Another Tory idea stolen by Labour

[expat]

Good attempt at backtracking

Sorry, don't understand. Blame my education.

[d000hg]

They should be opposed to the state running anything

They're just lazy, they want businesses to do everything so they can sit about in their clubs.

[DodgyAgent]

SO actually private schools aren't really all that great, it's just that state schools don't have the means to get rid of the knob-ends who disrupt evrybody else?

Private schools are far better than state schools for all round education, discipline and social skills. You seem to have some great big chip on your shoulder about this whole subject.

If you are very bright and live near a grammar school then as a parent you are quids in not having to pay for your child's education. If you live in an area with underperforming, poor secondary (or primary schools) then you are stuffed. At least if you send your child to a private school and that child is a bit thick then at least/he/she has a chance of developing non academic talents.

If schools have disruptive kids that they cannot get rid of then that is a problem that brings the whole school down, yet you seem to trivialise it as being relatively unimportant.

[DodgyAgent]

They're just lazy, they want businesses to do everything so they can sit about in their clubs.

You have hit the nail on the head. They are lazy because they are not incentivised to give a decent education. If your life, career depends upon you deliveriung the service that your customer pays for then chances are that you will perform.

Schools like food supermarkets should give consumers choice and should be run like businesses.

[Mich the Tester]

Private schools are far better than state schools for all round education, discipline and social skills. You seem to have some great big chip on your shoulder about this whole subject.

If you are very bright and live near a grammar school then as a parent you are quids in not having to pay for your child's education. If you live in an area with underperforming, poor secondary (or primary schools) then you are stuffed. At least if you send your child to a private school and that child is a bit thick then at least/he/she has a chance of developing non academic talents.

If schools have disruptive kids that they cannot get rid of then that is a problem that brings the whole school down, yet you seem to trivialise it as being relatively unimportant.

It's very important, that's why I say that state schools need to be able to get rid of disruptive little tulips.

[Mich the Tester]

Private schools are far better than state schools for all round education, discipline and social skills. You seem to have some great big chip on your shoulder about this whole subject.

If I have a chip on my shoulder it’s because I went through the private system then left to go to a state sixth form college. Between Common Entrance exams at 13 and GCSE at 16 I learnt nothing more than how to roll a spliff, how to avoid getting the tulip kicked out of me by large, 18 year old prefects, how to look old enough to get served in a pub and how to spot a loose bird who’d do it on first date. Great, but in terms of academic education a complete waste of 3 years of my life and my father's money, which he could have spent on buying a house in the catchment area of a decent state school. When I went back to the state system at 16 it was a bit of a shock to find myself in a group of clever people who actually did some work. Talking with others who went to public school I hear the same thing time and time again.

Private schools are a con. A rip-off. You've been taken in.

[Bagpuss]

I play cricket with three old harrovians. Two are doing OK, not through "the establishment", they are just good at selling themselves and are prepared to take risks with their own money.

That adds up, being constantly told you are special and better than others adds to confidence and risk taking. It's basic Neuro Liguistic Programming. Comprehensive schools go out of their way to enforce preconcieved limitations and are often successful in limiting aspirations

[expat]

If I have a chip on my shoulder it’s because I went through the private system then left to go to a state sixth form college. Between Common Entrance exams at 13 and GCSE at 16 I learnt nothing more than how to roll a spliff, how to avoid getting the tulip kicked out of me by large, 18 year old prefects, how to look old enough to get served in a pub and how to spot a loose bird who’d do it on first date.

Jeez, it took me many more years to learn those things; except the last, which I haven't mastered yet. I think I'd have swapped my knowledge of the second derivative and the fourth declension for some of those skills.

[Mich the Tester]

Jeez, it took me many more years to learn those things; except the last, which I haven't mastered yet. I think I'd have swapped my knowledge of the second derivative and the fourth declension for some of those skills.

Well, yes, I might have inadvertently made a sales pitch for public schools here.

[expat]

Well, yes, I might have inadvertently made a sales pitch for public schools here.

I think, too, that Bagpuss is spot-on:

That adds up, being constantly told you are special and better than others adds to confidence and risk taking. It's basic Neuro Liguistic Programming. Comprehensive schools go out of their way to enforce preconcieved limitations and are often successful in limiting aspirations