Who here went to a public (private) school

[Drifter]

as opposed to a state school,
just to get a fair idea of this before i write about my views on the education system

[gooddoctor]

in theory i'm opposed to the idea of private schools because it leaks resources away from the state system and limits expertise to elites, but i am the product of a private school myself. i went to state school in england until i began a levels and i moved with my papa to holland. there i took my first a level modules at the british school of the netherlands and flunked miserably (i'm sure you can guess why - holland is a playground for 16 year olds). my papa's work then took us to dusseldorf where i went to the international school. i passed my ib with flying colours after two years.
in my opinion the international baccalaureate is a superior system to a levels because it tends to promote individual thought whreas most western education systems tend to spoon feed academics more. things are gradually changing though and i hope ib will be available free in state schools across the world eventually, standardising education and reducing the possibilities for the us and british systems to indoctrinate people.
while i was taking my ib, my history teacher was a marxist from oxbridge and my economics teacher was a californian, a nice juxtaposition i think. i was good friends with both of them and they are responsible for my radical view of the world, which in my opinion is simply objective.

(Edited by gooddoctor at 3:23 pm on Oct. 31, 2001)

[Drifter]

i myself went to a private school,
though i left halfway through year eleven, but i'm opposed to all private schooling, health, and other services becuase it creates a class of elites exempt from civic responsibility.
they put there money into private, self enclosed enclaves, and use only privite services,
in america these peple make up the top 20%, they are in all countries of course, and this sheilds them from the crumbling national services and industrial cities.
the whole culture encourages this, with prestige being put mainly on lawyers and doctors, white collar work, going to uni, investment, money.these are also the majority in government. In australia, private schools get obscene amounts of money, state schools get very little.
this all had a point, but it has temporarily escaped my mind.

democracy is another pile of crap that everyone seems to think is wonderful, but thats another rant.

[gooddoctor]

the thing is, our ruling elite gets educated in their closed off private schools and they grow up totally out of touch with reality at the grass roots. man, i bet blair grew up thinking everyone went to private school, lived in a country mansion and was benefiting from globalisation and our booming economy. just ignorant fucks who are smart and maybe good people, but are totally detached from reality and their methods benefit those like them, purely because they know no other way. that is why you need to give power to the people, they are the ones who know how best to solve their own problems, not some idealistic oxbridge fuck who wouldn't even think to put britain and poverty in the same sentence.

[AgustoSandino]

private school then private university.

[RedCeltic]

I'm a product of New York State Educational System... I went to public grade school and High School... and after a long delay (10 years) an attending college through the SUNY system (State University of New York)


(Edited by RedCeltic at 2:19 pm on Oct. 31, 2001)

[CommieBastard]

I am doing my A levels, and did my AS and GCSE courses, at Wirral Grammar School for Boys. It is a State School, but a last remnant of the British Grammar School system, whereby primary school pupils take a test, called the 11+, those who pass get to go to a grammar school, those who fail go to a comprehensive. Basically, the theory is that each school caters for certain levels of intelligence, providing people with the right kind of education for them. What it REALLY means is that Middle Class parents force their children to practice for a year so that their little darlings can pass the 11+, whereas Lower Class parents dont. Thus, Middle Class kids tend to end up at the grammar school, where the truly stupid are educated, but the truly clever are just left to do what the hell they like, and end up with grades below the standard they should achieve.
For the Lower Class kids, they end up in a school full of people who feel like educational losers, and who act as such. They do bugger all in the way of work, and lose out educationally, with very few going on to university.

My school has to be the epitome of all things that could be wrong with an educational system. They force the pupils to obey some of the most ridiculous rules, all so that the School can maintain a good image. The reason for a good image? To attract nice Middle Class pupils, whose parents have more access to educational resources for their children, are more likely to force them to work hard, and who will more be concerned with their kid's image, so that the image of the school is boosted more, and so that the school attracts even richer parents.

Its a true shithole, even in the sixth form, i have to wear a suit, which cost my parents quite badly. I am not allowed my hair beyond or below a certain length, or in certain styles, or in any way dyed. I am not allowed to wear jewelry, and there is even a rule in the "Sixth Form Agreement" which says that if i have anything about my appearance which the teachers take a disliking to, then i must no longer wear it. so i wasnt allowed to wear my key chains, or my anarchy ring. Not to mention that though the sixth formers are allowed out of school grounds at lunch times, they cannot eat or drink while outside of the school grounds.

