To think that going comprehensive is an exit from the middle class?

[VolvoMo]

There may be a few minor exceptions (due to wealth or ideology) but doesn't going comp take away your middle class badge and worse, give your kids the chance to carry a big chip on their shoulder for their adult life.

Damsel - I don't think so, no :(

Is this something to do with where you live? e.g. London, affluent parts of SE?

Because round here just about everybody sends their DC to the local comp (and no it's not a super dooper one, just bog standard). It's only the very odd person who goes private.

Clearly some middle class families have to send their kids to comps. And obviously some kids do very well in comps (regardless of class) and do well in their life too. But not everyone, and the system does seem predicated on low aspiration. Perhaps by middle class I meant "upper middle class" and not lower middle class, which it appears is what most people commenting here understand to be middle class. As for "badges" they do exist, honest, but they are invisible to those who don't have them!

i assume you're middle class with a private school education then? Shame they didn't teach you to punctuate correctly isn't it? Welcome to the question mark, and have a fucking .

if the alternative is a grammer school, they do not exist in sme areas, you sound like a bit of a snob tbh

RedSKy: good point. Yes we are in affluent SE. Going independent is the norm in these parts. Maybe we need to move to Hull or somewhere!

An yes. Of course, only the upper middle class matter. Us lower middle class types are just glorified working class, and should get back in our proper place.

Are you, by any chance, currently a member of the cabinet?

Your definitions are off - there isn't just "upper middle class" and "lower middle class" there's also a huge amout of "middle middle class".

And no, the comprehensive system is not predicated on low aspiration, though a proportion of schools have to deal with that as a problem in parts of their catchment.

Oh and lots of middle class families choose to send their children to comprehensive schools, as a positive decision, not because they "have to"

So basically, you are talking out of your arse, whatever class of arse it might be. But then you knew that, I'm sure, and just felt like starting yet another class-thread for the fun of it!

"As for "badges" they do exist, honest, but they are invisible to those who don't have them! "

Yes, they are shaped like fanjos.

Oh, it's South-East-England middle-class bias then. Believe it or not, the rest of the country finds you a very odd lot and not the least bit representative of normal people.

My Oxford-educated rather poshly middle-class parents sent me to a comprehensive, from which I in turn went to Oxford. Oh, and all my grandparents were middle-class graduates (including the ones in India) too. DD1 starts at her comp in September. HTH.

WTF? I don't even know what upper and lower middle class is supposed to mean. I always assumed that everyone always went to the local state school, unless the parents were wealthy. Is that not the norm? (incidentally, I've lived in a few places, inc the east midlands and the south - not v poor or v affluent areas)

Utter utter bollocks. We are working class and happy. Ds's 2 and 3 are both very friendly with boys at our secondary who's Dad's are a Consultant Anaesthetist and a Dentist who runs his own practice who picked our school because it's good and close to home. What has class got to do with it?

I live in leafy Hertfordshire with fabulous state schools (and very expensive houses). I think you would have a big job on your hands if you tried to reclaim middle class badges round here.

If anyone has lost his or her middle class badge, I have an elderly Badge-It in a cupboard somewhere and would be happy to supply a new one for a small charge.

Hear, hear, MumInScotland!

Mmmmmmmm big chips....

To be fair to the op there certainly are badges signifying that you are MC.
They are designed to keep the working class firmly in their place and oft cited her eon MN when people are trying to show how jolly jolly clever they are...

But sending DC to private school is not one of them. The vast majority of the middle class simply could not afford it.

Would that be lower middle class people like Tony Benn, (formerly Viscount Stansgate) who sent his children to a comprehensive?

Seriously OP, you're making some very sweeping generalisations about both class and comprehensives. The school my DS attends is a state school, it's also one of the oldest schools in the country and extremely prestigious! Lots of very naice people send their children there - possibly because they have the sense to realise it's really quite stupid to pay for something when you can get the equivalent for free.

Why would children of middle class parents have a chip as a result of a comprehensive education?

Surely, even if you've oodles of money, if there's a fabulous state school nearby, you'd be a bit daft not to send your child there?

Only 7% of children are privately educated.
Don't know what %age go to grammar schools and VA religious schools (surely most of the latter are comprehensive anyway), but it's not huge.

Given that a fair %age of that 7% would count as 'upper class', by the OP's definition the middle class in this country must be tiny . (Or very, very 'upper middle' indeed ).

Surely you are an under researched freelance columnist?

I actually find it do quaint and hilarious that British people still define themselves In 'classes'.

We are just a family, both dh and I work. ( ex grammar school kids)2 of our kids are at uni and 2 at local high school( mixed comp).

Who gives a fuck??? What a prat you sound op.

I must be a clone of MI, my comp education doesn't seem to have trashed my middle class credentials. My family's dominated by Oxbridge educated people, and the ones that didn't got to Oxbridge did things like medicine.

If I do have a chip on my shoulder about my childhood I might resent all that compulsory music practice and archaeology socieities, no ITV, wholemeal homemade bread sandwiches and no crisps in the lunchbox - for good or bad, we had all the trammels of a middle class childhood.

Evil giraffe: I didn't know that there was more than one kind of middle class until I went to one of the universities that are favoured by posh types who didn't get into Oxbridge as a PG. I was surprised at how far down the UK class hierarchy I really was/am.

I still encounter odd class snobbery at work sometimes. Once, at a conference, some colleagues were talking about the students where they used to work (where many of the students have very similar backgrounds to me). They were being incredibly dismissive of the aspirations of these kids, who (god forbid) have gone to university to get a better job than they would otherwise. They then turned round, looked a bit shocked, and said, 'oh, we've just been describing you, haven't we?'. Weird. I hadn't realised that it was so dreadfully déclassé to want to make a decent life for yourself, but apparently it is.