Roundedness

[Chickenkatsu]

Every time I look at threads relating to private schools and their benefits, I always see the words "well rounded", people who send their children to private schools always seem to use those particular words to describe their own children. I'm not 100% sure what that actually means, I guess it means they are good socially, have good grades and are good at sports. Which is fantastic.

The problem I have with this, is that it's impossible to be objective about your own children, do other people see their children and think how well rounded they are? People who I've met that have gone to private school often seem very confident in themselves which is mostly good, I think.

The other thing is that, is it the private school that made them so well rounded or would they have been good at sports, socializing and intelligent even they went to an ordinary school? How much did the school add, exactly? If you go to a school like Haberdashers, it basically means you are rich and clever and live in an area with lots of opportunities, wouldn't somebody like that be expected to do well anyway?

I'm not sure many people use the word well rounded to describe other people's children, it's more a proud parent term. Private schools use 'well-rounded' as a description to indicate they don't just focus on children with the most academic ability they encourage ability in sports, arts etc
as long as you've got money (I know, I know, there are scholarships).

I do agree about confidence and I don't know but I'd say class size is factor in this, plus not having to adhere to the national curriculum. Also extra curricular activities are pretty compulsory.

I am inclined to agree somewhat, especially if you have encouraging and interested parents. I can only comment from my experience which was that we would have had more holidays, my parents might have done the house up, and saved for their pensions. The local school wasn't a great one, my school was a 30 mile round trip. Neither of my parents went to university so I might not have...but then we did live in a town with good industries so maybe I'd have taken a different path.

I would just take that to mean that many private schools offer excellent opportunities with music, sports and a plethora of co-curriculars. I’ve seen indies where vast majority of children play instruments and there’s an orchestra, choir and numerous bands, children participate and compete in sports too. They can also have much better facilities to support things like drama, photography or dance etc There are also specialist teachers from early on which state schools simply can’t afford. And many indies have the ethos of trying different things and doing activities so yes, definitely a more rounded education.