On Tue, 08 Nov 2005 14:12:38 +0000 (GMT), John Cartmell
wrote:



In that case I'd better mention that the public school/private school overlap
is quite large and the former is almost entirely a sub-set of the latter. But
I didn't think I'd need to spell it out.

You didn't. As I said, public schools are a relatively small subset
of the private sector.



I was talking about the individual and the educational benefits. Unless
you have actually experienced use of both sectors personally, it is
difficult to appreciate those.

I have.

In the sense of having paid to have a child educated in one?


So no, then?



Exactly. Some might say that the National Curriculum was designed to cause
as much damage as possible to public sector schools in order to boost
private schools.

Some might, but that is something of an extrapolation.

I don't believe it. I think it was designed by an ex-public schoolboy who got
his job because of his school rather than his competence.

That may well be, but incompetence is not the preserve of the
ex-public-schoolboy. The state does a pretty good job of turning out
people with qualifications that are not very useful to the economy.



It's framework was designed by an ex-public school / private school twit
with no apparent understanding of the reality of public sector school
teaching at the time and undermined many good developments.

Public sector schools were semi-reasonable when there was proper selection
into appropriate schools for the child. Comprehensive education and the
National Curriculum together have screwed that up quite effectively.

The only thing wrong with selection was the state of the schools that the
majority of pupils attended. And the fact that most authorities didn't select
but used a scholarship system. It was all based on a pernicious lie.

Well.... as an anecdote, I have a number of friends in my age peer
group who went to grammar, selective and secondary modern schools in
my area in the late 60s. All were and have remained happy with the
education they received, and all have become successful in their
chosen paths in life. They all say that their parents were happy with
their education as well. All of the schools bar one, have since
become comprehensives and/or have been combined together into larger
entities. Each of the people has had children of their own going to
either the school that they went to, or one of the others. Only one
of them and only one of their children is happy with the state
education that he has received. That one has been to the one
remaining grammar school.

To me, that says it all.




I know a lot of people in middle and senior management in a variety of
organisations and very few come from the "old boy network".

Certainly less than there used to be.

Ultimately, if what you say is true, then natural selection will resolve
the problem.

Sometimes 'ultimately' is too late. In this case it is too late.

There are many reasons for the decline of UK industry and blame can be
laid at the doors of the trade union movement in more or equal measure
as to the gates of the public school.




--

..andy