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Secondary education

This whole Eton vs Harrow thing - did OP have a point?

47 replies

margaritaisland · 01/08/2019 20:23

Actually I think OP was on to something with her post which was a stab at contrasting the sort of boys that tend to come out of Eton and Harrow, respectively. The OEs are for the most part maybe more geeky than the more spartan types to be found coming out of Harrow - we live near Harrow's sister school John Lyon (a different proposition entirely). Seems to me that a lot of parents will look to famous ex-pupils when trying to understand or have some sense of the school being a good fit for their child, and what the school may be able to offer in terms of moulding the child into something resembling a successful and world-ready adult at the end of their schooling.

We made a conscious decision to send our child to Sevenoaks, because we had a real sense of the sort of pupils it produces. DS was always strong in drama and we were at least aware that Dan Day-Lewis was a former pupil. The majority of pupils had a warmth and compassion that we didn't detect in the pupils at the other home counties boarding schools we considered. All parents are making these calculations and considering these inane and unscientific aspects when touring the schools.

You'll also find a considerable number of nouveau riche European and Chinese parents at most top independents who are deciding on a school, at least in part, in terms of aspects like the school's tradition, the accent the child will acquire, the prestige, what a typical old boy looks like and how they conduct themselves (the mannerisms, coded words and language, secret handshakes and all the rest of it).

I will say that OEs are quite annoyingly bashful on the whole - which is a complete pretense IMO - and I personally prefer the way that Harrovians own their sense of superiority. I have to change the channel whenever Tom Hiddleston or Edward Redmayne are on the box (The pair of them are just continually virtue signalling what nice, down to earth young men they are, which just comes across as very contrived and false to me personally).

I guess in terms of taking the conversation forward, it would be interesting to discuss the extent to which parents focus on these inane considerations in selecting schools for their children; and whether the top fee-paying institutions are self-promoting via the achievements of their ex-pupils. Are these schools manipulating and moulding their pupils to possess certain traits which imbue them with a sense of what it means to be an Etonian, Harrovian, Sennockian or whatever. Are these traits detectable, recognisable or sought after in the professions? The stuttering, slightly nervous disposition, unkempt of appearance, and bashfulness that one might detect in OEs Hiddleston, Redmayne and Johnson, or the borderline brashness and boundless confidence in Harrovians ala Cumberbatch and Laurence Fox, could suggest there is a point or at least something worthy of discussion in the OP's post.

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WindsBeginToSing · 05/08/2019 06:29

I sort of agree with the OP a tiny bit. I think to send your child to a particular school because you want them to be like (or not to be like) a couple of famous people is bonkers. But on the the other hand, surely the fact that Eton has turned out 19 prime ministers plus lots of other people famous in politics or other areas of public life while, say, Sevenoaks has produced very few famous names tells you at least a tiny something about the schools, whether it's more about the ethos, or the families who choose to send their children there, or something else. Of course, though, to take it as far as to say that sending your individual son to Eton will make him famous while sending him to Sevenoaks will make sure he isn't, is silly.