The Blood is The Life 21-01-2013

[miss_s_b]

• Stop blaming state school pupils for their lack of "confidence"
  as a private school girl who ended up (relatively) poor (and therefore neither one thing nor the other) this article makes some good points although I'm not sure I agree with all of it
  (tags: )
  
  
• Mark Thompson: My experiences with smartphone content blocking
  spot on post from Mark
  (tags: )
  
  

Comments

[haggis]

I went to a state school but I find the debate very odd. If private schools weren't better at teaching/providing opportunities etc, why would anyone pay for them? But we must pretend that either there is something wrong with state school pupils or there is something about the private school system that can be imported into state schools ch eaply and easily.

(Just remembered being told by my Chemistry teacher that we wereat a disadvantage because English pupils were taught to be more confident in University interviews. It was deflating to be told that before we'd had a single interview. But it also makes me feel strongly that 'confidence' is being used as a proxy for privilege.

[haggis]

I don't believe there is an actual difference difference in privilege between Scottish and English people, at least once class, income, rural vs urban difference are accounted for. But there was a need to prove that 'we' (Scots) were just as good as good as 'them' (English).

[(Anonymous)]

The private school I attended did broadly deliver better average grades for the students than any of the local state schools but I think the main reason my parents sent me there was to protect me from the horrid world.

This was rather counter-productive as when one leaves school, the horrid world is where one has to live, and it's stupid to protect children so much that when they are 18 and thrust out into it they have no idea how to survive.

All the people I know who went to state schools are strong and robust and just deal with stuff and get on with their lives. They had space and time to find themselves and explore the stuff they liked doing when they were teens. All my private school friends are generally a bit of a mess and trying to sort themselves out now, 20 years later.

I suspect that there's also a clear line between the elite public schools like Eton where you go to make the right sort of friends and the ones at the bottom of the pile which just make sure that the teaching and environment is as good as it can be to achieve results.