JUST HAND ME THE MATCHES
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The author is one of the blog’s regular commentators. She has appeared before and I value her opinions. I have no idea who she is beyond what she discloses in gremio of her piece. I don’t agree with much of what she says but it is worth considering: especially if we are ever to be governed by a coven of overgrown private schoolboys.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Just Hand Me The Matches
By Mrs W
I once joined in a lively online discussion about education on a social parent forum attached to a well known distance learning university (you know the one). I stated my case and concluded that, as far as I was concerned, all private school should be burnt to the ground. Like a woman possessed, the self proclaimed lead apologist for “parental choice” rounded on me, accusing me of calling for children to be murdered asleep in their beds. I think I touched a nerve. This wasn’t the only indicator that she wasn’t altogether comfortable with the decision she had made to pay for her children’s education. She also volunteered at her local state secondary as a student mentor, a sort of pastoral care under the budget add-on. She caricatured the “good enough for other people’s children but not mine” attitude towards state education that sickens and baffles me, and she couldn’t see it. She considered herself an altruist in every way. The state school was wonderful, the children fabulous, the teachers hard working and dedicated, but not enough, apparently. When faced with this passive aggressive do-gooder who I could just picture taking god to the natives in imperial times, I did what any reasonable person would do. I told her to go bile her heid. Bleugh.
Ignoring the fact that a private sector in education seeks to commoditise learning, optimise life chances and elevate children to a position of privilege based solely on the earnings of their parents… I can’t stomach that they are permitted to do this disguised as charities. John Connell states the case for the abolition of charitable status for independent schools much more eloquently than me and has come up with The Water Aid Test, a neat little way of separating the charities from the … not charities. But isn’t it a case that’s beginning to be a bit… overstated? oft stated? sick of being stated and nothing being done to change it?
Parents who write the cheques for school fees often defend their fagging establishment of choice’s tax free status by moaning that they’ve already paid tax on their earnings so why should they pay twice? Because make no mistake, as soon as fee paying schools become tax paying schools the fees will rise before profits are allowed to fall. I’ve heard some parents go so far as to call for a tax rebate to cover little Cosmo’s education, after all why should they subsidise the state sector if they have no intention of using it? Poor rich people. They really don’t get enough in the way of tax breaks do they?
Anyone who whines about their taxes paying for the education of subsequent generations needs to think long and hard about lifespan development and where that road might take them. Every childless person who wishes to secede from funding schools and teachers for our young and every parent buying private education who demands that the government pay them for the privilege, needs offered a wee contract. Just a straightforward wee contract. One in which they agree never to call on the services of our state educated children without sticking their hands in their very deep pockets first.
I’m not sure how many future Social Care Assistants on minimum wage Glenalmond College churns out in a year, but I’m guessing not many. So the opter outers better make sure there’s plenty left in their own personal pot to pay for someone to wipe their arse and spoon their porridge in should they need it. And they better hope the poor sod can read and count well enough to make sure that’s the right pills they’re swallowing in the dark, you know, should they need it.
Every BUPA bed in an NHS hospital is a bed denied an NHS patient and every child in private education is funding denied a state school. Come the revolution I’ll burn the bloody lot down, but I’ll phone first. Honest.
March 7th, 2010 at 11:49 pm
I have to say I can’t see anything wrong with this analysis, Ian. I just might not do the phone warning, is all, but you know how unstable I am. What don’t you agree with? Are you like me, and it’s that completely unmerited phone warning?
March 8th, 2010 at 12:01 am
There are plenty fake charities which require investigating long before private schools. Where do I start? Age Concern, Alcohol Concern, ASH, RSPB, VSO etc. You can see them all at http://fakecharities.org/
March 8th, 2010 at 12:22 am
Dougie,
State schools mean a state curriculum. No child should be forced to learn what the state wants it to learn. I was never taught any Scottish history. I learned about the Enlightenment only by chance when I was reading David Hume.
I’m told it’s different today. That merely means a new set of state values has been set. Are our kids taught about the Enlightenment and Scotland’s place in world philosophy. All our kids have heard of God. How many have heard of James Hutton who founded systematic geology and made nonsense of God’s job description.
Would you support the state curriculum for German kids in 1934?
Use your matches to light the fire at my stake, you bookburners.
Ian
March 8th, 2010 at 6:37 am
Are their many public schools that teach Scottish values ?
March 8th, 2010 at 8:36 am
I understand Ian’s rejection of a state curriculum if such a thing existed, but about the only requirement in Scottish education is that they teach a Scottish element. In English that’s a Scottish text (ANY Scottish text, and as with all texts the teacher can choose), in Modern Studies a large part of the syllabus covers Scottish government and politics and in History they are required to teach Scottish History. I have no idea how they do this in Maths - the Fifer “shree”?
The English curriculum our public schools follow is subject to more state guidance that anything you will experience in a Scottish school… so I believe through my weekly flick through the TES, but I’m no teacher (I just live with one) and will welcome enlightenment
And can I just add that I’m chuffed as a chuffed thing that just won first prize in a chuffing competition that Ian honoured me with a little soap box on this here blog of his. I have one seriously stupid grin on my face this morning
March 8th, 2010 at 8:36 am
I also have spare matches….
