Should Fee-Paying Private(?) Schools be abolished?

[Prestwich_Blue]

Should we bulldoze nice residential areas because they are middle class ghettos? After all, if the middle class had to live in council estates, they would bring the quality of the estates up wouldn't they?

I went to Manchester Grammar School but my parents certainly weren't rich. They worked their fingers to the bone and went without for years to make sure I got that education because they knew that it would help me later on. Of the four of us from my school that went, one was from a Polish family and his parents could barely speak English and the other two were also from very ordinary terraced houses in Cheetham Hill.

Because they lived in Manchester (I lived just outside) their fees were actually paid by the Council, giving them an oppotunity that would have been denied to them otherwise. We've all done alright in our separate ways.

The problem is not that the schools exist but that the opportunity for bright kids from poorer houselholds to go to them is far more restricted than it used to be. Quite a few get help with fees from outside organisations like the Sutton Trust or from the school itself. MGS prides itself on having sufficient bursaries so that they don't have to turn away any boy who is able to meet the academic criteria.

What people also don't understand about these schools is not just that the quality of teaching is high but that the pastoral care is simply outstanding. I've been able to compare first hand a supposedly very good comprehensive and an independent school and there simply is no comparison. Their teachers are themselves very well-educated and it's well-proven that in advanced societies, the highest achieving educational systems employ the best educated and qualified teachers, not people with thirds from Stoke-on-Trent Poly.

So instead on knocking these schools why don't we copy what they do well and bring the opportunities they provide for a realtive few to the masses?

 

[tueartsboots]

Should we bulldoze nice residential areas because they are middle class ghettos? After all, if the middle class had to live in council estates, they would bring the quality of the estates up wouldn't they?

I went to Manchester Grammar School but my parents certainly weren't rich. They worked their fingers to the bone and went without for years to make sure I got that education because they knew that it would help me later on. Of the four of us from my school that went, one was from a Polish family and his parents could barely speak English and the other two were also from very ordinary terraced houses in Cheetham Hill.

Because they lived in Manchester (I lived just outside) their fees were actually paid by the Council, giving them an oppotunity that would have been denied to them otherwise. We've all done alright in our separate ways.

The problem is not that the schools exist but that the opportunity for bright kids from poorer houselholds to go to them is far more restricted than it used to be. Quite a few get help with fees from outside organisations like the Sutton Trust or from the school itself. MGS prides itself on having sufficient bursaries so that they don't have to turn away any boy who is able to meet the academic criteria.

What people also don't understand about these schools is not just that the quality of teaching is high but that the pastoral care is simply outstanding. I've been able to compare first hand a supposedly very good comprehensive and an independent school and there simply is no comparison. Their teachers are themselves very well-educated and it's well-proven that in advanced societies, the highest achieving educational systems employ the best educated and qualified teachers, not people with thirds from Stoke-on-Trent Poly.

So instead on knocking these schools why don't we copy what they do well and bring the opportunities they provide for a realtive few to the masses?

Didn't do too well in English I take it ! ;)

 

[brass neck]

well my view is your education should be the same whether your grandad was a boot cleaner or a slave trader.

But then again, i don't think any money should be handed down at death giving one lad or lass a better start in life then another. I don't have a problem with the drive to make a better life, but giving money to kids who have done nothing to earn it isn't fair. The cards are stacked in the west. I'm not a bitter person by a long way but it kinda gets my goat when i work a 60 hour week to get by and on my way home i am passed by a 19 year old lad in a imprezza. Did you earn that i always say to my self or have your parents got loads of cash, and do they have cash because their parents did...........


We should all start out the same, if your rise to the top through hard work, good on ya. Why did the cabinet of our nation virtually all go to the same school? Is that healthy. I don't think so.......

 

[peoffrey]

Re: Should Fee-Paying Public Schools be abolished?

which money. The family money. Thats been passed down from generation to generation, much of it was originally made by ripping off the working man, then by slavery, then by robbing the world through the empire. Money was built up and built up and is handed down so if your born in the right house....to the right family your kids and their kids and their kids are guaranteed a nice life. Education will always be great for the posh.

You're an inverted snob.

Anyone has a right to an education. I went to University yet haven't taken a penny from my Folks since I was 18. I worked my way through it.

