together, and though the former may be acquired from public teachers, the latter can only be formed at home. In communicating the truths of revelation to the young, we must give them food convenient for them; nourishing them, not with strong meat, but with the sincere milk of the word, and exciting their attention by frequent and elegant allusions to those images which are the most likely to charm their fancies and interest their hearts. 
  • 1846  "In founding establishments which concern the moral education of the young, it cannot disregard the moral principles which it professes itself; but it forgets not the supreme importance which it attaches to liberty of conscience. The members of all Christian Communions will therefore find in its establishments of Public Education that cordial reception which it assured to them in the Charter." "We rejoice to see that in the eyes of the State all Christian Sects are sisters, and that they are objects of equal solicitude in the administration of the great family of the nation." 
  • 1895  But all this is not to the purpose. As a matter of fact, the objection of Roman Catholics to schools such as alone receive State aid under the Act of 1890 is conscientious and deeply rooted. If this had not been so, if there had been a system of public education acceptable to Catholics and Protestants alike, the elaborate enactments which would have been the subject of so much controversy and consideration would have been unnecessary. It is notorious that there were acute differences of opinion between Catholic and Protestants on the education question prior to 1870. 
  • 1919  The growth of expenditure for public education in the Dominion is shown by the fact that in 1901, the first year of the present century the total expenditure for the purposes of public education in Canada was $11,751,625, while in 1917, the latest year for which complete figures for all the provinces are available, it was $36,[5]27,297, an increase of $44,575,672, or 379 per cent. 
  • 1939  The state insisted that all children go to school but it gave them to religious instruction in those schools. "We are doing a great injury to such children," said the speaker. However, praise was due the public school teachers for teaching the natural virtues -- honesty, truth, kindness. Catholics would make more impression on the community were it not for "the limitation of language and the limitation of example," Msgr. Morton believed. 
  • 2009  In a province where the dropout rate is stubbornly stuck at about 25 per cent for public and private schools, the Pathways to Education program in Verdun is drawing high-level interest in education circles. 
  • 2016  And then there's spending on public schools, a key item financed by tax dollars, which continues to go up while public school enrolment across the country drops. Of the increase in public education spending over the decade ending in 2012/13, teacher compensation (wages, benefits and pensions) accounted for the overwhelming majority.