March 8th, 2010 at 9:51 am
[...] a bit of correspondence and despite disagreeing with much of what I said, he published my post on his blog last [...]
March 8th, 2010 at 12:43 pm
In answer to Robbie,
Kilquhanity did.
Schools based on A. S Neil’s theories.
Schools based on Aitkenhead’s theories.
PNEU schools.
Groups of kids where parents have joined together to ‘privately’ educate them at their respective homes.
Families who educate their own children.
I may be wrong in my views and am indeed doubtul but I distrust the state in alll its manifestations.
Ian
March 8th, 2010 at 2:08 pm
Hmmmm have to say I’m not a fan of the child-centred free-range education these types promote. I’ve heard, anecdotally, that Summerhill is pretty much a learning-free zone these days. Rejecting the formal education of the 19th century is a world away from rejecting the formal education of the 21st century.
Which all neatly side-steps the fact that rich independent schools masquerade as charities!
Glenamlond College’s gross income up to July 31st 2008 was £8,304,148.00 (published) and they cheat tax on any profits through their “charitable” goals of:-
“(a) The advancement of education, with the aim of maintaining and developing the high standard of teaching and learning in the College (b) The widening of access to the education provided by the College (c) The advancement of citizenship and community involvement (d) The advancement of the arts, heritage, culture , religion, and science (e) The provision and organisation of recreational and sporting activities, with the object of improving the life experience of the persons for whom the facilities or activities are intended”
So they dish out a couple of scholarships for the oiks and laugh all the way to the bank.
Surely these are the goals of all educational establishments. It’s just that if the canteen at the state school scrapes a wee profit it’s taxed! That’s ludicrous.
Sorry I’m taking over here - I’ll go feed a child or something equally urgent
March 9th, 2010 at 3:26 pm
Mrs W, I can understand Ian’s misgivings about publishing your rant.
In Scotland, it is generally accepted that the laird’s son and the ploughman’s daughter go to the same school.
It is different in England, and, sadly, in Scotland’s anglicised main cities.
Thus far, you might agree with me.
But people should always have the right to opt out of the state system if they want to. There are many valid reasons for doing so. It is wrong to pillory people who make that choice.
And it is petty to focus on charitable status. Frankly, I think this should be abolished altogether. The main effect of charitable status is that I am forced to contribute, through tax, to other people’s favourite charities.
In the case of schools, this doesn’t apply, since it is recognised that the fees are not donations, hence don’t attract tax relief. The small advantage is that they don’t have to pay business rates.
March 9th, 2010 at 6:57 pm
“I can understand Ian’s misgivings about publishing your rant.”
What funny values. A rant is a fine Scottish thing - it’s a dance, didn’t you know. And it’s not confined to Scotland - it dissolves like clumsy watercolour over the border to Northumbria, where they also had trouble-making pipers and wicked dancers. The history of the lowland and border pipes is largely traced through police charge sheets. While the highland pipers were off making socially acceptable war, lowland pipers were being jailed for inciting the populace to merrymaking and dancing in graveyards. Common culture is ranting and breach of the peace. I hope we have not lost the art.
March 9th, 2010 at 9:56 pm
I enjoyed this piece immensely and never had any doubt about publishing it.
Ian
March 10th, 2010 at 6:03 am
Rant or no rant, I would have enjoyed the seminars of the Edinburgh University Diploma in Education course far more, had Mrs W. been present when the subject of private education subject was being debated nearly 50 years ago. These were the days when comprehensive schools were about to be introduced, and it was genuinely thought that private education would come to be seen as irrelevant.
I should like to ask Mrs W. the question we were asked then. What does she reckon parents think they are buying when they opt to pay for their children’s education?
What seems to be available in the private sector that is lacking in the state system? - Or, of course, the other way round?
March 10th, 2010 at 10:57 am
@A Lady, Edinburgh
Gosh, what ARE they buying indeed! The primary school my children attended was, on paper anyway, a very good school. I believe a disproporionate number of the children from that school are moved into private education in P6 or P7, certainly before the move to secondary. The secondary school my children attend used to have an excellent reputation, I went there myself and it didn’t cross my mind not to send my children there.
The reasons parents I know have given for choosing a private education over the local secondary are myriad and often quite hilarious.
1. My child is sensitive and will struggle without the nurturing environment at private school where his artistic side can shine (I kid you not!)
2. A better education (?) smaller classes… better teachers (?!?!?!)
3. Better facilities (it’s hard not to argue with this one to be honest, PPP has passed our school by)
4. Better discipline (i.e. to isolate their children from the more challenging behaviours encountered across all walks of like - you know the real world - facetious? me?)
These decisions are often made without so much as visiting the state school or speaking to anyone at the state school. They are often based on hearsay and the damage a less than glowing HMIE report can inflict on a school.
I think people choose private education for two reasons. First they believe their child needs protecting from their perception of a lawless, violent state education. Second as a way of levering their children into a network of powerful people. They hope contacts they make at school will be carried through to their adult life and be advantageous to them either professionally, personally or, if they are lucky, both.
