So Eton, everything I expected and more

[JoanBias]

My DS is at a private school, so I have experience of private schooling, but my word Eton was like another world.

Not just the school, but the people there.

There was one prep school being shown around, all in tweed jackets, and to a boy the spitting image of Draco Malfoy (well there was one Chinese boy, but otherwise....).

One of the mothers doing the tour was not quite right in some respect, I'm not sure how but something wasn't wired up correctly or something. She was immacuately dressed, 6-inch heels (pretty daft considering the confirmation letter warns about having a long walk), but she was just bizarre. The admissions tutor said 'we have a waiting list of 80 boys and typically 35% of these will make it through', and she asked afterwards 'so 80% of the boys from the waiting list make it through?', and it was then explained again, but you could kind of hear the cogs going round and she clearly didn't get it. She had asked several other similar questions; e.g., it was explained that some Houses are catering and others go to a central cafeteria, so she then asked 'so they all eat in the cafeteria'? She pointed at the Fives Court and asked me 'what do they play here?' I said 'Fives' 'Is it squash?', she said. 'No, Eton Fives.' 'So is it squash?' It seemed as if this woman had had the benefit of the 'Finishing School for the Terminally Dim', because she was otherwise every inch the presentable upper middle-class wife.

Another family had a son who looked the prototypical pre-Etonian, and sure enough Daddy spent the tour braying on about his House when he had been there.

The facilities were extremely impressive, although they didn't bother to show us any of the academic parts, and basically the impression was 'if your son is incredibly pushy and self-motivated, send him here and we will teach him to be entitled'. They said 'every year we reject about a third of the highest performers on the test', essentially because they aren't pushy enough. (The House Mistresses seemed quite nice though.)

Fantastic training for future managing directors and whatever, but not for us.....

Well worth it to sign up for a tour, very illuminating. They take about 100 a day from what I can see, so obligation at all....

May be they have spell check software although I doubt it. You just have to look at a housewives v working mothers thread to see the thickos who stay home to bake cakes and how they spell and write and their low levels of education and rush to use swear words and the like compared to working mothers. If we corrected them you would not be able to tell on threads who was a housewife or a benefit claimant before reading the content of their missives.

Can you post the post here and tell me the typo and I can say if I were likely to have made the original spelling or not?

"My grammar and spelling is pretty good." and
Im no proof reader by any stretch of the imagination but I would not describe your grammar and spelling as pretty good there are many people on MN who make less typos and spelling and grammar errors then you and I Xenia. In fact thats something I would say we have in common!

"You just have to look at a housewives v working mothers thread to see the thickos who stay home to bake cakes and how they spell and write and their low levels of education"
OK everyone just to let you know Im not rising to it!

Well, that post certainly makes me want to rush to use a few judicious swear words, Xenia, but I shall refrain.

Not swearing doesn't make your posts any less offensive, rude or ill-mannered, but I think you know full well what you're doing, really.

I have wondered this about Xenia too.
She is real, but that does not stop her being also employed by MNHQ.
The first post I could find on MN about her started with "I have been invited over here to talk about.....". I thought that was a strange turn of phrase, and have wondered ever since. fwiw, I think there are at least a couple more who may be on MNHQs payroll.
And there are MNHQ employees who post in their ordinary MN names, when not working.

ooh, now Xenia is being defensive, and trying to deflect on to something else outrageous.
ooh, looks like we are right.

Xenia has also told us just now that she has just finished writing a 'long email' relating to her job (or something like that) - in case we might begin to wonder about her day job and time spent on it. Why not do a bit of freelance writing on the side. I'd love to if someone gave me the chance.

Thickos who stay home??? Wow you should read the tripe that gets sent around my DH's company, all graduates but thick very very thick, poor spelling and grammar. They even have a policy where women can 'show a bit of boob, but not a lot'.

Xenia your spelling and grammar is execrably bad! I've actually long assumed that you must be a tiny bit thick yourself but simply achieved through dogged determination and hard work. That's perfectly possible in the legal world.

I stay at home but rarely bake.
I am not sure I am thick though. Although I think there is academic thick and human thick. You know, those who have a great education and opportunities aplenty but use all of that to be superior and unpleasant rather than kind and supportive

I like the sahm/wohm threads to stay untouched though. They are always most illuminating. It's like cuntwatch.

Curiouser and curiouser. Years of Xenia's MN history has been wiped out.
Did you ask for that to be done Xenia?
That is not normally done.

