State secrets

So much of the divide between state and private schools is a matter of mere perception — the perceptions of the teachers, the parents and the children. When, years ago, I announced that I would be sending my children to state schools, my colleagues (journalists on a national newspaper) turned on me as a pack of hounds, baying their disgust at what they called my willingness to ‘experiment’ on my own children. Move over Mengele, here comes Waugh.

There are of course differences between the two types of education — but how many of them really matter? For my (yes, state-educated) children, many of the differences they saw between their various friends were nothing to do with education at all. Private school girls sported ‘messy buns’ and state school girls went for the ‘Peru Two TopKnot’. Private school children went on better holidays, were often more interested in sport, didn’t automatically help their parents clear the table. State school children had tea, not supper, and it was often ready-made. But none of those reasons are the ones considered by parents thinking about schooling.

Those of my friends who toyed with sending their children to state schools (in most cases it was only toying) came up with the same reasons not to make that leap of faith: class sizes; facilities; and something called ‘-friendship groups’. The first two reasons may be valid, but the last? One of the stupidest women I know told me she could not send her children to state school as she did not want them to meet stupid people. And yet they sat across from her every morning at breakfast.

As with all generalisations, the point is entirely missed. There are good and bad schools — and teachers — in both sectors, clever and stupid people in every class of society.