this must be the parpiest of parpiest article

[cod]

int h paper its acconmpanies byt two girls in boaters ffs

THIS is why i want to kill most peopel hwo go to private shcools

\link{http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,171-2149872,00.html\nobs of nobsley in nob land}

there are a couple of newspaper articles getting a slagging today

great innit?

Satine, the journalist isn't just describing her own experiences which may or may not be true, though it sounds slightly embroidered to me.

The point of the article is to use the particular experiences of one of her children during a mere six weeks in one particular state school to imply wild generalisations about state schools, the superiority of the private sector and the necessity of mortgaging yourself to the hilt in order to pay for it all. There's absolutely no reasoned argument or sensible discussion, just a bunch of recycled prejudices. She can educate her kids any way she chooses, doesn't bother me. But the implication of her article is that anyone who chooses a different path is either wilfully blind to reality or too selfish to make the necessary sacrifices. That's what people are getting hot under the collar about.

just when you thought you were out, they pull you back in...
Top thread! The woman's a fool.

(And sorry, hula, but boaters do really suck, imo.)

SCUMMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

DD went to that school with the Boaters!!! The uniform was already way too poncey - and then they did a survey to see if anyone wanted hats! I was very anti - and so were all the other parents I spoke to, but the result was apparently 'overwhelmingly in favour' of hats. I hated the school but dh's parents were paying for it.

I also thought the school was crap academically!!

Deep reactions have all sorts of sources. Mine was a profound indignation that half-bakery of this kind gets written/countenanced/published/paid for, thereby contributing to the awful pervasive dumbing down of everything. And I freely admit I am using her as a peg on which to hang my prejudices against lifestyle journalism. Unless written by MI, in which case it would be funny.

oh god I had to wear a boater at junior school

my dog half ate it at one point but parents (and quite rightly) wouldn't buy me a new one so I wore it half eaten - must have really lowered the tone.

Boaters and any poncey uniform ( na i kNOW abotu crap uniform havign been to a cbluecaot school) is crap

What a waste of skin...

Hurrah Scummy :)

Althoguh I said I didn't think she was necessarily wrong because her experience was different from mine, I would hazard a guess that she is wrong in saying that she was the only working mother at the state school. Just a wild guess, you understand.

Oh come off it Satine we're not laughing at her because she sent her kid to private school, we're laughing at her because she's making the terrible sacrifice of scrubbing her own floor to afford it - not someone else's FGS. (And how big is her bloody floor anyway, that she has to get up at 5AM to do it?)

And then her tone is self-pitying and yet advisory at the same time: if you give up the pony, and the au-pair, and downshift from the seven bedroom mansion to a small pied a terre in South Kensington, you too could send your kids to private school. It's just a question of making sacrifices, you know.

Don't tell us off for laughing at her. It's quite a charitable reaction, considering. If I analysed her silliness seriously, I'd be having visions of salt-mines in Siberia.

My kids' school did "daily mental" all the way through the juniors. The image always made me smirk.

Who do you need to suck up to to get paid for writing tosh like that?

frogs has summed it up perfectly.
and binks
and caligula

Did you write the article, satine?

thanks for reminding me why I don;t read the Times: every now and then I wonder if my choice of newspaper is a good one. I wonder if sticking to it has blinded me to its politics, but hand on heart I can honestly say I have NEVER seen an article in my usual rag that is a) such drivel and b) so politicised to such a degree and in such an unsubtle thinly veiled way. I think we should nominate it for the mn media awards.

Agree Tamum - many working mothers at most state schools.

Is your usual the gruniad, hat? I don't think I've seen anything quite as crap in there.

PMSL. Also loved the "squashy" classrooms. Brings back fond memories of mine in deathrow Comp .As for the head, maybe she was a state school teacher who privately educates her own kids. Not, you understand, that I'm making a judgement about such teachers but they do exist

of course it is! I love it, but I find myself wondering if I ought to spread my wings a bit (dh likes reading the Telegraph editorials cos he prefers to read stuff that annoys him). every now and then I get the FT.

If they had just sent Florence (!!!!!!!!!!) to the perfectly good state school in the first place she would have known no difference and would Im sure been perfectly happy!

Just shown the article to dh who is . His comments :
They could have made those "sacrifices" long ago surely, before making the move to state in the first place !
If hubby was made redundant they wouldn't have needed the cleaner, au pair etc anyway (ihho)

btw not sure the photo goes with those in the article - think the grils are in a London school uniform and article mentions being an hour away - perhaps a neat editorial dig ?!

Ah yes busybee but then she would never have discovered the joys of getting up at 5am to scrub her kitchen floor

It has to be a joke, surely?
No-one could write that and expect anyone ever to talk to them again.