Prince George at Eton

[squashyhat]

Can anyone explain why Prince George is boarding at Eton when the family home is just minutes away across the river?

What view would that be exactly. Please enlighten me?

@Araminta1004sure, I’ll enlighten you.

Your use of the term “arty farty” is pejorative and reflects you do not think much of people who are of a more creative bent.

The term is used to criticise someone for being pretentious about art, trying too hard to seem artistic, or showing off artistic knowledge in a way that feels affected or insincere.

Anyway, I won’t engage again with you on this thread as this is now a clear derail.

My view is that all chidlren should be exposed to the arts and expression. However, you will be lying to children from poorer backgrounds that their chances of making a proper living from it are anything comparable to the typical professions. That is a fact of life.

So @Piglet89 - what is your argument to the contrary on that particular point? And the substantial point I made that being an accountant does not signify you can not also do amateur arts. Because in my life that is what most of my friends actually do.

My argument in response to that point is that you do not need to “lie to them”. If they think they want to do something more creative for a living, as a parent, you lay out options and discuss with them the pros and cons. You don’t just say (as my mother did to me - typical immigrant mindset) “No, you’ll never succeed at that, it’s very precarious, become a lawyer/doctor/accountant instead” and do it the creative bits on the side.

Don’t get me wrong: my husband and I are both highly musical and sing and play in elite ensembles on an amateur basis. Our friend is a professional singer with English National Opera chorus and is deeply unhappy as he will never afford to buy a property in London.

There are pitfalls with both, I accept that.

But I really struggle to handle the fact my parent basically barred me from doing drama GCSE and from at least trying to pursue a career as an
actor. I’m a lawyer now (and a good one). Am I professionally satisfied? No. I find it deeply dull, I am depressed often and my skillset definitely lies elsewhere because I am a creative at heart and I’ve always felt I should be doing that for a living and could have made a really good shot at it.

But it’s too late now.

HTH.

I also think there are many poor children in the arts. Maybe people don’t see the it in their local area. But look at our current successful female pop artists- graduates of the working class inclusive Brit school- Olivia Dean, Adele, raye, Jessie J. It happens. It’s not common, but it’s not common for middle class children to succeed in the arts either.

at the end of the day most people end up in average jobs (and I include accountant and lawyer in that tbh) and in the uk that probably shouldn’t be the level of aspiration that families have

@Piglet89 - it is never too late to at least tangentially explore your true passion. Write a play/book etc about it all, represent artists professionally. If you truly want to, you can do it.

@Araminta1004I know you mean well, but respectfully: being an actor’s agent is no different really from being a lawyer. It is still not creative: it is supporting those who create by doing a professional job.

This comment shows how little you truly understand a creative’s need to create and how shutting them off from that just stifles them. My husband and I are actually an interesting study in this. Both have creative abilities (though I am more talented than he is and have a much higher standard of professionalism because of some professional performing training I have undertaken)

However: he’s happy earning a massive wedge in a very lucrative senior position. His view is “well, I don’t HATE it.” I have much less tolerance for doing professionally something that doesn’t “spark joy” and so I’m really very unhappy.

Maybe I would have been depressed anyway, who knows?

Anyway sorry OP this is now a huge detail so I’ll sign out by attempting to bring it at least tangentially back to the subject with - “Had I had the option to attend Eton as Prince George has, statistics tell us that I would likely be a highly successful actor by now”. 🤣

@Piglet89 - I don’t misunderstand though as I have people in my family who are famous internationally in the arts. As well as entrepreneurs, doctors and lawyers, and plenty of more average people working for the council etc
In fact one of my siblings did acting school, is hugely creative, now an entrepreneur and is a “failed” actor- by that I mean was not patient enough to stick it out on the breadline doing dull parts and films that didn’t make it. Who knows, he might have been famous, or might not. Ironically one of the films he did in his 20s then went viral years later.

Yes, I would agree but the time and resources deployed on the minority of disaffected families is disproportionate, I think. I completely get that they’re notoriously hard to reach but infinite effort seems to be expended on them at the detriment to investment (time and money) in the motivated middle.

I’m a pragmatist not an idealist and I know this comes over as harsh.

“:i do find it concerning how many posters give the impression they think alll “comprehensives” (ie normal secondary schools in 95% of GB) are some kind of bear pit of poverty and chaos. When in fact, they are NORMAL. Caring about your children’s education is normal.”

@Backedoffhackedoff - who thinks that? I don’t. Recent PISA studies show that England is up there with the Asian tiger education systems. At least the way I understand it in my simplistic thinking as a mere parent.

As for the Brit, of course it is a great opportunity and very competitive to get in. My DC have several friends who attend. But even the Brit - the chances of becoming successful and rich are slim. Chances of teaching your local dance school/Christmas Panto are much greater. It doesn’t mean the kids shouldn’t be encouraged and enjoy it but most of the parents I know who sent their DC there went in post GCSEs if they kid was academic so they had an academic fall back option.

It is very difficult to make a living as a writer, actor, musician etc unless you have a trust fund behind you paying for your lifestyle. That is a sad fact of life and pretty elitist to pretend otherwise.

The vast majority of writers don't have trust funds behind them. They have jobs or professions which they pursue in addition to being writers, or they take up writing-related work such as teaching writing, or they are SAHPs who write in intervals of parenting, or they pursue their writing ambitions when they've retired from their main occupations.

Sorry, why are people working for the council “average”?

Are doctors and lawyers and so on somehow “better” in your eyes?

What about lawyers working for the council 😂

Average= average salary by comparison to national standards and average educational attainment (by national standard) for their age group.

What did you think it means?

I think the lawyers working for the council still get paid pretty well compared to national average!

@Araminta1004in your post, you called them “average people” - you did not say “people on an average UK salary”.

That’s where the ambiguity has arisen - you have not been clear in what you actually wrote, if you look back.

@Piglet89 - I am not representing someone in the High Court here, nor writing an academic paper. I am working from home and typing on MN during my [too many] tea breaks, so yep, please infer accordingly. Rather than dissect particular phrases/language used.

During the Blair years, one of his education secretaries said to me that standards in state schools would eventually rise due to the increase in immigrants. That was it. That was his strategy. The newly arrived, motivated immigrants would insist on higher standards and everyone else would rise on the same wave.

I was a bit depressed that that was his entire strategy.

With the benefit of hindsight perhaps he was right.

I don't believe he said that was his entire strategy.

He, like the rest of his family are better than you and I and don't need to explain themselves to proles.

Be happy they give our lives meaning.

The blatant ambiguity in your writing was ambiguous for the ordinary reader, not just lawyers.

Though your argumentative style would make you well suited to litigation work, even if your drafting wouldn’t.

Oh dear oh dear @Piglet89 - I must be in the wrong job, just like you 🤣

Incidentally, it’s better to be slightly loose with language and SPAG and spellings on MN now. I put my previous user profile through AI and it was pretty accurate on who I was, identity, profession etc - and frankly I don’t want some bot impersonating me or being outed. If you don’t believe me and have had the same username for ages, give it a go and see what it says.

I understood what you meant!

What prompt did you use?