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Original poster

What does "it's a liberal school" mean to you?

59 replies

happygardening · 04/02/2012 18:04

Just that curious really by exactly what people mean by the term liberal school.
Is it no uniform and calling teachers by their first name or is there more to it than that. I take it it's not mixed dorms and sex on the croquet lawn.

OP posts:
Original poster
happygardening · 08/02/2012 09:12

Dont you think that no uniform/or uniform policy not strictly applied, green hair piercings even calling teachers by their first names are just minor details and does not mean that under the surface a school is particularly liberal. Surely liberal means something else ok not orgies on the croquet lawn or gay sex in the showers but something in-between the minor details and full blown anarchy.

OP posts:
grovel · 07/02/2012 21:08

Mrs J, lolol!

Colleger · 07/02/2012 19:40

Lol MrsJ!

TheOriginalSteamingNit · 07/02/2012 19:05

drugs?

MrsJAlfredPrufrock · 07/02/2012 19:03

The true definition of a liberal school is one where the student calls the teacher by her first name during the day but calls her Mrs Robinson during sex.

Colleger · 07/02/2012 18:24

Awaits HG....

MrsJAlfredPrufrock · 07/02/2012 18:22

From what I know of Eton (which is so little I don't even know why I'm typing), it's a v liberal school.

From what I know of Win College (which is quite a bit more than I know about Eton) I don't think it's liberal at all.

grovel · 07/02/2012 18:13

If MrsJ is right then Eton is a liberal school.

Colleger · 07/02/2012 18:04

I thought most schools did that too Mrs J?

MrsJAlfredPrufrock · 07/02/2012 17:55

I think liberal means no hand-holding, no herding and no spoon-feeding, respecting of the individual.

Colleger · 07/02/2012 17:27

Even Eton has weekend clothes! Grin

Original poster
happygardening · 07/02/2012 16:49

Trips to town? Weekend clothes? Communication with the outside world? Dont all boarding schools allow this?

OP posts:
Colleger · 07/02/2012 16:12

HG has said that Win is Liberal and I see no girls there! Wink

propatria · 07/02/2012 15:24

I mean in relaxed atmosphere,formality,weekend clothes,trips to town,exeats,communication with the outside world ,etc etc
Mal.perfectly possible to do well there,but apart from the compulsory nude swimming(now voluntary I believe??) its the same school,only makes the Headlines for the wrong reasons,still you pays your money....

malinois · 07/02/2012 15:15

propatria to be fair, she got a first from Imperial and a PhD from Harvard so it worked for her, although most of her old school friends who used to visit us in halls at college seemed to have chosen "inept minor drug dealer" as their vehicle to fame and fortune.

malinois · 07/02/2012 15:11

colleger I would have thought that all self-identified liberal schools would be mixed, pretty much by definition. My first year at university consisted largely of me going Shock at the stories of boarding school behaviour told to me by my new friends.

genug · 07/02/2012 15:10

propatria - do you mean in manner or in what teachers/kids get away with?

propatria · 07/02/2012 15:08

Mal-Well who would have guessed..lol..
Genug,my experience is exactly the opp,Trad schools are much more relaxed now than they were in the 70/80s

Colleger · 07/02/2012 15:01

Wonder what happens in a liberal boys school then! [ahock]

malinois · 07/02/2012 14:59

propatria bingo.

Agincourt · 07/02/2012 14:56

where all the teachers make their own shoes, knit their own jumpers, have beards and at least one dreamcatcher earing

genug · 07/02/2012 14:55

Their parents must have checked what sort of 'liberal' it was... as long as everyone's happy with what they bought! :)

In the 70s and 80s even very traditional boarding schools had laxer regulations, shall we say.

propatria · 07/02/2012 14:54

Mal,that school wouldnt begin with a B would it....and no I dont mean Bryanston.

malinois · 07/02/2012 14:49

Hmm, friend of mine went to a well known liberal boarding school in the 80s and it pretty much was mixed dorms and sex on the croquet lawn! And compulsory nudie mixed swimming up to the age of 13 Blush

genug · 07/02/2012 14:47

One that commits to a 'liberal arts' education. Is independent or state, selective or not. Generally is venerated by grateful parents regardless of kids' appearances. Always hell to get into.