Vicar wants to send his dd to private school even though he is the Governor of lovely inner city school

[iamnotaprincess]

I am really disappointed and angry about this. Ds goes to a CoE primary school here in inner city London. We were all expecting the vicar, school governor, to send his dd to the school, but no, apparently he is thinking of sending her privately. I feel outraged. It is a good school, very inner city, but a good school, the children in ds' class are thriving. How dare he? And he is a vicar!

[MaisietheMorningsideCat]

Well, you're only really doing that parent a favour a)if you believe that arguement, b)if the school is so vastly over-subscribed and c)if you somehow know that your child has been allocated a place before all the other children.

I thought Vicar's were usually as poor as the mice in their church?

[MattSmithIsNotMyLoveSlave]

But there are some private schools that specifically waive a very substantial proportion of the fees for the children of clergy.

[MaisietheMorningsideCat]

Ah, I didn't know that...

[mmrsceptic]

Rubbish.

a. another child who needs it more will get a place
b. he has no self-interest in the school but still devotes a lot of time to it
c. it's none of your business

[GrimmaTheNome]

Round here, if you were racist you'd be trying to get your kid into the CofE school and steer well clear of the private.

[MaisietheMorningsideCat]

A child who needs it more? Do people really choose the independent sector to free up state places? Does anyone actually think that people buy that arguement?!

[OrmRenewed]

I wouldn't be angry about that. It isn't really your business. But I do always feel a bit sad and uneasy when this sort of thing happens. If someone is involved in a good state school and choose to avoid it for their child. I worry that so many state teachers choose to send their children to private school - of course it's 100% their choice - but it makes you wonder what they know that we don't

[mmrsceptic]

No Maisie, I'm sure he chose the independent sector because he thinks it'll give her a better education.

But that's one reason the OP shouldn't be cross. What an utterly pointless thing to be upset about.

[scaryteacher]

They may not 'know' anything Orm. I taught in a state secondary and sent my ds to a prep for the wrap around childcare it provided as dh was abroad and I needed to drop him at 0740 for breakfastand pick up after food and prep at 1900.

Ds would not have gone to the school at which I taught anyway as it was a different catchment, so your comment isn't relevant to all circumstances.

[abride]

'Particularly as a minister- in that calling I think you have a moral obligation to put your money where your mouth is, or you DC where your educational obligations lie, perhaps.

It is the very reason why I cannot vote Tory: Battallions of middle class, public-school educated people who themselves, let alone their own DCs have never and will never darken the doors of a state school telling the rest of us how to do it.'

There's nothing in the Christian faith that says you have to send your children to a state school.

I'm a Tory voter and I sent both my children to state primaries, as do many other Tory voters. Actually it's far more hypocritical for a Labour voter to send their children to private schools, anyway. And I know several who do.

[OrmRenewed]

True scary. I'm sure it's never as simple as it seems.

[MaisietheMorningsideCat]

Of course he chose the private sector because he thought it would give her a better educationas is his right. To pretend that you chose the independent sector simply for altruistic reasons is laughable.

[cory]

I have no children in private schools and no financial means of ever sending children to private schools and I am personally in favour of a strong system of state education.

Yet to me the question seems fairly simple.

Hypocrisy= failing to practise what you preach.

So in order to decide whether this cleric is hypocritical, we only need to answer one question: has he preached the superiority of the state system?
(would be most unlike any sermons ever preached by our vicar; they tend to be far less political than that)

Or if he has not, is there any indirect reason inherent in his cloth that means he must be assumed to support the state system?
(again, I do not see it; the Bible is rarely very clear on political questions)

Or if there is no reason why he must be against private schools because of his holy orders, is there anything inherent in his position as a school governor that means he must not be seen to support a private school? And if so, would this be any different from the situation of any other school governor who does not happen to have children at the school?

(again, I cannot see it. Imho he can have perfectly valid reasons for sending his own dcs to private school, but still wish to do a bit of good for a local state school- or be pressurised into doing so by virtue of his office)

Hypocrisy would only arise if he was actively fulminating against the independent school system from the pulpit.

Or, as suggested by zanzibar, if he sees bad things in the school he is governor and does not work hard to improve them.

[mmrsceptic]

well i don't think he's pretending that Maisie

it's something people have said here

you are getting all outraged about a chimera

[mmrsceptic]

jolly good cory

what a lot of energy that post must have taken

[MaisietheMorningsideCat]

No outrage here, Sceptic

[mmrsceptic]

oh excuse me I thought you were cross

I guess your "to pretend ..is laughable" was a hypothetical observation

[WolframAlpha]

If I was a parent at a school with a governor with school age children, in the catchment area, who met the criteria, and did not send their children to that school, I would see it as a vote of no confidence in that school, and that would worry me.

[MaisietheMorningsideCat]

Not sure it was hypothetical, but I must confess to enjoying a quiet chuckle at these private v state threads. Always guaranteed to see a few brickbats being merrily tossed around

[MumInBeds]

I'm trying to put myself in the shoes of a child going to a school where my dad was not only a governor but also the vicar that a number of my peers and their parents know personally. I think I'd hate it and I could imagine I'd be a perfect target for bullying because of the way packs of children work.

Also, is the vicar a lone parent? Is it only his decision where to educate his daughter or does her mum also have the right to have a say?