Alan Bennett: Ban Public Schools

[DaDaDa]

Have we done this one yet?

In an ideal world, I agree with him.

lights blue touch paper, retires to safe distance with nice cup of tea and digestive biscuit

No, but that is the perfect scanrio regards fairness isn't it?

And truely I don't see how banning private schools will make the state school system fair. Whilst there are good and bad schools (and there always has been this divide), and church schools and grammar schools, etc. there can never be a fair system within state education. And that will be the case regradless of whether private schools exist or not.

No class system in France? Is that really true? And if so, how does that explain the difference in prices of housing in different areas, etc?

btw just because it is private does not mean best teacher (most(all??) of the best teachers i know would never dream of teaching privagte) and the same goes for resources...nice state school better resourced than SOME private schools. Likke state schools - there are good private schools and bad... I make no more comment on this (i need my job back!!! )

I know of good and bad teachers in both systems. There are plenty of incentives in some private schools to entice good teachers, but agree that there are some who would never work in the private system for reasons of principles. I now that an awful lot of state school teachers choose to send their own children to private school for a variety of reasons too.

Maybe no class system but a huge bugger of a racial divide.

I guess I must temper all my communist principles with a nugget of truth which I read on a thread the other day. I think I still believe that comprehensives are as they were when I went 20 yrs ago. I don't think they aren't...wait for it.......'I went to a comp and it didn't do me any harm'

And my kids are all still at primary and I think your views change at secondary level when so much is at stake.

Still, its a belief a think I'll hold onto.

don't think they are

Yes true re racial divide in France. And true re houses. For some reason I had this happy thought in my head that despite the price of their house, everyone just went to the school closest to them. I have no idea whether this is true.

French system

Apparently as of 2007 parents now have a choice rather than just going to the closest school.

Would he also ban (private) piano lessons, ballet schools and football clubs?

I love Alan Bennett and I agree with him

huge class system in france. as you would be made very much aware of if you knew any upper class french.

of course abolishing private schools would also mean the end of the other end of the education spectrum - home schooling. since what you'd have to do is essentially require all education to be carried out by the state. that wouldn't be popular with a significant proportion of mumsnetters.

I love the way that in this country people look at the private equivalent of state-run bodies and say "look! the private equivalent is so much better! this is grossly unfair! everyone should be just as crap as the state!". When you MIGHT have thought that people would say "look! the private equivalent is so much better and more efficiently run than the state! what lessons can we learn?" [pigs might fly emoticon]

oh and the proportion of state pupils in oxbridge is CONSIDERABLY over 50% so whoever said 20% is just perpetrating the usual bollox

I think the point is that if everyone went to the local school there would be a mixture of talents, abilities, classes etc which would push up the standard and make society at large a more tolerant place

A central question here is whether public school pupils really are better taught....from what alan Bennett describes about his cambridge experience, it sounds like they were just more - -arrogant- - confident.
A lot of people who were privately educated don't have the confidence to put their own children into the state sector - i guess it's a form of playing safe. They don't actually know what the alternative system is like.
Anyway, I have to say i think Alan bennett is lovely - a real treasure!

Oh PPH. No you see I don't - which is why I have idyllic vision of french schools i suppose. Ah well.

I don't think they are better taught but are told they are part of an elite-therefore having the confidence to succeed in life which many other children- who are probably brighter,more rounded individuals- lack.
I love him too, ab

the french are DREADFUL snobs, 100

Yes, I suppose they are aren't they now I think of it. All that glossy hair and the chateaus and the wine and the art and the Parisian apartments.

[yearning to be french snob emoticon]

Still probably more socially fluid than us though (due to their school system)

[sticks gallic nose up in air and turns away from MrsR]

And they can't be that snobby they adore le piat d'or

ha ha ha

we need anna to tell us which the top 3 snobbiest lycees in paris are. I can tell you I know a good few people who went to one of them and I don't think for a moment there was much social mixing going on...property prices in that area saw to that!

Of course there is a financial elite in every country but Britain is very low down on social
mobility compared to France and other European countries

I work with a few former public schoolboys (they all went to the same school - what are the chances of that ). They are all rather intimidatingly over confident and slightly ill mannered.

Having said that, I want my boy to be more socially confident than I was. I intend to save myself a small fortune by not sending him to public school, but just frequently telling him how totally fantastic he is.

I agree with niceglasses though; I think my view of comprehensives might be slightly rose tinted by my own dull but adequate education.