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AIBU?

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Original poster

Aibu to wonder why private schools produce more "well rounded" children? Is it the school or the parents?

438 replies

Kenthighst · 29/02/2024 11:54

I know all state schools produce well rounded children eg those kids that are academic, musical, sporty, confident, excel at drama & can try their hand at anything.

But private schools churn out well rounded kids so aibu to wonder if it is the actual school who produce these kids or is it parental input?

OP posts:
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Original poster
Kenthighst · 29/02/2024 12:15

StephanieSuperpowers · 29/02/2024 12:08

People like value for money, even rich people. If you're going to charge fees for something that people could otherwise get free, you have to give them what they want - smaller class sizes, more intensive tuition, more access to cultural activities, more tangible signs that your money is buying something useful.

I agree with you wholeheartedly @StephanieSuperpowers especially along the lines of debating. My dc's school have no debating team & there is no debating club after school or in our vicinity. The local privates have multiple debating teams plus they enter national & international competitions.

OP posts:
Mahershalalhashbaz · 29/02/2024 12:13

It's obviously because private schools are populated with jolly nice children who are far brighter than the usual riff raff and who have parents 'who really care', whereas state schools are full of pond life with only one parent who is almost certainly an alcoholic or a drug addiction.

Or cash.

YouTulip · 29/02/2024 12:10

They don’t. They are perceived to by the kind of socially-anxious, aspirational LMC type of Mner who fetishises private education, and has odd ideas about what constitutes ‘rounded’.

What private schools chiefly do is give an artificial leg up to academically average children.

Aintbaint · 29/02/2024 12:09

Are they, more ‘well rounded’?
I would strongly disagree. They look and sound the same, have similar backgrounds, have only mixed with certain types of kids and families, have been handheld through school. On paper they look ‘accomplished’ but are they?
Other than over confidence I’m not sure they have much else going for them!

StephanieSuperpowers · 29/02/2024 12:08

People like value for money, even rich people. If you're going to charge fees for something that people could otherwise get free, you have to give them what they want - smaller class sizes, more intensive tuition, more access to cultural activities, more tangible signs that your money is buying something useful.

Octavia64 · 29/02/2024 12:08

Independent schools have sport and music and drama and public speaking on the curriculum in a way that state schools cannot afford to replicate.

A lot of that confidence is down to having spoken and performed in "public" - to the class, to the school and to parents.

Extra curriculars can replicate this.

Original poster
Kenthighst · 29/02/2024 12:07

InTheRainOnATrain · 29/02/2024 11:59

I think the opposite. Private schools will have specialist sports, art, music, drama teachers even for the 3YOs in the school nursery. Not to mention the facilities and equipment that go along with. For kids to become good all rounders in the state sector the parents have to do a lot more of the leg work.

And as an aside I’ve also heard ‘good all rounder’ used as a polite way of saying not massively high achieving, especially academically! Average at everything, but not exceptional at anything. But I know that’s not what you’re getting at.

I get what you're saying... More like a Jack of all trades master of nothing

OP posts:
Herdinggoats · 29/02/2024 12:06

Many of the adults I know who went to private schools have a broad skill set, but tend to be more eccentric verging towards borderline loopy. I wouldn’t describe them as well rounded.

Cultured, talented, well educated? Yes. Balanced? Debatable.

Itscatsallthewaydown · 29/02/2024 12:00

You mean like our ghastly current crop of politicians?

InTheRainOnATrain · 29/02/2024 11:59

I think the opposite. Private schools will have specialist sports, art, music, drama teachers even for the 3YOs in the school nursery. Not to mention the facilities and equipment that go along with. For kids to become good all rounders in the state sector the parents have to do a lot more of the leg work.

And as an aside I’ve also heard ‘good all rounder’ used as a polite way of saying not massively high achieving, especially academically! Average at everything, but not exceptional at anything. But I know that’s not what you’re getting at.

AppleKatie · 29/02/2024 11:56

6 of 1 half a dozen of the other.

Independent schools often have a higher starting base (at least on average), but then they throw time and resources at the kids in a way that can’t be replicated en masse at a state school.

araiwa · 29/02/2024 11:55

Both

CraftyGin · 29/02/2024 11:55

Parental wallet