How do you reply to this? Private school hatred.

[Elec]

Ds goes to swimming, in the class is another boy who he likes. I was chatting to this boy's mum, who I have not spoken to before. She asks me what school ds is at so I tell her. It's a private school and she replied - I don't agree with private schools.

What should I have said? I cannot believe how socially acceptable this sort of prejudice is, she just said it in earshot of plenty of other people so clearly she didn't mind who heard.

I imagine if this had been the other way round and I asked her what school her ds went to and then said, well I don't agree with state schools (not my view obv!) that she would have had a go at me and probably so would people overhearing!

This is my first time on one of these threads!

Incidentally, DS is at a state school and will remain in state education for the forseeable future.

"real socialists get very passionate about equal education for all our kids"
they also enjoy the opportunity to preach tediously at people, of course, so i can see how the sort of rudeness the OP refers to is win-win from their perspective, but they should take pity on the rest of us occasionally

Although in this instance I have read the entire thread as mentioned earlier amillion, I also don't consider it my job to police the thread as such.

Some people could afford private school who do not use it, if they have a lot of luxuries which they haven't given up. So?

Lovingthe coast,9 years talking about this wow!
I cant bear repeats of just about anything. My brain seems to need a constant stream of fresh material to chew over.
I am learning on here,so I do expect that private education does not equal Eton.
How much does Eton charge btw.

yes that's being passionate

i do think the education system in the uk has got a little nuts recently though.

work to pay for private education so they have good jobs to pay for their kids to have private education to get good jobs to pay for their kids to have private education, and so on and so forth

I have not only read the thread but I've been following if from the beginning so if the comment was aimed at me, it's unjustified. I read that the op's child has autism and that many other parents of autistic children feel let down by the state so opt for private. Just one of the many reasons that have nothing to do with elitism.

well if you think of education as something you experience to get a job, I can see how it would seem weird to you.
for some of us it is about a little more than that.

KarlosKKrinkelbeim

My DC go to private schools. Their first five years was in state education and for a whole myriad of reasons we moved them. We are one of those families Everlong describes - we have a very old car, I don't spend a lot on clothes,our house is fall ing apart, we both do additional work in addition to our jobs, I am careful about everything we do and we have increased our mortgage dramatically in order to be able to stagger through the next few years. This is our set of choices - made because of our perceptions about the needs of our DC.
My choices say absolutely nothing about anyone else's choices. Most of my friends have DC at state schools - they may think we are weird but they are polite enough not to say so. We all want all of our children to grow up happy, healthy and well-educated.
Here in Australia something like 30% of secondary kids go to private schools. If all those kids returned to the state sector it would collapse.

I could use the same argument against numerous pro-private posters, KKK!

Ahh, but this is far less tedious (and repetitive) than discussing faith schools/Christian assemblies/RE/state vs secular. That seems to have been the ongoing theme of the month.

Isn't it sad that, at 22:45 on a Saturday evening we are discussing this rather than sittiing in a pub drinking cocktails served at scientificall implausible temperatures?

And the worst (or is it worse) thing is that, with the clocks changing, my kids will be up at 05:00 instead of 06:00.

Not just talking about this, amillion!
Probably 2 or 3 times a year though! I think Eton fees are somewhere between 30 and 40k a year but I'm happy to be corrected on that! Maybe nearer 30k. Whereas, we pay 8kpa for each child though it will rise to 10k for ds1 after next yr.

I don't think it's 'rude' to ventilate your opinions on education. Nor do I seek to comment upon the people who are new, or even newish to this topic.
My comment was about those posters who constantly appear on these threads, and very few others. If you are new to this you'll soon know who I'm talking about.

scientifically ffs what has happened to my typing skills?

So what? What is this point scoring? Someone makes a dumb-arse point against prviate schools and rather than admit there's idiocy on both sides you leap to prove that the other side is so, so much worse?
Don't you ever get bored with this shit?

i find it so wearing that i have conversations with women my age and all they talk about is their children, what schools they go to, what university they are aiming for etc, it's pretty dull

i once saw a t-shirt that said 'i don't care how much your house is worth'

am wanting one that says 'i don't give a shite where your child is educated'

I want both of those t-shirts actually

I'm not sure what dumb arse point you're talking about.

Oh right. That's very interesting.

If that's directed at me, peas, you will find that up until earlier this year was all over the board but have spend a great deal of time on the sn section this year due to dc4s issues.
I am only ever on these debate when they fall under primary education; never secondary or 'just' education. That's because I'm a primary teacher who now works as a TA in a primary school. Therefore, it makes sense for me to spend time here.

Well how's about all the people who don't give a shit about threads like this and despise people who do, get off the thread? Win win, surely?

I've never seen you before Lovingthecoast.