Why is it considered okay to go in for private-school-bashing?

[nellyraggbagg]

I met a friend today, who launched into a full-scale rant against 'shiny private school children'. As my DS is one of these 'shiny private school children', I thought it rather offensive. We are not fabulously wealthy; we don't have a 4WD or designer clothes; we can't afford to go on holiday anywhere, never mind abroad; we have shelved all plans to move house so that we can afford school fees. Why, oh why do people think it's acceptable to be rude to someone because of their school choice? I'd never dream of talking about her 'illiterate, chavvy, hoody state school children'!!

C'mon Cod tell us waht kind of patina your DSs have.

im sorry btui i do find xneias approcah hightl irritating

i just cna t be arse d to say why as she loves it
sh eis a bigoted, slightly mad ( seriously) woman who breeds nothgin but ill will.

i really DO have a BIG issue wiht her crap she talks

my kdis are lovely little boys who coem fom a lovign, supportive home and are kind funny and CLEVER, regardless of where they are educated.

(they generally have the patina of wet dog)

am off to a meeting now

Well said. I find it highly irritating too but am trying to let it wash over me these days as it did almost put me off mumsnetting for good.

i dont see wuite how its tolerated.
ti sis utter bigotry

and has no place here.

I was usually shiny at school. Well my uniform was anyway. Because it had to be worn and worn until it had lost all it's pile and was great for sliding down banisters. My last school blazer cost mum £40 and that was back in 1981! You could only buy it in 2 (expensive) shops in the country because it was a specific shade Bloody stupid.

ohg od please dont rect to it
tis all a heap of wank.

Hmmm - have worked at a very good state school with a very smart, well kept uniform. Don't think they looked any different to the children I see attending the local private schools. Infact the state schools uniform was considered so smart that a TV production actually paid the school to have the children (they then bought the right to use the unifrom I believe) wearing uniform on their programme.

Not all people who use private schools think like Xenia. Most of us have much more realistic and down to earth views on life.

Perhaps the class just shows through or it's the point that children are healthier and taller the higher the family income or whatever. It's all just a lot of fun, nothing to be taken too seriously.

But let us not forger men in shiny suits... ugh or women in those work uniforms where the navy material of the skirt goes all shiny.. that's bad shiny I suppose. Well polished shoes I suppose are shiny.

Perhaps we all just like to badge ourselves consciously or unconsciously according to who we think we are and where we fit. I think it's interesting to observe, my daughters Abercrombie &F/Mulberry or whatever might be their current in thing. The way the Burberry check ended up being banned in some pubs where certain other groups adopted it was fascinating too.

Fennel, my two are glossy and fragrant for that precise reason from the neckline upwards

Mine are definately unshiny. The jumpers are awful and go shapel;ess after 1 wash.#

Still I can rest easy knowing that the headlince dd currently has (yet again) are a better class of private school lice!

Xenia, you do know that some middle-class children go to state schools, don't you? And that some of their parents have degrees? From Oxford or Cambridge? And have well-paid professional jobs as medics and lawyers and bankers?

[reality check emoticon]

Ah, frogs, I've been waiting for you to arrive!

Yes, well, there are some things one can't quite let pass without succumbing to the urge to bite chunks out of the keyboard.

Yes, I know they do, 94% or something of children go to state schools. I think it's 16% to private schools in my area and about 46% in Kensington but over the country it's only 6%. I suspect in this bit of London there is more of a divide because more middle class children go to private schools than in other bits of the country. I don't know a child at a state school on any road near us for example. I'm not saying it's like India or Africa in terms of caste/money etc divides but it's perhaps more marked than in other parts of the country.

No I think Xenia's right.

It's the breeding.

You can always tell.

Err.. Xenia, we live 10 mins walk from Hampstead Heath, so hardly a rough area, and I know loads of kids who go to state schools. Their parents are consultants surgeons, bankers, GPs, lawyers and research scientists.

Wake up girl, do.

Frogs - They may well be bankers, lawyers, surgeons etc - but did they have to buy their furniture? It is a crucial point. More crucial than whether or not their polyester uniform reflects the right type of shine.

Well quite, S2T. How can one ensure the right kind of patina? 'Tis a terrible dilemma.

Why didn't you defend yourself and choice of school? I wish people I am pretty sure disapprove of my working would say so to my face so I could tell them exactly what I think of their life choices.

I have my own views of private schools which I have expressed here many times but have yet to express directly to someone who uses them.

I believe you can tell a lot from the relative length of leg above and below the knee...

Hysterical laughter at Xenia's description of private school children's body type

They must have forgotten to select by body type at my dd's prep

Depends on the school. A lot of my daughter's university lacrosse team are very tall and blonde and went to a certain type of boarding school (that daughter isn't blonde). Remember that the taller you are in the UK the more you earn, on the whole, in all studies done and the poor have always had bad nutrition. There is a kernal of truth in some of this thread.

If you stand on this road and watch children going to the private school and those going to the state comp (who walk over the private estate on the way) there is a huge difference. It's a general scruffiness or lack of care and cheaper uniforms but that might just be too big a contrast. But if you take even children from Watford Grammar and those at the private schools how they look differs too. It's visual. Perhaps we just want to look like those we go to school with - all adolescents do so you copy the look in vogue at the school you're at.

Xenia - Your residential area has a higher than average concentration of Asians. Relatively wealthy Asians are more likely to send their children for a bit of British fagging public school education than relatively wealthy white British. Habs boys' has a large Asian intake.

Eh? I was very tall and blonde at private school. And my children are also tall and blonde. At a very un-shiny state primary school.

I don't think you can copy being tall and blonde even if it's in vogue