What is "common school"

Common \Com"mon\, a. [Compar. Commoner; superl. Commonest.] [OE. commun, comon, OF. comun, F. commun, fr. L. communis; com- + munis ready to be of service; cf. Skr. mi to make fast, set up, build, Goth. gamains common, G. gemein, and E. mean low, common. Cf. Immunity, Commune, n. & v.]

1. Belonging or relating equally, or similarly, to more than one; as, you and I have a common interest in the property.

   Though life and sense be common to men and brutes.
   --Sir M. Hale.

2. Belonging to or shared by, affecting or serving, all the members of a class, considered together; general; public; as, properties common to all plants; the common schools; the Book of Common Prayer.

   Such actions as the common good requireth.
   --Hooker.

   The common enemy of man.
   --Shak.

3. Often met with; usual; frequent; customary.

   Grief more than common grief.
   --Shak.

4. Not distinguished or exceptional; inconspicuous; ordinary; plebeian; -- often in a depreciatory sense.

   The honest, heart-felt enjoyment of common life.
   --W. Irving.

   This fact was infamous And ill beseeming any common man, Much more a knight, a captain and a leader.
   --Shak.

   Above the vulgar flight of common souls.
   --A. Murphy.

5. Profane; polluted. [Obs.]

   What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.
   --Acts x. 15.

6. Given to habits of lewdness; prostitute. A dame who herself was common. --L'Estrange. Common bar (Law) Same as Blank bar, under Blank. Common barrator (Law), one who makes a business of instigating litigation. Common Bench, a name sometimes given to the English Court of Common Pleas. Common brawler (Law), one addicted to public brawling and quarreling. See Brawler. Common carrier (Law), one who undertakes the office of carrying (goods or persons) for hire. Such a carrier is bound to carry in all cases when he has accommodation, and when his fixed price is tendered, and he is liable for all losses and injuries to the goods, except those which happen in consequence of the act of God, or of the enemies of the country, or of the owner of the property himself. Common chord (Mus.), a chord consisting of the fundamental tone, with its third and fifth. Common council, the representative (legislative) body, or the lower branch of the representative body, of a city or other municipal corporation. Common crier, the crier of a town or city. Common divisor (Math.), a number or quantity that divides two or more numbers or quantities without a remainder; a common measure. Common gender (Gram.), the gender comprising words that may be of either the masculine or the feminine gender. Common law, a system of jurisprudence developing under the guidance of the courts so as to apply a consistent and reasonable rule to each litigated case. It may be superseded by statute, but unless superseded it controls. --Wharton. Note: It is by others defined as the unwritten law (especially of England), the law that receives its binding force from immemorial usage and universal reception, as ascertained and expressed in the judgments of the courts. This term is often used in contradistinction from statute law. Many use it to designate a law common to the whole country. It is also used to designate the whole body of English (or other) law, as distinguished from its subdivisions, local, civil, admiralty, equity, etc. See Law. Common lawyer, one versed in common law. Common lewdness (Law), the habitual performance of lewd acts in public. Common multiple (Arith.) See under Multiple. Common noun (Gram.), the name of any one of a class of objects, as distinguished from a proper noun (the name of a particular person or thing). Common nuisance (Law), that which is deleterious to the health or comfort or sense of decency of the community at large. Common pleas, one of the three superior courts of common law at Westminster, presided over by a chief justice and four puisne judges. Its jurisdiction is confined to civil matters. Courts bearing this title exist in several of the United States, having, however, in some cases, both civil and criminal jurisdiction extending over the whole State. In other States the jurisdiction of the common pleas is limited to a county, and it is sometimes called a county court. Its powers are generally defined by statute. Common prayer, the liturgy of the Church of England, or of the Protestant Episcopal church of the United States, which all its clergy are enjoined to use. It is contained in the Book of Common Prayer. Common school, a school maintained at the public expense, and open to all. Common scold (Law), a woman addicted to scolding indiscriminately, in public. Common seal, a seal adopted and used by a corporation. Common sense.

   1. A supposed sense which was held to be the common bond of all the others. [Obs.]
      --Trench.

   2. Sound judgment. See under Sense.

      Common time (Mus.), that variety of time in which the measure consists of two or of four equal portions.

      In common, equally with another, or with others; owned, shared, or used, in community with others; affecting or affected equally.

      Out of the common, uncommon; extraordinary.

      Tenant in common, one holding real or personal property in common with others, having distinct but undivided interests. See Joint tenant, under Joint.

      To make common cause with, to join or ally one's self with.

      Syn: General; public; popular; national; universal; frequent; ordinary; customary; usual; familiar; habitual; vulgar; mean; trite; stale; threadbare; commonplace. See Mutual, Ordinary, General.

School \School\, n. [OE. scole, AS. sc?lu, L. schola, Gr. ? leisure, that in which leisure is employed, disputation, lecture, a school, probably from the same root as ?, the original sense being perhaps, a stopping, a resting. See Scheme.]

1. A place for learned intercourse and instruction; an institution for learning; an educational establishment; a place for acquiring knowledge and mental training; as, the school of the prophets.

   Disputing daily in the school of one Tyrannus.
   --Acts xix. 9.

2. A place of primary instruction; an establishment for the instruction of children; as, a primary school; a common school; a grammar school.

   As he sat in the school at his primer.
   --Chaucer.

3. A session of an institution of instruction.

   How now, Sir Hugh! No school to-day?
   --Shak.

4. One of the seminaries for teaching logic, metaphysics, and theology, which were formed in the Middle Ages, and which were characterized by academical disputations and subtilties of reasoning.

   At Cambridge the philosophy of Descartes was still dominant in the schools.
   --Macaulay.

5. The room or hall in English universities where the examinations for degrees and honors are held.

6. An assemblage of scholars; those who attend upon instruction in a school of any kind; a body of pupils.

   What is the great community of Christians, but one of the innumerable schools in the vast plan which God has instituted for the education of various intelligences?
   --Buckminster.

7. The disciples or followers of a teacher; those who hold a common doctrine, or accept the same teachings; a sect or denomination in philosophy, theology, science, medicine, politics, etc.

   Let no man be less confident in his faith . . . by reason of any difference in the several schools of Christians.
   --Jer. Taylor.

8. The canons, precepts, or body of opinion or practice, sanctioned by the authority of a particular class or age; as, he was a gentleman of the old school.

   His face pale but striking, though not handsome after the schools.
   --A. S. Hardy.

9. Figuratively, any means of knowledge or discipline; as, the school of experience.

   Boarding school, Common school, District school, Normal school, etc. See under Boarding, Common, District, etc.

   High school, a free public school nearest the rank of a college. [U. S.]

   School board, a corporation established by law in every borough or parish in England, and elected by the burgesses or ratepayers, with the duty of providing public school accommodation for all children in their district.

   School committee, School board, an elected committee of citizens having charge and care of the public schools in any district, town, or city, and responsible for control of the money appropriated for school purposes. [U. S.]

   School days, the period in which youth are sent to school.

   School district, a division of a town or city for establishing and conducting schools. [U.S.]

   Sunday school, or Sabbath school, a school held on Sunday for study of the Bible and for religious instruction; the pupils, or the teachers and pupils, of such a school, collectively.

A common school was a public school in the United States during the nineteenth century. Horace Mann (1796-1859) was a strong advocate for public education and the common school. In 1837, the state of Massachusetts appointed Mann as the first secretary of the State Board of Education where he began a revival of common school education, the effects of which extended throughout America during the 19th century.