I am of course generalising and excluding those who always had the intention of using private education and have never used or considered using state schools. It’s the people who choose to go private against expectations that interest me. I believe they have a skewed perception of state education….. which is probably as skewed as my perception of private education!
I could never bring myself to see comprehensive education as a “bad” thing. Never. Could it be done better? Everything can be done better.
March 11th, 2010 at 6:48 am
Dear Mrs W,
This ignores an aspect which interests me - how we should understand the large number of teachers working in state schools who choose to have their children educated privately. I can’t recollect any claiming that their children were educationally fragile. (In fact, a child with genuine education difficulties is better off in the state sysem where there is a far higher lever of support).
They seemed to be impressed - as I would be - by inspectors’ reports, smaller classes, a better exam pass rate, and the wide range of after school activities available - tennis, drama, debating, life saving, playing the pipes (rants inclusive, Dougie!), and so on.
If these are desirable, and I think they are, perhaps we ought to see them as some of the ways comprehensive education could be “done better”, and apply some political pressure to that end.
March 11th, 2010 at 10:01 am
Dear Mrs W,
BUPA hospitals are built with private funds. They take pressure off the NHS. The middle classes buy Bearsden tractors to show their wealth. Instead they should carry health insurance and not compete with the less wealthy for scarce NHS beds.
If my wife needs a hospital I want her to be as comfortable as possible. She runs an old banger but she carries health insurance.
As for myself it is absurd to think of me spoonfed in a care home. When the bell tolls I shall take to the great outdoors on a cold night with a bottle of whisky. I shall die alone as everyone does, outdoors or indoors.
Mrs W, Where am I going wrong?
Ian
March 11th, 2010 at 11:44 am
@A Lady , Edinburgh
I couldn’t agree more, all children deserve an excellent education, not just those who can pay for “more”.
The teachers in state schools who choose or wish from the confines of their salaries for their children to be privately educated utterly fascinate me! Are they saying that they themselves are simply not good enough for their own children? How do they justify it? I know 2 or 3, from a distance. It’s probably best I don’t get too close!
@Ian
Nowhere I can see! BUPA hospitals definitely take pressure off an overstretched NHS, private social care does not exist at the expense of public social care and anyone who uses their wealth in this way does so responsibly. It’s not really the same as buying your way to the top of an NHS surgeon’s list in an NHS hospital, which can also be done and is… less socially responsible imho.
State schools do suffer if children are removed to the private sector since they are funded on a per pupil basis. As more and more children from my local primary reject the state secondary the roll goes down, the less teachers the school can employ and the less subjects they can offer. The difference between the intake they expect and the intake they actually get is, I imagine, growing each year. All based on anecdotal evidence of course. I wish I had even one answer.
March 11th, 2010 at 2:08 pm
I don’t know if it’s the same all over Scotland but I don’t believe my old school ever recovered from the teachers strikes of the 1980s. Not so much the odd day here and there that we pupils enjoyed in the sun, but from teachers withdrawal from uncontracted extra curricular activities. It breaks my heart that my old school, now my children’s school, can no longer scrape together a boy’s hockey team from all 6 years, let alone field one for each year group. The teachers today are no less dedicated to supporting these activities than the one’s I remember, but the leagues are no longer there and a few years without senior pupil role models saw interest peter out amongst the younger children. It’s really sad. Of course membership of the choir was compulsory in my day, if you could hold any semblance of a note. I’d probaby be the contrary parent who’d speak out against this sort of thing nowadays. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I’m a ferret bag of contradictions me!
March 11th, 2010 at 3:20 pm
Dear Mrs W,
Yes, I agree absolutely. The strikes of the 1980s were disastrous. I sincerely hope the same thing does not happen when the Curriculum for Excellence is introduced, though, if I may be contradictory too, I have thoroughly enjoyed watching the four You Tube presentations on the subject, with Bruno Ganz as Hitler as Miss Hyslop. Not as funny as Hitler on the Edinburgh Tram Fiasco, admittedly, but they certainly brighten up a chill Lenten afternoon.
Apologies, Mr Hamilton - we’re hogging your blog. But it’s fun.
I’ll stop now. Promise.
March 11th, 2010 at 4:12 pm
@A Lady, Edinburgh
Aren’t they just hilarious?!
This Curriculum for Excellence puzzles me somewhat and alarmingly I’m probably a fairly informed parent. The four capacities do make nice wall displays.
I breathed a sigh of relief when they delayed shelving Standard Grades for a year, then another year, since that means both my older children manage to miss the “new” qualifications by a year (then another year!). I know parents of children in P7 now who are being flooded with the The Four Capacities (I’m thinking apocalyptic riders when I capitalise!) yet have no infromation as to what “literacy” and “numeracy” qualification their children will be sitting in, if all goes as expected, just three years. Nevermind what’s replacing Standard Grades and Ints. Nobody seems to thinks it’s at all urgent (except me). I’d left school before the old O Grades gave way to the Standard Grades but I’m pretty sure that even back then I was aware of what was round the corner. Now? No-one seems to know where the light switch is!