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    schuretteRachel Vorona Cote
    3/07/16 4:03am

    Also, can we please note that it’s complete bullshit that schools like Eton are “boys only”? It’s not just class that’s lagging behind, it’s gender, too.

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      HarvestMoonschurette
      3/07/16 5:55am
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      florenceedithschurette
      3/07/16 7:33am

      I don’t know with this. Many private schools are gender segregated - I went to one. Some private schools, like Haberdashers Askes has Habs boys and Habs girls. It’s not at all the case that the boys’ schools are better than the girls’ - in terms of grade output Eton actually ranks about 15th in the country and the top 3 schools are all girls schools.

      I totally get what you’re saying, but single gender schools are quite embedded in the private system and as far as my experience goes, not something that disadvantages the girls.

      ETA: Essentially, there are a fuckton of flaws in the private system, but I don’t see single gender schools as one

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    Flutterby PlantRachel Vorona Cote
    3/07/16 1:05am

    I’m a teacher in the British system (although I teach internationally now) trained and taught in the UK, I taught in state schools, and I have friends who teach in public schools. It’s my considered opinion that it’ll take a lot more than letting a few poor kids into private schools to address and challenge the class system in the UK. Also, there’s a lot more required to improve the educational experience of ordinary children to bring it up to the standard available in many public schools. Facilities, class sizes, resources... I’ve taught in classrooms with no heating, with one text book between 3, where the budget runs out in February so no photocopying until the next academic year.

    And parents have a role to play too- I’ve delivered lessons in a private school to support a friend- those children are there to learn. Academic achievement is absolutely a higher priority with those children than in the state schools where I taught. My high expectations were ranged against the life experiences of the children and their parents in the deprived areas in which I worked. Rich kids have a sense of entitlement. That life will be ok. That they will have chances. This sense is simply not there for many young people in the UK.

    I don’t know the answer. Letting a few poor kids in to public schools just seems a really tiny token gesture.

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      SeanFlutterby Plant
      3/07/16 4:03am

      nationalise Eton?..?

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      EatBigSeaFlutterby Plant
      3/07/16 4:07am

      There was a lot to be said for grammar schools, which were a godsend for poor clever children. My friend’s father in law came from a family that escaped the Nazis with nothing. He spoke Yiddish at home and didn’t speak English until he went to school. He was very clever and went to grammar school and on to university, and now is a successful professional. I don't know if poor clever children today have the same opportunities.

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    rrpeteRachel Vorona Cote
    3/07/16 12:07am

    It would be great if more disadvantaged kids could go to those schools, but there is a “cultural” disparity as well. The way you talk, the circles you move in, where you go on holiday...those things are acquired by the rich kids from birth and would be hard to “teach” to incoming students. There are layers and layers to class systems like old money versus new money. Benedict Cumberbatch got a good education and mixed with kids from the landed gentry but claims that he wasn’t/isn’t “posh” because he lacked an inherited title and his parents had to work for a living (for example, but if we want to get specific Cumberbatch is actually old money with powerful connections)

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      IAMRU2rrpete
      3/07/16 12:41am

      Some of this you can actually learn. I joke that I have a “rich” voice that I can turn on and off, but it’s sort of true. I was a scholarship kid a school where skiing vacations to Europe where the norm, and families didn’t just have several houses, they had yachts. Being the “povo” kid was hard, a lot of the time, but going to such a school did give me a lot of academic opportunities, and also social connections that I would otherwise have missed out on. I also learnt how to mimic the elitism and entitlement of my peers, mostly as a defense mechanism, but it comes in handy when people are being rude arseholes. Even though I’m always the shortest in the room, I can still manage to look down my nose at someone being an arse.

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      EatBigSeaIAMRU2
      3/07/16 3:55am

      That’s the insidious thing about the UK class system which is different to the US - you can’t fake being upper class, because people will know. There are a thousand tiny tells. You can see it in how the Middletons are treated. Kate has a voice that is posher than posh and has learned to mimic them, but William’s friends still called her “doors to manual” and mocked her for being middle class. I wouldn’t want to be an aristo and have no idea why anyone would want to join that world (being wealthy is an entirely different matter, as class in the UK is separate from money, although of course they often go together).

