the old school

the old school

Views, values, or traditions from an earlier or old-fashioned era. Typically describes one who is resistant to change or new ways of doing things. John is of the old school—he still believes in the effectiveness of corporal punishment. My grandmother belongs to the old school, believing everything one cooks should be prepared from scratch.
See also: old, school
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

the old school

COMMON If you say that someone is of the old school, you mean that they have traditional ideas and values and are old-fashioned. As a builder of the old school, he did not always see eye to eye with designers of new houses. She belonged to the old school, preferring the formality of surnames even with colleagues. Note: You can say that someone is an old-school type of person, especially when talking about the job that they do. At 65, he is the last of the old-school managers, a holder of traditional values in a world dominated by younger, more sophisticated men.
See also: old, school
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed.
See also:
  • an old fogey/fogy
  • fashion
  • men make houses, women make homes
  • (butter and) egg money
  • a stuffed shirt
  • Do you know the Bishop of Norwich?
  • (Well,) I'll be durned!
  • a bit of crackling
References in classic literature
Then don't object to me cracking up the old School house, Rugby.
To the last Lavalle was a Catholic of the old school, accepting--he who had looked into the very heart of the lightnings--the dogmas of papal infallibility, of absolution, of confession--of relics great and small.
The marshal of the province in whose hands the law had placed the control of so many important public functions--the guardianship of wards (the very department which was giving Levin so much trouble just now), the disposal of large sums subscribed by the nobility of the province, the high schools, female, male, and military, and popular instruction on the new model, and finally, the district council--the marshal of the province, Snetkov, was a nobleman of the old school,--dissipating an immense fortune, a good-hearted man, honest after his own fashion, but utterly without any comprehension of the needs of modern days.
Riley spoke of such acquaintances kindly as "people of the old school."
Riley would have thought his "friend of the old school" a thoroughly pig-headed fellow.
"The Prince," she said, "is an intriguer of the old school. I know that in Vienna he has more than once made use of more violent means than he would dare to do here.
Cobb, who, it is needless to say, was distinctly of the old school in medicine.
The notable wife of Kamehameha, the renowned conqueror and king of the Sandwich Islands, used to pride herself in the skill she displayed in dyeing her tappa with contrasting colours disposed in regular figures; and, in the midst of the innovations of the times, was regarded, towards the decline of her life, as a lady of the old school, clinging as she did to the national cloth, in preference to the frippery of the European calicoes.
In his way he was quite as much one of the old school as the Earl of Eastchester, and the idea of a lady - a Wendermott, too - calling herself a journalist and proud of making a few hundreds a year was amazing enough to him.
Ibrayeva said that a new school will be built in the village of Kenesh to replace the old school, which is in emergency condition.
Last year, classes in the old school building were suspended due to its poor condition.
THE Old School in Northumberland combines the best of modern living with a wealth of character features.
Seating will be provided for the audience throughout and, if the weather is inclement, the entire performance will take place in the hall of the Old School.
The chilling snaps taken at The Old School House in Hull, East Yorks., on Friday appear to show a face peering out from behind some spirit bottles.
The walls of the old school building suddenly collapsed on Dycausing, who was pinned to the ground, Lague said.