why do the british

[9]

call public schools "private schools"?

[The Feral Underclass]

We don't

[9]

wait what?

[The Feral Underclass]

A public school is a school operated/funded by the state. We don't call those schools private, because they're not. We call private schools, private schools.

[Devrim]

call public schools "private schools"?

The English do call 'private' schools 'public' schools. It is connected to England having a little longer history that the states. The first schools were, of course, run by the church. Public schools were those open to the public and not just trainee clergy. The fact that they were fee paying wasn't the point.

The terms state school and private school, which are also used in England, are more modern.

Devrim

[The Feral Underclass]

No one calls private schools, public schools.

[Lyev]

Gove is thinking of rebranding state-funded schools as "council" schools, depending on how many schools he can convert into academies; Schools for common folk. :( And people do called privately-funded schools public schools. It would generally be public school = privately-funded and state school = government-funded I think.

[Comrade Wolfie's Very Nearly Banned Adventures]

No one calls private schools, public schools.

Yes they do.

[The Feral Underclass]

Yes they do.

No they don't.

[ContrarianLemming]

No they don't.

nuh uh

[The Feral Underclass]

nuh uh

Yah huh!

[ContrarianLemming]

Yah huh!

nuh uh

[bricolage]

People tend to only use public school nowadays to refer to the old private schools like Eton.

[DunyaGongrenKomRevolyutsi]

People tend to only use public school nowadays to refer to the old private schools like Eton.

They are the majority of 'public schools' anyway, the whole system has changed with ex-grammar schools switching into being academies, church comprehensives becoming academies.

Some schools are becoming colleges by virtue of having a sixth-form too, so the whole school naming system is pretty confusing.

[Devrim]

No one calls private schools, public schools.

I don't know about today, but they certainly used to, thirty years ago when I lived in London, remember I am a few decades older than you.

I can recall somebody referring to somebody in Class War as a 'public school twat'. I don't think they meant state school. It used to be pretty common, and if you search Wiki for 'public schools', one of the results you get is 'independent schools', which I believe is the new official name.

Devrim

[bricolage]

Here's an article from just a few days ago


Analysis by The Independent of the social origins of members of the coalition government – the most extensive exercise of its kind – reveals that one-tenth of all the minsters in the Government attended just one public school: Eton. Overall, two-thirds of ministers were educated partly or entirely outside the mainstream state school system, and one in five went to one of the old established top public schools.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/a-government-of-straight-white-privately-educated-men-2045899.html

[Os Cangaceiros]

Man, British people are so weird. Just another example of their many eccentricities...

[Comrade Wolfie's Very Nearly Banned Adventures]

Man, British people are so weird. Just another example of their many eccentricities...

That's racist, where's scarletgoul to complain about 'foreign chavanism against the welsh'.

[Os Cangaceiros]

Grab the step-ladders, boys...it's time to mount our high horses!

[The Feral Underclass]

High horse mounted!

RACISTS!

[Lyev]

(a) Why is it eccentric? (b) Name another.

[La Comédie Noire]

You tend to go a little crazy when you've lived a good chunk of your life on a rainy island.

[Os Cangaceiros]

You tend to go a little crazy when you've lived a good chunk of your life on a rainy island.

Believe me, I know...I've lived the large majority of my life on a rainy island.

[scarletghoul]

i am a mole and i live in a sum of its parts

[9]

The English do call 'private' schools 'public' schools. It is connected to England having a little longer history that the states. The first schools were, of course, run by the church. Public schools were those open to the public and not just trainee clergy. The fact that they were fee paying wasn't the point.

The terms state school and private school, which are also used in England, are more modern.

Devrim

OK,thanks, that explains it then. I see it in articles sometimes, and it always confuses me.

[Fawkes]

cause british people are lame

[Comrade Wolfie's Very Nearly Banned Adventures]

cause british people are lame

http://www.pauld.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/thatsracist.gif