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    hunkydoryRachel Vorona Cote
    3/06/16 11:47pm

    Aren’t these, bizarrely, called “public” schools in the UK?

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      Diglett Dig Yourselfhunkydory
      3/07/16 12:02am

      Yes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_sc...

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      Rachel Vorona Cotehunkydory
      3/07/16 12:15am

      Yes! I’ve always been curious to know why.

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    cew-smokeRachel Vorona Cote
    3/07/16 2:22am

    The only elite British private school I want to attend...

    GIF
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      Unabashed Appliantologistcew-smoke
      3/07/16 8:47am

      I couldn’t believe this was the only Harry Potter joke I saw in this whole article/comment board. I expected at least one good muggle born joke.

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      Rachel Vorona Cotecew-smoke
      3/07/16 1:37pm

      As soon as I saw what you’d written I thought “AHA. Yes. I knew one of these jokes was incoming.”

      (Also, we are in solidarity.)

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    ChemistreeRachel Vorona Cote
    3/06/16 11:45pm

    Mixing does not mean integration, unfortunately.

    It’d probably be a great opportunity academically to some poor kids (regardless of race), but that’s only if they can deal with the other students (who probably don’t really know how to deal with them), and the disparities in wealth and lifestyle that the wealth brings.

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      ZeeniaChemistree
      3/07/16 12:00am

      Maybe I’m feeling overly optimistic but these opportunities will definitely open up some lucrative career choices for these kids.

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      Cocopop!Zeenia
      3/07/16 12:30am

      And that is what is needed for true integration. It doesn’t happen overnight.

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    DiLeMmaRachel Vorona Cote
    3/07/16 5:55am

    I’ve had the honor to meet Patrick. He’s a great great guy.

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      Rachel Vorona CoteDiLeMma
      3/07/16 1:43pm

      He seems really fantastic.

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    dm0niesRachel Vorona Cote
    3/06/16 11:43pm

    Do note my American friends that ‘diverse’ in the context of British elite schools is less about race and more about income. Race wise these top schools are often crammed full of Chinese, Indian and Nigerian kids.

    I used to joke to my friend who went to Seven Oaks about whether his school was actually in England because I could only count five white kids in his class photo.

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      Francoisdm0nies
      3/07/16 12:10am

      You are so right, it is all about class/wealth in the UK. That was what made America better; talent and hard work could beat class. Alas today, not so much.

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      EdgewareAnniedm0nies
      3/07/16 12:25am

      This is important to note. Division in the UK is less about race than it is about class.

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    zoe_koala (on_a_tricycle)Rachel Vorona Cote
    3/06/16 11:17pm

    Yeah. I’d also like my unicorn pink, thank you very much.

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      mcsailorpantszoe_koala (on_a_tricycle)
      3/06/16 11:40pm

      If you had gone to Eton, you would know that unicorns are mostly purple, with pink glittery polka-dots. Peasant.

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      Kirstenmcsailorpants
      3/07/16 3:07am

      If you had gone to Eton, you would know they don’t give a shit about any animal they can’t eat or hunt.

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    picture purrrfectRachel Vorona Cote
    3/06/16 11:21pm

    I do not want kids. I do not live in England. I am not wealthy. But if I was in a position to do so, I don’t think I’d want to send my child there as basically an experiment. Also I hate that it’s always the assumption that the black kid is poor. Yes it’s more likely, but we are not a monolith. *sighs*

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      Zeeniapicture purrrfect
      3/07/16 1:14am

      I think in this case the poor kid is just as likely to be white working class as he is to be black.

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      EatBigSeaZeenia
      3/07/16 3:45am

      That’s correct. The group in the UK that is least likely to succeed at school and go on to university is white working class boys. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/the-filter...

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