Perhaps Xenia means those SAHM who are too thick to realise that if they went back to work when their DC was 6 hours old they would now be on

£100 000 PA oh and own an island!

The poster who has unquestionably the worst spelling, punctuation and grammar on the whole of MN is scottishmummy and she is one of the loudest and most aggressive pro-working mums.

amillionyears for a long time I've suspected Xenia jabed or is it now ronaldo peternas and maybe even seeker (although Im less convinced about her) are either one and the same we've got this nutter in our town who could quite easily pull a stunt like this or just not real people at all made up by MNHQ to entertain themselves and to encourage people to keep posting. And there's that other loon whose posted that "Super-child-Part-1-related-to-11-plus" he surely cant be normal or real.

I work as a proofreader but cannot believe that people are being picked up and compared for errors on an internet forum.
Laydeez, get lives!

Was just coming on to say that I once got a thread deleted for suggesting that Xenia and Claig were the same person.

Happy gardening- I am real, honest. How can I prove it?

Xenia is an important voice on MN as she's an extreme. We all need to hear extremes POV so we can identify our own opinions. I say this as a SAHM, well until recently.

She is also well respected in her professional life.

I thought I had said I had written a long email to my daughter who is engaged. I certainly write long work emails too.

I am delighted if people think I am an MN construct and I have (I think) not said what work I do. I don't think I've ever posted my mensa score. I am pretty self deprecating.

I am certainly available for hire by MN if they ever need advice.

I don't do employment. I like to eat what I kill. I go out armed with a spear dripping with fresh blood in my leopard skin bikini.

My spelling and grammar are pretty good although as I said above given how quickly I type of course I make typos. It's pretty rare that I am wrong on basic grammar,though. I certainly don't mind learning things though. I like to learn every day.

I only post as myself. I am not planted or paid to post. I have no other user name. I don't much mind if people believe that or not as if it is thought I do not exist then it is easier to maintain my anonymity.

What Pagwatch said.
And 'maybe' is all one word.

Fwiw, I regularly proof read written 'work' my DH's highly paid, well educated colleagues send him, when he's snowed under and has a tight deadline to meet.
Incompetence in the workplace combined with a dogged self-belief often seems to be rewarded with promotion.

To be fair, though, grammatical incompetence doesn't seem to be the exclusive preserve of working women.

Ah I see the old 'you must be thick because your grammare and spelling is poor' is being wheeled out again.

Better let all the dyslexics know how thick they are eh?
And posters who didn't have a good education?
Oh and those who don't speak English as a first language?

All thick the lot of 'em...

No, there are definitely loons...and then loons.

"Mr Superchild Relating to 11+ You will remember this thread forever" is in a exclsuive class. Just GabbyLoggon for company.

I would put Xenia and jabed / Ronaldo in the second division because as annoying as their posts are, there is some semblance of real life there. Gabby and Superchild? Not so much. The best thing about Xenia is that she can take as good she she gives. You never hear her whinging when people slate her. She is robust in her opinions and doesn't take offence.

Peteneras is in an altogether other class, as he only posts superlatives about Eton. He does not have Xenia or jabed's breadth.

Seeker is again in a different class. I don't agree with her on many points, but she is very open about her own situation, does not duck and dive, takes the rough with the smooth. After that thread which got completely out of hand a few weeks ago (about the police), it would have been easy for seeker to namechange and reinvent herself; but she didn't, so kudis to her, too.

I think focussing on one poster is a bit odd. I agree with Posie that all voices are important - it helps you define what you believe and why when you hear a range of views.
It's why I wouldn't go with a hide poster thingy.
I just wish women didn't get off on being contemptuous of omen who have made different choices. It's just unnecessary and does nothing positive to change attitudes IMHO.
Important messages about the need to sahms to protect themselves financially get lost when you wrap that important stuff up in clap trap about baking and thickos.
So childish.

YY @pagwatch

I too like a range of voices here on MN.

But there are others who want to silence anyone who doesn't agree with them. People make rude and personal comments towards seeker all the time. They try to silence her by mocking how she posts. They also stalk her off board, trying to out her and harrassing her...

Bit much really IMVHO...

Nellyjob - point was that no one else is edited for spelling, grammatical errors & typos as far as we can tell and certainly not frequently. Also AMillionYears said that all posting history for Xenia has been suddenly deleted?