I was reading a newspaper article written by a British teacher whose
opinion is that private schools in the UK should be banned. When all the
wordy argumentation is distilled down to its very basics, it comes down
to be, basically, "it's unfair that some children are getting a better
education solely because their parents happen to be rich; this kind of
elitist snobbery is completely inappropriate to the modern world we are
living in".

  This got me thinking: *Why* shouldn't at least some children get a better
education, if their parents can afford it? What's so wrong with that?

  The complaint would make sense if *all* children could be given a much
higher level of education if the private vs. public schooling system was
dismantled and replaced with a public-schooling-only system. However, given
that children in private schools form a very small minority, and the reason
why they get a better education is because these private schools have better
funding (because the rich parents are funding them), banning the private
schools is not going to increase the funding of public schools in any
significant way. (In other words, even if the funding/student which now
goes to private schools was distributed among public schools, the overall
funding/student in public schools would not increase significantly.)

  So basically what this teacher wants is to deny a better education from
these children and force them to go to public schools which have lower
funding for the sole reason that it's more "fair", basically forcing *all*
children to the same lower level of education, insted of having at least
*some* of them in better schools.

  Given that a significant majority of children who go to private schools
end up going to Universities and becoming university-level professionals
(such as teachers, doctors, surgeons, etc.), deliberately dumbing down
their basic education just for the sake of "fairness" feels completely
counter-productive.

  Ok, it might not be "fair" that all children are not given the same
opportunities, but do you really want to lower the overall education level
of your entire country just in the name of "fairness"?

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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Warp wrote:
>   I was reading a newspaper article written by a British teacher whose
> opinion is that private schools in the UK should be banned. When all the
> wordy argumentation is distilled down to its very basics, it comes down
> to be, basically, "it's unfair that some children are getting a better
> education solely because their parents happen to be rich; this kind of
> elitist snobbery is completely inappropriate to the modern world we are
> living in".
> 
>   This got me thinking: *Why* shouldn't at least some children get a better
> education, if their parents can afford it? What's so wrong with that?
>

[Snip]

That is the start of the slippery slope.


>   Ok, it might not be "fair" that all children are not given the same
> opportunities, but do you really want to lower the overall education level
> of your entire country just in the name of "fairness"?
> 

The idea is that all those posh, rich and concerned parents will do 
something to bring up the level of state education by forcing 
politicians to fund state schools properly.
Public that is Private schools in the UK foster elitism and that 
promotes our class system.  It is still war, you know. ;)

-- 

Best Regards,
	Stephen

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Stephen <mca### [at] aoldotcom> wrote:
> The idea is that all those posh, rich and concerned parents will do 
> something to bring up the level of state education by forcing 
> politicians to fund state schools properly.

  As if that's likely to happen. There's only just so much money that can
be poured into schools. No matter how much they would lobby the government,
the government cannot conjure money from nowhere in order to get all the
schools to the same level as the best private schools. It's impossible.

> Public that is Private schools in the UK foster elitism and that 
> promotes our class system.  It is still war, you know. ;)

  It still sounds to me like "rich people shouldn't get privileges just
because they have more money, that's unfair". The word jealousy comes to
mind.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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Warp wrote:
> Stephen <mca### [at] aoldotcom> wrote:
>> The idea is that all those posh, rich and concerned parents will do 
>> something to bring up the level of state education by forcing 
>> politicians to fund state schools properly.
> 
>   As if that's likely to happen. There's only just so much money that can
> be poured into schools. No matter how much they would lobby the government,
> the government cannot conjure money from nowhere in order to get all the
> schools to the same level as the best private schools. It's impossible.
> 

Well that is an opinion.

>> Public that is Private schools in the UK foster elitism and that 
>> promotes our class system.  It is still war, you know. ;)
> 
>   It still sounds to me like "rich people shouldn't get privileges just
> because they have more money, that's unfair". The word jealousy comes to
> mind.
> 

It probably does to you.

-- 

Best Regards,
	Stephen

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Stephen <mca### [at] aoldotcom> wrote:
> >   It still sounds to me like "rich people shouldn't get privileges just
> > because they have more money, that's unfair". The word jealousy comes to
> > mind.
> > 

> It probably does to you.

