She may be a lone voice but she isn't sensible!
To recap- because maybe I am missing something.
If a family is wealthy the can pay for the best of private schools and they can not only have their own holidays on their yacht and skiing,keep ponies etc but because the school is a private it can offer any extra imaginable- in fact that is why they are chosen by the wealthy family.
At the same school are families who are not wealthy, they have a very modest lifestyle, in fact more modest than most because they have given up on holidays, eating out, a new car so that they can afford the school fees. They never do any of the extras because they can't afford it and in addition they have to listen to all the stories of a lifestyle way out of their own experience. However this doesn't matter that they are poor because their parents actively chose to put them in that position and if they don't like it they can leave.
You have a huge range of family backgrounds but you don't care that some children feel poor and are disadvantaged because their parents chose it and they could always go to the state system where they would be relatively well off with all the school fees money at their disposal. If they have a bursary they are just jolly lucky and have to accept they are the poor relation and the extras are not for the likes of them.
In the state system you get most of the rest- 97% of children. A huge cross section from those with lots of money who choose not to use private education for all manner of reasons, those who have lots of money but have no interest in education, down to those who have no money because they are in debt or on benefits- again a multitude of reasons. Maybe they are drug addicts, maybe they run expensive cars, buy their DCs designer gear, give them their own laptop, maybe they live a very modest lifestyle because they are saving to take up the extra educational opportunities, university etc etc etc. In fact that 97% represents the whole of human experience BUT because it is state education you have to go down to the lowest common denominator. You can't offer a trip to the war graves in France when you study WW1, you can't offer a German exchange to help with German lessons, you can't offer a field trip to Iceland for Geography, a trip to the National Gallery for Art, or even a character building week at an outdoor centre because some parents can't afford it, some parents don't want to afford it, some parents don't trust the risk assessment, some parents couldn't give a damn and will shove the letter straight in the bin, some parents say ' we can do that- you don't need to do it with the school', some parents want them to go but the DC won't, there are only 30 places and some will be disappointed - therefore schools can't offer it. Children in the state system turn up at 9am and leave at 3:30 (or similar) and get the basics because anything else is unfair. They can manage with pictures of Iceland because only the few who are in private education, and can afford the extras are offered a trip to see it for themselves.
Education with extras is for the tiny elite.
Is this the summary - or am I misunderstanding?
If I am correct I am thoroughly glad that state schools don't see it that way- they market themselves by the extras, the trips, the orchestra, school productions, taking part in sports teams etc and the things that cost money.
I also think it very unfair that when I have saved a mountain of money at the baby stage with second hand everything, not lavished laptops,TVs etc on them, drive a very modest car etc - I then can't spend it on the things that I really want to spend it on- all the extras that state education offers.
This is absolutely denied to me because if I used it to buy private education I couldn't afford the extras anyway!
Neither could I do it myself because when DS1did the war graves, for example, I had a baby and toddler.
DS2 certainly wouldn't have gone alone with a company that specialised - he managed it because he knew everyone.
Anyway - what is the difference between going with a private company and talking about it and going with the school and talking about it? Children will have different experiences it is life . I didn't go on lots of things. My DCs didn't go on everything offered. It was never the issue that people make it out to be.
Communism didn't work! This is what it appears to be to me. Everything on a plate for a tiny elite and drab greyness for everyone else. No point in working and aspiring because you can't get anything better.