to hate it when people talk about "indie" schools

[gobehindabushfgs]

in an attempt to make it sound cool, edgy and alternative? it isn't. it's private education. it's a right-wing, ultimately selfish decision.

"indie"

I don't think posh parents do do that though!

So my kid goes to school with kids of varying classes and backgrounds - I think that's good because it IS a variety, not because I really want her to know some travellers. BUT if the travellers are THERE, and they're at the school nearby, I think it's right not to throw one's hands up in horror and drive them to St Sense of Entitlement's across the town!

No, it doesn't. The whole point of school is that it isn't some single experience. It is a shared education. It isn;t about the parents. It's about the children. They are the ones working together. Would you rather that people were educated in some kind of class ghetto (which is what is being decried by both anti-private and anti-exclusive catchment posters here). Because I don't think that would make what you have experienced any better.

Freshmint what on earth makes you think that caring about the school SYSTEM is incompatible with caring about the education your child is receiving? I'm reasonably sure I'm doing both!

Oh I do that too freshmint . In fact, I use my loud voice to give children in a deprived area a good education.

I was educated in a class ghetto
I went to university with all sorts
I worked within an intelligence ghetto - mixed classes but more independent than grammar and more grammar than state
I now work in a job where I see more of life than you can imagine. My colleagues have mixed backgrounds but are united in being highly educated and highly intelligent, the punters range from aristocrats to people who have had the worst lives you could imagine, in this country and abroad

My education does not prevent me from understanding, getting on with and feeling compassionate towards others who are unlike me. That is because I'm a normal and nice human being.

Congrats!

good for you madonna
I'm saying focus on your own school, raise standards there, stop looking chippily over your shoulder at the green fields of st cakes. If you like it and can afford it, go there, if not make sure the school you are at is as good as your kids deserve it to be

JoanofArgos.
I think my point is that it rubs me up the wrong way when I see posts along the lines of 'my schools great because my kids get to rub shoulders with travellers.'
I think the travellers in question would be mortified by that sentiment.

TheFallenMadonna
Am I traitor to my class then that I didn't stay in my home town and use my skills to give children living there a good education?

I'm sure you're lovely. I don't think you are right though, and I think lots of people from all walks of life have skewed perceptions of others rooted in their educational experiences.

Yes but that is quite very much precisely NOT what I am saying Joni. I am saying if you live somewhere, you should go to school with the other people who live there.... and I mention travellers in particular because I get irked in normal life by people in this city who would cite that as a specific reason NOT to use that school.

I don't think it's fab to go to school with travellers and they can tell you all about their lives on the road and their ponies and their big fat gypsy weddings..... and I see why if I said that it would be patronizing.

I cited that also because of the irritating assumption that anyone whose child goes to state school and is happy there MUST have bought a house in a leafy middle class ghetto - which is not the case.

I think that's true, Thefallenmadonna.

Some people send their kids to state school and when they think about private school they think of the school near them which may be rubbish. Likewise, some parents pay because their own experience of state was horrific whithout considering that the options available to their child may be far, far better.

Which brings me back to my repeated point about social mix. It is simply not always true to say by going state you get a wider social mix, certainly at primary.

The problem with this debate is people are coming from so many different angles and experiences.

Calling me chippy is a lazy argument really. I begrudge people nothing. It isn't politics of envy or any of the other bingo card comebacks to an argument against private education. I have said that I wouldn't ban private schools, and I think people should make their own decisions and act according to their own principles, as I do mine. But we can have a discussion about whether something is right or wrong without it becoming personal, can't we?

And no jonicomelately, I don't think that at all, nor did I say it. I think the idea of 'class traitor' is a very peculiar one.

OK JoanofArgos. If that wasn't your intention I accept that. However, I have read posts on here time and again where educated, middle-class mums get very excited about how their children are getting an experience of real life because of the children they mix with at school (ie poor).

I don't like it

I sometimes use the term indie.

Partly it's because I can never remember if it's independent or independant and some twat here is always quick to pull you up.

Partly because private or fee-paying makes it sound grander than it is.

If it's wanky...well so be it

Oh God, not Morrisons!

But you see Pixie, I do think it's completely different to leisure centres. And I think it does affect other people, indirectly at least. It is not a choice made in a social and political vacuum.

'I think the idea of class traitor is a very peculiar one'

TheFallenMadonna. I'm interested to know, given that comment, something of your background.

joni nor do I.

It's class tourism. Look at us with our poor friends. How super it is that our DD has a friend from Somalia...now could someone pass the phone number of a French tutor.

Can I ask how you think it affects other people?
Almost all the parent, if not all, you chose state where we lived could have paid. If we had also gone state then the odd child on the edge of the catchment would not have got a place at what was considered an outstanding primary.

Or the other MN classic...

Indie schools are a waste of money.
We save ours for extra tution and enriching activities.

I mean fair enough to spend your money how you like. Cocaine and chorus girls or ballet lessons. Means nowt to me.

But don't think you have the moral high ground.

Sorry for typos.

Erm, but I have seen posts on this very thread about how the private school has more of an ethnic mix than the state!

Look at us with our friends the Russian oligarch's daughter and the Nigerian prince, indeed.

wordfactory.

Your posts made me lol