What were your parents views on education?

[Blandmum]

Following on from the state vs private education threads.

Were your parents keen for you do have a 'good' education?

To my mind this is the single most impostant thing in making kids do well (whatever 'well' is for them IYSWIM)

My parents were driven to make sure my brother and I had all the chances they never had, and encouraged us as much as they could. We both did fine.

What was your family view on education?

its Good Thing

My parents only really judged my sister and me on two things: how thin/beautiful we were, and how well we did academically.

It kind of f*cked with our heads, but I am quite well-educated.

While they encouraged us both, my Mother never really forgave me for having done 'better' than my brother.

i only remember my mum always saying "you can only do your best", did ok spose

I needed one as I've got "buggerallelse" going for me.

My parents insisted that I left school at 16 and started to pay my way. To put this in context I had taken all of my O levels at the age of 14 or 15, and was halfway through A levels at this point (as well as sitting the 4th term entrance exam for Oxford - Cambridge wouldn't let me apply as I was too young).

It took several meetings with the school for my parents to be persuaded that I should be allowed to continue. Their view was that if I was that clever then I didn't still need to be at school (they had both left school at 14). I had to get an evening/weekend job (selling double glazing)in order to support myself. At one point I ate my meals at a friends house as I couldn't affford both rent and food.

I got a place at Oxford, and my parents refused to sign the grant application form. This was in the days when tuition was paid, and you could get a grant (and I would have been entitled to a full grant). I managed to get some support from a teacher, a charity, and then by working at weekends throughout my degree.

Their only contribution throughout my years at university was a visit when they left me: a bag of baking potatoes, 4 jars of pickled cockles and 4 bottles of Panda fizzy pop. (As you can tell this left an impact!).

The icing on the cakes was that they decided to put my brother into a private secondary school. He struggled to get in - didn't pass the entrance exam and got in when a place later came up. He struggled all the way through - came out with 3 GCSE at A-C. They funded him until his twenties, and in the end he has been working with dad for the past 8 years. I reckon they must have spent around £30k on his education.

Mine were too busy worrying about being skint to bother about our education
They thought it was important but they weren't in a position to do anything to change it

Father very supportive, mother thought that higher education was wasted on a girl. I went to university, my brother left after O Levels.

i ahve no idea
god you lo THINK too much

But COd, I thought that teachers say that the level of support for education/the school shown by parents is a fundamental aspect of how well children do at school (to the best of each child's ability that is).

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