I send my child to private school because....?

[jabed]

Well, I don?t actually, I just work in one. But it seems to be a constant source of questioning on MN and given the current news articles (I have been reading the DM and Tory graph online) about how many of our left wing leaders hypocritically claim to be egalitarian and socialist whilst buying education for their children , or have had education paid for by their own parents. I just wondered, what is it we expect from education, and why is it some of us are willing to pay for whatever that is and how they see that as worthy of their money.

There you go. :)

"You can't learn to be clever."

Agree with this statement. You either have it, or you don't. Not all children are destined to be lawyers (even the ones going through a private education).

I seem to have missed quite a bun fight by being out all day!
The second time that I looked into private education was purely because DS had special needs-he was dyslexic. I would imagine that many parents look into the private sector for that reason.

Xenia doesn't care what happens to those children, once or twice. Nor is she well-informed enough about these issues to be aware that in reality, the problem is more likely to be tother way about - the education of children with SN is massively disrupted by the bullying and poor treatment meted out to them by their NT peers. But Xenia and her ilk are acting on the assumption that those children would never have amounted to anything worthwhile anyway (and bear in mind here that their measurement of what is worthwhile is very crude and limited, centring largely on good results in public examinations) so their fate can be treated as a secondary issue.
I have long since given up on such people.

Gove's not on the same planet as the 'rest of us'. Just like David Cameron, or any Tory for that matter....

exotic I missed the comments that were deleted as I was also not around throughout the day. Wish I knew what had been said.

"needs blind"?

What on earth does this mean?

Oh, and Xenia- once again, I am humbled by the thought that your children do missionary work amongst the poor, elderly and disadvantaged. It must be such a comfort.

Wait until your privately educated children get out into the real world and have to mingle with all walks of life - that's when they really learn what life is all about

There is always this about mingling with all walks of life. I know it may not apply to all, but I can genuinely say that in my whole life. I have never so "mingled?. Largely my associations have been with people from a similar background and lifestyle to my own. I do not choose to make friends with people or associate with people from certain groups so why should my DS have to be exposed to them in school just to satisfy some social experiment or socialist principle?

You lead a very narrow life then jabed. I will happily talk to anyone.

The obvious answer to your question, jabed, is that your ds should be exposed to such people at school because it's the only escape he's likely to have from an extremely limited home environment.I'm sorry to make personal remarks but if that is genuinely how you appreoach things I think your approach is so narrow as to be damaging, I'm afraid. My own background is failry rarefied, at least from an academic perspective, and such success as I have had has come from learning to deal with a very wide range of people, with different abilities. I'd be absolutely hopeless at what I do now (I am a lawyer) if I hadn't learned that.
A life spent exclusively with people like yourself is a life half-lived. It beats me how anyone could wish that for their children.

You are associating with all sorts on MN!

A life spent exclusively with people like yourself is a life half-lived. It beats me how anyone could wish that for their children.

Exactly. I am very proud of my DCs precisely because they can mix with all.

"Ah it was mixing with 'SN children'."
"I think she meant though just in the class."

oh that's perfectly fine then
Xenia I'm sure that is what most thought she meant too, which is what I personally found unpleasant

I do wonder if jabed's DS speaks RP anywhere other than at home.

'Oh, and Xenia- once again, I am humbled by the thought that your children do missionary work amongst the poor, elderly and disadvantaged. It must be such a comfort.'

Yeah.... but they probably do it to earn UCAS points.....

The obvious answer to your question, jabed, is that your ds should be exposed to such people at school because it's the only escape he's likely to have from an extremely limited home environment

My DS can make his own choices when he is an adult. For now it is my role to protect him. I protect him from thieves and robbers and those who might cause him harm in any way as far as I can. If that means making sure he goes to a school or is educated in an environment which is safe from violence and foul language and bullying and obscenity and ill manners, disdain discourteousness and even a lack of work ethos with all manner of disruption, then I will do that for him. That?s what dad's are for. That is what parenting is about.

I do wonder if jabed's DS speaks RP anywhere other than at home

He speaks RP all the time, as do our friends and the children of our friends. Its the social circle we move in.

Being able to adapt is a very important skill but not one just gleaned from being in state school.

I went to pretty tough school, I literally have 1 friend from that school because she was like me - bright, ambitious and eager to get out of that kind of life.
Now I know not all state schools are like that but the options open to us are so why on earth would I want to give this education to my child, hoping that she makes the right friends, rises to the top etc.

Plenty of children of thieves and robbers go to private school - and plenty of those who cause harm to children, too. And then there's the bad manners.... I've seen plenty of that from private school children, too, when their parents and teachers aren't around, along with the foul language and obscenity. That's Oxford for you...

Funnily enough, my OED also fails to mention violence. I wonder what's going on here?

Jabed, what evidence do you have that Sohia was state educated, by the way? Because that sounds a little bit of a fatuous statement to me.

The downright glorying and wallowing in snobbery and prejudice abounding is really quite distasteful.

Now, it's all very well saying that our children make their own choices when they grow up, but we all know that isn't entirely true - they tend to stick to the prejudices of their parents.

I return to "needs blind". Is this similar to "I don't see colour"?

It's pretty understandable, though, TheOriginalSteamingNit. If you have no experience of something, you can imagine it to be anything you like - you can even believe the Daily Mail.

Shheesshh.... Being poor doesn't do people a lot of good, but being rich does not seem to be a guilded life either. I believe Eva Rausing / Tara Palmer-whatshername are testament to that.

maybe just finding something fulfilling is better.

Jabed, what evidence do you have that Sohia was state educated, by the way? Because that sounds a little bit of a fatuous statement to me

Evidence? What evidence do we have of anything beyond what posters state on here? I am certain sohia said she had a state education on one of the previous threads. I also remember her saying that her education was poor and she wanted better for her DC. Is that enough evidence or do I need to trawl back and find it?

Well yes. I want to see this full scale argument, not lots of flanneling about under some meretricious code of chivalry, I think.