If you really want to succeed in life then you have to make yourself want to do it.

 

[Fame Monster]

well my view is your education should be the same whether your grandad was a boot cleaner or a slave trader.

But then again, i don't think any money should be handed down at death giving one lad or lass a better start in life then another. I don't have a problem with the drive to make a better life, but giving money to kids who have done nothing to earn it isn't fair. The cards are stacked in the west. I'm not a bitter person by a long way but it kinda gets my goat when i work a 60 hour week to get by and on my way home i am passed by a 19 year old lad in a imprezza. Did you earn that i always say to my self or have your parents got loads of cash, and do they have cash because their parents did...........


We should all start out the same, if your rise to the top through hard work, good on ya. Why did the cabinet of our nation virtually all go to the same school? Is that healthy. I don't think so.......

I agree with all of this, including the point about inheritance tax, and that's coming from someone who has done well out of inherited money.

We should all start out the same. That is the bottom line. To label something as simple as that as 'communist' is Bluemoon's own brand of Mccarthyism, and in no way does it constitute a cogent defence of such inequality.

Now, everybody should note that my argument is idealistic and certainly not practical, but if we were to achieve social utopia, abolishing these schools is a necessary step.

 

[ernesto]

yes

 

[JoeMercer'sWay]

well my view is your education should be the same whether your grandad was a boot cleaner or a slave trader.

But then again, i don't think any money should be handed down at death giving one lad or lass a better start in life then another. I don't have a problem with the drive to make a better life, but giving money to kids who have done nothing to earn it isn't fair. The cards are stacked in the west. I'm not a bitter person by a long way but it kinda gets my goat when i work a 60 hour week to get by and on my way home i am passed by a 19 year old lad in a imprezza. Did you earn that i always say to my self or have your parents got loads of cash, and do they have cash because their parents did...........


We should all start out the same, if your rise to the top through hard work, good on ya. Why did the cabinet of our nation virtually all go to the same school? Is that healthy. I don't think so.......

I agree with all of this, including the point about inheritance tax, and that's coming from someone who has done well out of inherited money.

We should all start out the same. That is the bottom line. To label something as simple as that as 'communist' is Bluemoon's own brand of Mccarthyism, and in no way does it constitute a cogent defence of such inequality.

Now, everybody should note that my argument is idealistic and certainly not practical, but if we were to achieve social utopia, abolishing these schools is a necessary step.

I completely disagree.

 

[Joycee Banercheck]

I agree with all of this, including the point about inheritance tax, and that's coming from someone who has done well out of inherited money.

We should all start out the same. That is the bottom line. To label something as simple as that as 'communist' is Bluemoon's own brand of Mccarthyism, and in no way does it constitute a cogent defence of such inequality.

Now, everybody should note that my argument is idealistic and certainly not practical, but if we were to achieve social utopia, abolishing these schools is a necessary step.

I completely disagree.

I love the 'start out the same' idea. That should be how it is. That's proper natural selection. It is idealistic, but aint that what ideas are about?

 

[ernesto]

education is a birth right, it should never depend on money, it should be free at source. public schools are not charities they are schools where the priveleged idiots go, who by thier upbringing believe they are better than the majority in this country,its time we stopped the majority subsidising the minorities education through charitable status, the few poorer students who qualify for burseries tend to come from the middle classes. and before anyone states the usual right tripe politics of envy, its we all want and should recieve a decent and well balanced education. and yes my grammer grammar is not the best im a little tired.

 

[JoeMercer'sWay]

I completely disagree.

I love the 'start out the same' idea. That should be how it is. That's proper natural selection. It is idealistic, but aint that what ideas are about?

there was obviously natural selection for their parents to earn more money than somebody else's.

Education and healthcare should be available free to every child, if they are not up to standard that's the government's fault and not the fault of parents who have worked hard, achieved, earnt money and want to give their kids a better chance in life.

Also if somebody earns their money they should be entitled to give it to who they want to. Natural selection? Lion eat lion, 1 bloodline over time has become more successful than the other, deal with it.

You can try and be constructive or you can completely nullify the worth of achievement because there's no point if there's no reward and you're not able to look after your own in the way you want because some Nazi tells you that you have to be equal even though you by right have achieved more and earnt more.