Schools
September 3, 2008Today’s Guardian has a fantastic article written by former Fast Show comic Arabella Weir http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2008/sep/03/publicschools.schools which puts my thoughts on ‘choice’ and the politics of private schooling very well, and certainly much better than I ever could.
I still consider my secondary school gave me more than just the exam certificates to go to university, but rather a set of experiences and integration with others that I’d never have got at one of Edinburgh’s many private establishments. It also gave me a group of friends, many of whom I’m still in touch with, something primary school friends who went to private high school missed out on (although I’m sure Stevie got some good clients out of it…)
Interesting that unlike Blair, Gordon Brown send his eldest to a normal school; my approval rating for him more than doubled, much like my approval of his predeccesor sunk when he chose a sectarian school and not to have his youngest have the MMR. We have a duty to set an example.
i agree that this was a very interesting article and it’s stimulated a massive amount of debate on the guardian web-site…she also makes a lot of valid points, not least highlighting the fact that middle class drift towards ‘chosen’ state schools and the private sector only serves to deepen the divisions in our society.
however…
i think the overarching tone of the piece is nauseatingly self-righteous and deeply insulting to ‘the poor’ who arabella feels it is her ‘duty’ to mix with. how patronising is that?
she holds up stats showing how ‘ordinary’ the people are at her kids’ school like badges of honour. it’s almost as if she wants other parents at her kids school to be thankful for her choice.
it’s also very difficult to take an article like this seriously when it’s written by someone called ‘arabella’ who…at any time…can take her kids out of the state system and throw money at their education. she has that choice. most parents don’t.
ultimately…this article is not about the state vs private debate. it’s about arabella wier and how brilliant she thinks she is for choosing to send her kids to the local school.
in the hands of a more intelligent and less self serving writer…this could have been a very challenging piece.
an opportunity lost.
Yes she’s patronising, but she had every opportunity to go along with middle-class flight when it started at their school. Her main point seems to be that she didn’t and was surprised just how few motivated kids and parents it takes to stop a school disintegrating. Her figure is 20% and from our own experience at high school that feels about right; enough to have at least one ‘good’ class in every subject. At primary it must just be enough to have a top group and a proper PTA.
And yes, to some extent some of the parents at her kids school should in some small way (sadly) be grateful that she’s put a few principles first and found that actually that wasn’t a hardship, and she can feel smug about it. Without a PTA and some strong voices among the parents, councils very easily abandon schools, starting rumours about them closing or not being viable, or focussing on problems rather than their good points. Happening in Edinburgh now; Bingham primary, was targetted for closure, kids whipped out and now not viable. WHEC, targetted for closure despite the fact that given the issues of the area it serves it does not bad, and that it hosts the mother and baby group that no other school in Edinburgh’s west has.
Yes, she extends the point about her personal choice into a crusade, but maybe we need some public examples. It’s not like the labour front bench are going to provide any (or the 13 old Etonians in the shadow cabinet).
nah
that’s all just middle class, chattering, status anxiety claptrap.
you live in eh10. your local school is good. that’s why property prices are so high.
if you want to walk the talk…move to wester hailes so that you can sprinkle your educated influence among the needy.
no?
Hmm, this sounds like a topic for a bar.
Anyway, it’s not about moving, it’s about #not# moving, wherever you are. She had the opportunity to do so, and didn’t, and actually it was better than OK. If you want “middle class chattering status anxiety claptrap”, read the self-justifying responses on the Guardians web site from all those whose delicate little flowers wouldn’t bloom if they weren’t in a sterile, all white, private, drive to school in the eco friendly 4×4, environment. The sort of trustafarians who go travelling around the world trying to meet real people but would be terrified if they had to interact with any in this country./