Before you send your kids to public school ...

[pontypridd]

Think about what sort of person you are shaping for this world.

Under this leadership of lies the youth of today will learn that to survive they must shun the truth.

Public speaking and leadership skills are toxic if they lead to the likes of Rees Mogg, Johnson, Cummings and Gove etc

Power needs to removed from these poisonous public school places.

I know all sorts who were privately educated, and many more who weren't. They all fall into all categories. I guess the difference is my friends don't hold the reins of power!
I am vehemently anti private education. But even I blame the system not the individual
Kids and families.
Ok with the exception of Johnson and R-M. They are appalling.

Alright OP

Both DH and I are public school educated. Nothing wrong with us!

For every Johnson, there's a Benedict Cumberbatch who is hardly an indictment on the system.
What about grammars, day schools, state schools? What about elite unis like Oxford and Cambridge?

It could be far worst, Corbyn attended a private prep school.

This is a pretty infantile post.

There is a grain of truth in it: private education does serve to ingrain existing power structures and perpetuate the concentration of wealth.

But you can't blame people for wanting to try to guarantee their kids the best chances in life. And assuming that everyone who is privately educated is evil is the sort of thing most people grow out of when they turn 18.

Imagine OP that most parents choose them for the excellent education but well done for pointing out the other benefits

Kier Starmer, Blair, Tony Benn, Ed Balls, Clem Attlee, Harriet Harman to name just a few examples, also went to public schools

Starmer went to the local grammar which became private when he was in the 6th form. A number of MPs from both sides tagged as "private" were educated in the days of the 11+ and direct grant/grammars. St Pauls, Haberdashers, Latymer and others all fell into that category.

Most people who educate their kids privately so so because they think the quality of the education might be better. You surely cannot fault people for that

Well many also think they are buying into networks and social advantage.

The point is that if the bulk of people in power have grown up in the narrow strata of society who are sufficiently wealthy to pay for even standard private school fees then they are not going to be familiar with the realities of life in poverty or the systemic disadvantage many groups experience combined with poverty.

If they then surround themselves with a narrow range of their peers they will not learn about it even second hand. Assuming they even care, which some of our current leaders plainly don't.

Alan Rusbridger went to Cranleigh

Haha how ridiculous.
My DH went to public school and he's lovely ( as well as very successful). I really hope we can afford to send DS to his old school when the time comes.

Taking a break from flogging the "Socialist Worker" outside the local Uni, OP?

@Cohenlover

wigornian Keir Starmer did not go to public school. He went to Reigate Grammar School after passing his11+. It became an independent school while he was a student there.

This.

Puerile OP.

Public schools and private schools aren’t the same, chaps!

Dh and I went to private schools as do our children ... you do get a very special type of arsehole in those places and the bullying-hectoring style behaviour is along those lines. Normally their parents are just the same!!

However like anywhere else the majority of children are just ... children. Like anywhere else.

@pontypridd

You know it's been a while since the people you mention went to school? Probably a bit different now... You also know that they are just a handful of the examples of private school people...?

You can have my first ever:

Well, I went to a comprehensive school which had (and still has), a debating society, taught Classics and Latin, and runs a class prepping kids for the Oxbridge entrance exam.

What evil elitist bastards we are in South Wales! Presumably all this should be banned in your same-for-all race to the bottom

What?? I went to Old Palace in Croydon, I’m Croydon through and through, no sense of entitlement here.

Kier Starmer, Blair, Tony Benn, Ed Balls, Clem Attlee, Harriet Harman to name just a few examples, also went to public schools - they produce all sorts

One would assume that the OP's drivel doesn't apply to the left, because they were perfect, weren't they.

The 1970's just called and asked for their script to 'Citizen Kane' back.
Is that you Wolfie?

I’ve known a few public school educated people. Most were nice but one (male) really was the most awful snob.

Not all Public Schools produce horrid posh boys. My DH and several friends went to them and are really nice people with no entitlement issues at all.

Many take poor boys too on scholarships. Several only take bright poor kids e.g. Christ's Hospital school in Horsham.

I'm with @Washimal and @C8H10N4O2. I went to private & public schools but would never have sent my kids to one, even if I could have afforded it. They have hugely benefited from mixing with a range of people from far wider social strata than I did and are much more mature and well-rounded young adults than I was at their age. I recognised the limitations that independent schools can create (though don't always, I agree). However, the likes of Johnson, Rhys-Mogg etc represent another type of very-much public school educated (mainly) males, with whom I'm also very familiar (I knew James Delingpole of The Telegraph when he was a school boy and believe you me, he was no better then than he is now) who have narrow world views and life experiences, under a facade of being well-spoken and well-educated, which is actually pernicious.
It's not one size fits all though.

There some questionable leadership skills in parliament (all parties) but there will be far more good and decent leaders out in the wider world with a public school background just as there will be even more from state school background. You're holding up a tiny minority who are visible as reflecting a whole.

DS goes to an independent school. I've checked the list of well-known old boys. There is just one former MP. There's also a Marxist writer and an airman linked to The Great Escape. Otherwise careers many enter from all walks of life.

I agree public school people often aren't good leaders and the current crop show everything that's worst about it, but are just assumed to be. But the fact is most former public school students (I'm not one, but I know a few) aren't political leaders of captains of industry or whatever - they have ordinary jobs like software engineers or teachers or doctors or journalists or whatever

Dp was at public school, boarding from 11. Gentlest kindest man I've met. He was at school with some of the current crop of politicians. I would say it's ppe at Oxford and the Oxford Union that is more to blame

Cohenlover I stand corrected with Sir Kier....my point I sufficiently made via my other examples + those added by others.