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.

93% Bramshott? Bloody hell.

Molschambers: I went to (state) school in one of the 'posh bits' of Glasgow. From that I surmised that I must be quite posh, but not as posh as the people who went to private school. How wrong I was.

I suppose this is where the three tier system comes into its own then

lower school -lower class
middle school - middle class
upper school - upper class

it's an upwardly mobile system. Gotta love bedfordshire

I am the sort of lefty who was always embarrassed, as a gurl, by my utter lack of working-class credentials. I envied madly my friends who were first-generation university, as opposed to my collection of doctors and clergy and so on and so forth as far back as you could trace. Sadly, my comprehensive education Cut No Ice in the de-poshing stakes.

What's do great about being middle class? All the mc mothers I know are so flippin angsty all the time..

If you send your kid to a private school and that means you are at some middle class holy grail then good for you!

The rest of us will get on with enjoying life, having well mannered, well disciplined children who will be happy, useful members of society via a comprehensive education.

Have a

I am struggling with the apparently middle class reasons which are acceptable (under VolvoMo rules) for not sending children to private school:

• you cant afford it (wealth)
• you dont agree with it (ideology)

What other reasons are there other than the above? I am genuinely perplexed:

• dont like the uniform (esthetics)
• there isnt a private school nearby (geography)

Are the above working class reasons for not going to private school?

Well put Aboutlastnight.

This is, of course, the problem with the term 'middle class'. There an enormous gulf between the upper middle 'kids at expensive public schools' type and the lower middle 'grandparents (or even parents) went down the mines but parents (or we) went on to become nurses and teachers' type. The government likes us all to identify as middle class, but then use the attributes of the upper end of the spectrum as the benchmark for it.

A friend of mine went to local Comps. Went to Oxford and now earns £150K+ in advertising in central London.

He is still working class as far as I'm concerned.

That comes under "ideology" motherinferior. Would you perhaps cite Dianne Abbott MP as one these impeccably middle-class lefties?

Sorry for repeat post - I'm must be just really passionate about state comprehensives

Ooh, fabulous. Doffs cloth cap, hides Oxford degree. If I have a middle-class badge it's probably hidden down the back of the sofa (or should I say settee, now?)

Why would anyone make the ridiculous statement in the OP? IMO she is hungry for a bunfight or a journo. If not then you need to get out more OP.

And as for other reasons for not gonig, how about
"Local private schools simply not very good".

GrahamTribe: of course not! Look at that Jordan.

Emphaticmaybe. Thank you, a good response amongst all the dross.

Thank you sleepingbunny, of course. My comp was full of sons & daughters of farmers/doctors/whatevers. The local private school was known to be absolutely rubbish.

Har har har har haaaaaaaaaaar!

You can't possibly be English if you think it's that simple, dear

That's okay then Volvo.

One final post from the OP: I'm not a journo and I wasn't looking for a bunfight...just some insight.

Nothing wrong with being a journo. Everything wrong with the OP's assumption.

What do you want insight into? The idea that you can't be middle class at a comprehensive?

Well here's some: you can. Now stop being so silly.

I always assumed that people only went to private school because they er, weren't very bright. Of course, I learnt better when I got to Oxford, but I can't say the private schools local to me were over represented at Russell Group level.

Or perhaps the local comp would actually be most suitable for the child in question?

Or that the local comp is perfectly good (often due to being positioned in a middle class enclave)?

(Personally, I'd go with the 'Yuck. Shorts, blazers and knee socks for little boys' aesthetic response to private school, but that's caught up with my ideological aversion to it. I was even ideologically averse to it as a child, even if I didn't know that I was. My parents wanted to send me to a private school for secondary but I utterly refused to go. Not that my opinion matters because I'm only LMC).

We are travellers in a good independent school so that makes us upper class now then. Sorted! :o