On 2008-07-26 10:11:20 +0100, stuart noble said:


If providing a proper education for my children because the state has
demonstrated itself to be incompetent at doing so, then I am happy to
be thought of as strange. Far better that than to be considered to
be part of a muddled thinking crowd for the sake of expediency. This
is something that I have never done and never will do. It's not the
easy way, for a multitude of reasons, but it works well. I really
don't care what other people think about that - they can make their own
decisions to the degree to whcih they are capable of independent
thought.

I was almost happy with that till the last bit. Get over the fact that
it's possible to disagree with you and still be capable of independent
thought.

I've never thought that. Independent thought is the essence of the
individual. The wheels come off of that wagon once one says
that it should be an aim that everybody travels on the same train or
accepts that it should be the status quo. Independent thought is
about looking at the potential of the individual, not the mass and not
accepting that things have to be the same for everybody.




I had lunch with a friend from primary school this week whose general
views are not dissimilar to yours. He scraped his fingers to the bone,
said he did it all for the children blah blah, but of course it's a lie.

I think that that's a big assumption.


He's just competitive by nature, he can't help it. He was like it in
the playground 50 years ago, and he still is.

There's a difference between being an individual and being competitive.
Of course, sometimes they overlap, but it isn't the case that
people with an individual outlook are necessarily competitive or the
other way round.

For myself, I prefer to paddle my own canoe and also to set a very high
standard for myself. A byproduct of that has often been to achieve a
better outcome than that of others around me. However, and I think the
point is important, I don't tend often to think in terms of how can I
achieve a goal by the detriment of others. Often that doesn't work
and others play that game anyway. I've always found it more effective
in terms of achieving objectives, to stand on my own merits. Those
are absolutes whereas competition, as most people understand it, is
relative.





We all take a gamble with our kids. My two went to their first choice
unis from the local comprehensive, so I can afford to be smug about it.

Indeed.




Given that there would have been no sacrifice on my part, I'd have
looked very silly had it all gone wrong, but I have a strong conviction
that you're who you are long before you set foot in school.


I completely agree, which is why I positioned the school and teachers
as the third component of education and not the first or even second.