Play date with mum who agrees with education tax

[BonnuitMy]

Please let me know if I’m overreacting. I recently overheard a new mum at school talking about a local private school closing down due to the education tax and how this is somehow a good thing. She’s now invited my DD for a play date, would you accept?

I went to four different schools before I was 11 (forces brat). It didn’t do me or the thousands like me any harm.

Did you change schools during your exam years?

Were the parents of your new classmates gleeful that you had had to move, and want to put you in your place?

Did your entire school shut down - with everyone having to leave, all the teachers made redundant - due to a political vendetta

No.

There's a reason the MOD provides the Continuity of Education Allowance.

Success in this country attracts bullying, very evident to see in sports personalities who have commented widely on the matter.

They also simply do not like you not staying in your lane or queuing nicely or getting above your station, especially if you are a “for-inner”.

Socially accepted things to spend your money on: large houses or whatever you can afford and maximise that house/flat whatever, multiple cars, pets, holidays, looks, clothes.
Not education.
What a message to be sending!

Not just a foreigner, I don't think @Araminta1003 . Any kind of outsider.

As @thebroononeandthewhiteone found when she was bullied for being "too posh and too clever". I suspect she had moved to a 'local' area, that her parents weren't from.

Quite sad when people who have been bullied try to protect themselves from that by joining in with bullying others for the very thing they were previously bullied for themselves. I know it's a classic way to deflect the bullies: by joining them. But it's sad when it is internalised to the point of continuing into adulthood.

There is a really negative crabs-in-a-bucket mentality across too much of the UK. We'll never get out of our low-productivity hole if those attitudes even make it into our elected government.

@strawberrybubblegum - you are probably right. More recently, it definitely also includes grammar schools (not just private schools) and seems to include Londoners as well.

Malignant views?
I suppose my threshold is higher than yours.

Do you think your child will be indoctrinated if he plays with this other child? Come on...

See my second post.

Like I said, having a different political view is fine. Celebrating harm to an unpopular group is something I don't want my child anywhere near.

Maybe you're right that we have different thresholds. As I asked, would you let your child go on a playdate with a child whose mother celebrated the anti-immigratiin riots last year?

Ah but it's just nasty little private school kids. Everyone hates them.

I hadn't really noticed that, but you're right - it does now include Londoners.

Once the government start encouraging populism, it's hard to control. Do they realise what they've started?

Which parents like mine, who don’t want to be separated from their children and disapprove of private education, don’t make use of.

A state school nearby is closing due to falling numbers, haven't seen any outrage on SM. 🤔

You will have seen that I oppose VAT on private schools.

My point is different : unless I have reason to believe that the other parents might try to convince or indoctrinated my children, I don't care what they think.

I don't care what they think about religion. But if they tried to indoctrinate my child, regardless of their view, even if it were the same as mine, it would be a huge red flag. That's the difference.

There are people who support welfare cuts. You can argue that this directly harms certain people. Would you prevent your child from playing with the child of someone who supports welfare cuts? I wouldn't - unless I have reason to fear they might try to indoctrinate my child.

My threshold is very high in the sense that I would have doubts about my child playing with the children of white supremacists, religious fanatics who advocate the death penalty for apostates, and other wackos like that.

Their choice of course.

But the fact that it's offered shows that the MOD recognises and tries to mitigate the harm of moving school

They aren't closing as a result of a deliberate government policy.

And presumably no one is celebrating it.

Schools are closing left right and centre because of a combination of falling birth rates and fmsilies leaving certain areas (like London). Not because of an explicit government policy. That's a tad different

Fair enough: your threshold is at active indoctrination.

My threshold is at celebrating harm.

We are both OK with people holding political views which are different to our own, but not extremist.

No it doesn’t. It’s designed for personnel on overseas postings where no UK equivalent education opportunity is available. And it applies only to boarders. It has nothing to do with changing schools.

There is definite outrage in parts of London and banners outside schools in the case of some of the state schools closing. People are well aware and there is also plenty of campaigning going on. Just like there was when the free schools opened, there was loads of campaigning going on to open them in some parts of London.

“Which parents like mine, who don’t want to be separated from their children and disapprove of private education, don’t make use of.”

Well hopefully they did not go around preaching the same to others making a different choice though as that would not be in the spirit of the MOD?

Who decides on the definition of celebrating harm?

There are feminists who think that merely wearing the hijab, even if it is your choice and no one forces you to, celebrates harm because millions of women in other parts of the world have no choice and are imprisoned beaten and killed if they try to take it off.
And there are of course those who disagree.

On that basis, would it be reasonable to prevent your child from playing with the child of a woman who wears the hijab?

It's a slippery slope.

I'm pretty sure that someone putting their mind to it could find a way to claim that some of your beliefs celebrate harm, too.

I doubt they’d have had the opportunity if they’d wanted to. Very few people want to be separated from their children so mothers tend to stay at home in those circumstances, ie an overseas posting with no UK equivalent education available.

AI doesn’t agree with you about it being only for overseas postings. The clue is really in the name, that it's for 'continuity of education'

Personally, I am quite happy with the concept of the British elite mixing at school with the say Chinese elite - I think it helps relationships at that level in the long run. No skin of my nose or that of my children.