If your 17 year old wanted to take a day off school to attend the student funding march on Wed would you condone it

"Someone needs to tell these college age kids to get off the wii, the ipods, stop going out binge drinking and buying expensive label clothes."

unfortunately some of themn have got off their Wiis, and are now outside Millbank Towers. There may even be some lecturers there with them. On thing's for sure, there are an awful lot of progressives out there.

I am in favour of education being totally free. I'm not a fan of the US system, which seems to be the type of thing that Labour and the Coalition having been trying to bring in here. But LovestheChaos does make a good point about responsibility. In the US the students are more responsible, not like the progressives outside Millbank Towers.

"Someone needs to tell these college age kids to get off the wii, the ipods, stop going out binge drinking and buying expensive label clothes. " You could tell my dd that but as she has never done any of those thigs she might be a bit confused.

If the people I described in my post had been taxed all their working lives to pay for their own education as well as everyone else's they never would have done as well. I would rather work like a dog paying my own way through school and then being free afterward rather than paying taxes all my working life for it. Screw that.

Lovesthechoas, your second last sentence sums it up, we are getting taxed to pay for a decent education, hello!

You are glad you left England. You did the right thing.

It's not really a good idea to have kids that young thinking that the government/public owes them something.

My dad in america came from a very poor family (his parents were illiterate unskilled southern italian immigrants). He worked 3 jobs to put himself through a top university. And after that he worked one part time job and one full time job to pay for his Masters (MBA). No social life for him back then! Now he is a former bank president who has retired very very well. And the undergrad and postgrad schools he attended back then were a heck of a lot more expensive than the universities in the UK.

My dad's sister's husband came from the same background. It took him 8 years to pay his way through a top school but he did it and lived like a pauper for nearly a decade. Now in his 60's he is rich as all hell. Has been since he was about 35.

My stepfather worked 2 or 3 jobs while he was at university and paid his way through undergrad and grad school. Also from a very poor background in the States.

These guys wanted their kids to have the same kind of work ethic. My cousins, step siblings and myself all were expected to go to university and pay for it ourselves without whining for help from either our parents or the government.

We would have looked like losers if we had done anything else. I would go to class for 8 hours and then work for 8 hours every day and I paid my tuition that way. On school holidays I worked 12 or 16 hour days. My two step sisters put themselves through school doing the same thing. It is GOOD for kids to do this. I may not have had decent clothes or nights out but I wasn't a debt ridden whinger thinking that the government owed me something either.

I am glad I left the UK because getting taxed to pay for someone elses education after doing all that simply sucks. Seriously, who wants to pay for these kids to sit on a playstation when they are not in class rather than working?

Someone needs to tell these college age kids to get off the wii, the ipods, stop going out binge drinking and buying expensive label clothes. Focus on nothing but work and study for 5 years or so. If they do that they will make it. Glad I got my DC's out of the UK. Hopefully they will grow up with more of a "can do" attitude.

Yeah I know I am going to get flamed.

When I was 17 I attended poltical events and marches. My parents did not always know, sometimes just saw me on the front cover of the local newspaper

Hope any of your DC are there are safe and on the way out of there/away from the trouble

It all seems to have kicked off

My DD is 15 so is too young to attend (and travel to London), if she was older I would let her go with my blessing.

My 17 year old DD has gone - the school actually encouraged students to go and make their voices heard.I am very proud that she and her classmates feel strongly enough about this to do something about it,hope you're listening Nick Clegg.

Well he could 'toe the line' and go to school as normal - or; he could be an independent young man who is voicing something which directly impacts on his future.It will give him the opportunity to join with other young people his age in comradeship- and possibly act as a source of extra info. It's only one day - which if the protests are successful could result in years of debt reduction. I would call that 'time well spent'.

If we lived any further south I would be actively encouraging my DD to go and join in. I would be going too.

I agree it is a good move that youngsters and taking notice in politics again, they don't have a choice atm.

A thought.

Before 1944 you had to pay for secondary education (unless you were lucky to get one of the 2-3 scholarships in your area). Yet I can't imagine a situation where someone could legitimately argue that middle class families should pay £6000-£8000 a year as this reflects the full cost of such education to the state, and their children are going to benefit in the long term therefore families should happily bite the bullet and cough up. Why not? Because it would be economic and social disaster to deprive older children of education in this way.

Yet nationally we are making the same argument about turning off the education tap for 18+ aged people. Even though collectively we all profit from educating at least 25-35% of our young people at degree level and this is well documented.

It's bonkers.

I support the rise in fees because it will rebalance the financial contributions to universitys between students and the Government. The fees will more accurately reflect the true cost of a university degree. Like it or not the current subsidy level of university from Government was unsustainable and needed to be adressed.

My dd is going and I am very proud of her for standing up on this issue.

Can someone please explain why on earth they support raising tuition fees ?

I support the raising of tuition fees but if my ds wanted to go then I would let him.