  Me having that opinion would be really obnoxious if I were a rich snob,
but I'm certainly not. I barely make a living.

  But I honestly don't feel any kind of jealousy towards rich people. If they
want to put their kids to expensive private schools, then why not? Does it
hurt me in any way if they do that? No. Then why should it bother me? It
doesn't make sense.

  What *would* be unfair is to pass some ridiculous law which would forbid
them from doing that and instead force those kids to get a lesser education,
just because the majority is jealous of them being rich. *That* would be
obnoxious, IMO.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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Warp wrote:
> Stephen <mca### [at] aoldotcom> wrote:
>>>   It still sounds to me like "rich people shouldn't get privileges just
>>> because they have more money, that's unfair". The word jealousy comes to
>>> mind.
>>>
> 
>> It probably does to you.
> 
>   Me having that opinion would be really obnoxious if I were a rich snob,
> but I'm certainly not. I barely make a living.
> 




>   But I honestly don't feel any kind of jealousy towards rich people. If they
> want to put their kids to expensive private schools, then why not? Does it
> hurt me in any way if they do that? No. Then why should it bother me? It
> doesn't make sense.
> 




>   What *would* be unfair is to pass some ridiculous law which would forbid
> them from doing that and instead force those kids to get a lesser education,
> just because the majority is jealous of them being rich. *That* would be
> obnoxious, IMO.
> 

Lots of things are unfair. Especially privilege.





-- 

Best Regards,
	Stephen

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On 24-12-2009 17:50, Warp wrote:
>   I was reading a newspaper article written by a British teacher whose
> opinion is that private schools in the UK should be banned.

[snip]

There are too many subtleties involved about the British social 
structure in this case, so I won't comment. Not on this specific 
situation nor in general as every country has it's own culture and 
history of education. We don't really have such private schools and 
those that may come closest have no impact on the social structure of 
the country, so I won't even comment on whether it is sensible or 
desirable in the Dutch situation.

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andrel <a_l### [at] hotmailcom> wrote:
> There are too many subtleties involved about the British social 
> structure in this case, so I won't comment. Not on this specific 
> situation nor in general as every country has it's own culture and 
> history of education. We don't really have such private schools and 
> those that may come closest have no impact on the social structure of 
> the country, so I won't even comment on whether it is sensible or 
> desirable in the Dutch situation.

  I don't even know if there are private schools in Finland. Even if there
are, they aren't really part of the Finnish culture or society. It's kind
of given that everybody goes to regular school.

  (This is probably for the best, given how jealous the average Finnish
mentality is. This is a country where your house may get vandalized (with
insulting graffitti, etc) if you win the lottery. Actual case.)

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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On 24-12-2009 23:43, Warp wrote:
> andrel <a_l### [at] hotmailcom> wrote:
>> There are too many subtleties involved about the British social 
>> structure in this case, so I won't comment. Not on this specific 
>> situation nor in general as every country has it's own culture and 
>> history of education. We don't really have such private schools and 
>> those that may come closest have no impact on the social structure of 
>> the country, so I won't even comment on whether it is sensible or 
>> desirable in the Dutch situation.
> 
>   I don't even know if there are private schools in Finland. Even if there
> are, they aren't really part of the Finnish culture or society. It's kind
> of given that everybody goes to regular school.

Then you don't know what it is to live in a country where almost the 
entire elite is recruited from a few schools that are only open to the 
elite. I don't live in such a system either, hence my reluctance to 
interpret any comment from a British citizen about his own system as 
mainly jealousy.
Btw, you interpreted yourself a letter you read without a reference to 
the source. Without that nobody can judge if you correctly got the main 
point or that this is an inadvertent straw man argument.

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Warp wrote:
>   It still sounds to me like "rich people shouldn't get privileges just
> because they have more money, that's unfair". The word jealousy comes to
> mind.

The general reaction I've observed from people in the US about this 
whole healthcare debacle also boils down to "what's in it for ME?  If 
*I'm* not the one benefiting from the change, it's evil in the purest 
sense".

Humans, eh?

--
Tim Cook
http://empyrean.freesitespace.net

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