To feel sick at the sight of posh kids dressed as tramps?

[musicalmum43]

My nieces go to posh private schools (same school as the Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice), and one of them posted on FB photos of a day they had spent at school dressed as tramps - they made a shelter in the classroom (inside obviously in case they got cold!) and one of them had drawn a beard on herself. It all looked great fun and jolly hockeysticks, but I think they could have got the girls down to the local Salvation Army shelter to hand out some soup or clean a hostel or something instead. I know going to a private school is because the parents are terrified their girls won't cope in the rough inner city that is Windsor (!!!!) but this level of role play is sick making. What on earth did they get out of this, except to have great larks, what ho!! I could just hear their posh voices chirping away!!

YABU, and just sound jealous and snobby.

YANBU. It sounds like a silly, pointless exercise. They would have been better off running a cake sale or something to raise money for the homeless than treating the whole issue like a dressing up game.

I know the school you are writing about musicalmum, and most of the kids I have met from there are great,and the school does get involved in charity work. You don't seem to know the context that this was done in, so are just making presumptions based on the fact that they are 'posh'.

"I just feel that the reason kids go to this school is to protect them from all us nasty commoners"

so basically you've got a chip on your shoulder. YABU reverse snobbery is just annoying.

Actually, all 4 of us have ended up with very good jobs, none of us live in Dagenham any more, and we are very able to choose whatever type of education we think is most appropriate for our own children. I am NOT jealous of my brother and his children, and I DO think they are becoming snobs. I love my brother and his family, but I don't like the effect on my nieces of the schools they have chosen. I was on their FB pages to invite them all over, so not to judge. Dressing up as Victorians or evacuess is something different, I think. It usually involves visiting a place with genuine stuff you can handle or use, and a bit of role play. I felt very uncomfortable looking at these girls, and I think it really boils down to knowing where they were at the time - on the premises of a very expensive school. These type of children tend to be driven to and from school back home to their nice, safe comfortable streets. Their parents have chosen to closet them from the world, including "ordinary" people. We made a decision that since the world is full of ordinary people, we wanted our children to go to our local state school, which has worked very well. In my opinion, the photos looked as if they were laughing at the homeless, and making fun, rather than trying to learn anything. I fully support having fun at school, and think it is a very good way to learn actually, but there is a line between good fun and sneering, and I'm not confident it wasn't crossed.

I can't beleive this is for real. Of course any photos that end up on FB would show smiling kids, how can you possibly judge the content of tone of a lesson from a photo on FB?

You obviously feel strongly against private education. You're entitled to your opinion but to say that kids shouldn't smile on facebook becuase they live in nice safe streets is bonkers.

You obviously have issues with your neices that go way beyond the content of a lesson you weren't at and didn't hear.

Dressing up as evacuees or Victorians would be just as distasteful if they existed now.

Roleplay is appropriate for these things as it is the a good way kids can understand what it may have been like to be one.

The homeless exist here and now, there is no need to use roleplay in such a bizarre way, when, as was suggested, they could work with a homeless charity and learn far more.

Even the term 'Tramp' is derogatory.

a good way

"I just feel that the reason kids go to this school is to protect them from all us nasty commoners."

It will be because the parents think it offers a better education.

But I don't like this classroom exercise: reminds me of MPs "managing to live" on benefits for a week to point out that it's not that hard.

Also it is of course a total waste of classroom time.

If you think it's ok, imagine if it wasn't at school but at home. Imagine the parents saying, ok children, this Sunday we're going to visit the homeless shelter and then dress up as them and live in cardboard boxes in the living room tonight to show you how awful it is.

You'd think being homeless was a right good laugh.

"You'd think being homeless was a right good laugh. "

Well exactly.

For all you know they might have been rehearsing a production of Waiting For Godot.
Really, you don't know what the lesson was about.

But worse, I think your tone comes across very badly considering these are children. Making fun of their voices etc. Imagine someone saying somehting about chavvy accents...it;s just not nice is it?
No child can help how they speak.

You obviously have real issues with your brothers choice of schools and feel he is somehow critisising your own. Don't look at it this way. His choice is nothing to do with yours and vice versa.

But it was OK for one of the Prince's to do it last year? (Yes, he really did spend time on the streets but in a play-acting kind of way, with full protection in the background)

You'd think being homeless was a right good laugh (show picture of a happy tramp and play summer time music) ..... (cut Music and make a gong noise) YOU'D BE WRONG (close up of Chris Morris pointing at the camera, cue brass eye music.)

mayorquimby

I think you're being judgemental about a lot more than what you saw on FB OP.

Have you talked with your bro's kids about the context of what they did in their school, or are you just jumping to (pre-dictable, yawn) conclusions with limited information, based on your own prejudices and ridgid opinions?

as an aside, AFAIK Princess E and B went to different schools as PrincessB had learning disabilities(dyslexia).

whats a posh kid?

Assuming that it ws meant to teach about homelessness then i totally agree with Orm and Ali

But have personal beef about posh kids- I wuld see this as equally pointless and naive if done in the lcoal state school

Gut reaction is

This pretending to be homeless thing is not helpful, agree there.

but your cpomments on their poshness is really spiteful, these are KIDS here

put some salt on that chip lady!

no personal beef

oops

Sounds like some work on the book Stone Cold (about the homeless), we've done similar.

Was this a serious attempt at exploring issues around homelessness, you know, devised and led by a teacher as part of an educational programme?

It sounds very ill-conceived, particularly if they are referring to themselves as 'tramps' and drawing on beards. Surely it wasn't a serious academic exercise?? I think I'd want a refund on the school fees if it was.

YABU !

How does your brother feel about you discussing your posh neices who go to a private school in Windsor with the general public on MN?

I think your neices deserve some privacy tbh.

And do you normally refer to the homeless as tramps? Or is that what it said on FB, what exactly did it say? Surprised you didn't use inverted commas.

And pmsl @ mayorquimby, absolutely brilliant.

Just noticed you said they go to same school as Beatrice and Eugenie.

You might as well say the name of the school, and indeed the names of your neices, given how easy it is to find people on FB.

Does your brother talk about your kid's school and what lessons they've done on the tinternet? Bet you wouldn't like it if he did.

Haha YABU. You need to get over the fact your nieces go to private school. At the moment there is a chip the size of Wales on your shoulder and it is not becoming.