Sorry for the massive rant, but i feel strongly about this, and there is so much else that's shitty about my school that i haven't touched upon, because to be frank, it would take far too long to list all of the shit out...

[Moskitto]

jeez your school sounds bad cb

my school is a state school (one of the best in the country) and I live in an area with a 3 tier system where there's no 11+. We get to go to school there's lots of resources, the pass rate is high and there's annother communist there.

The thing is we were printing off copies of the communist manifesto and librarian picked one up and said "do you need this for history or something?" to which we said yes. I mean saying "No we're going to distribute them" probably wouldn't be a good idea. I mean it would be like this.

<Librarian>What do you need these for?
<Us>Give them to people.
<Librarian>OK can you just come with me.
*Goes to Headmasters office
<Headmaster>I hear you're distributing communist literature?
<Us>Urm, Yes
<Headmaster>Guards!
<Guards>Yes Sir
<Headmaster>Take them to the termination room, and get some of those fake witnesses.
*Go into underground room
*Get blindfolded and chained
BANG BANG BANG
*Bodies doctored and left on a road next to a car

[CommieBastard]

thats a wee bit paranoid...
if i was photocopying leftist stuff and they said "what do you need that for" i would say "because i am a communist"
and if they said anything negative about that i would laugh in their face.

the one time i was embarrassed getting something of a library was when for a history project on hitler, i went to the nearby big library and got Mein Kampf out...

[Moskitto]

yeah i doubt that would really happen. But what happened to Stephen Goosey (one of my friends)?

Wait he wasn't a communist. But he was a bit wierd and had some type of emotional problem to do with being unable to understand others emotions.

[MrPebbles]

i have found that my old school Katherine lady berkeley's i had to wear a suit and u do in sixth formand guess what it was a true shithole too my current school is not so bad no uniform always good i can do what i want with my hair but heres the ridiculous part i am at sixth form cus i want to be and in sixth form you are treated like an adult yes?? no i hbave to get a written letter to my tutor if i have a day off i am eighteen for crying outloud i cantwalk out of school oin to town to smoke a ciggarette if i am caught in the pub juring school hours on study leave i am likely to be expelled

and as for my opinions my opinions are accepted if i do not voice them i was told to cover my bag for having anti establishment slogans on it stuff like anarchy in the uk and cops suck cock and rage lyrics stuff from being young and punk which i still am though more wise with my beliefs well anyway i was told that i didn't understand the meaning of anarchy and shopuld stop writing silly immature things on my bag as i am letting the school down now that sucks

[drunktank]

how can someone
who goes to
a private school
talk about sociaism?

HYPOCRISY

[El Commandante]

I'm at a grammar school, QE Boys in North London, supposedly one of the best schools in the country, which the head loves to boast about. It's got a huge range of people in it so if been able to feed of quite a lot of different people's ideas. We have representation from every faith, background and view point but the school want to stamp most of them out. Especially the socialist / Communist view. It has got better recently because we have a better new head master who cares about what we do and doesn't treat the school like an exam factory like the old "Traditional" head did. The new head also has a son in the school so that helps him to know what the people want.

But what they do seem to let happen is religious extremity. There are lunch time clubs where the younger kids go and have shit shovelled down there necks. But if someone asked to have a political party style club it would be turned down. The only reason they allow it is because they are scared of being deemed racist and they don't act on political freedom of speech because they know if someone complains no one in higher authority will listen.

[CommieBastard]

our head boasts about how well the school does too...
now that we're the 88th 'best' school in the country he;s gone mental...
our head STILL thinks of the school as an exam factory, and any hint of a slightly opposing view is crushed...

MrPebbles, i get EXACTLY the same thing, no smoking (dont do it anyway, so no probs) no drinking (hasnt stopped me tho, ive turned up to quite a few lessons drunk, and the teachers havent noticed) and yes, i still have to have damn letters...

Drunktank, i would say that people often go to private schools because their parents force them too, in which case it is perfectly plausible they could develop and learn of socialist ideas.

[Kez]

I think this is my 50th post so now im a guerilla?
Hope so
Comrade KAmo

[Kez]

Sorry ALl
THIS is my 50th post

[peterson2k4]

I too went to a public school for two years. I thought that the education system was awful. I only had three different teachers in sixth grade and my science and math teacher didn't even go to school for either courses she taught. Almost everything they taught was one sided. You were not allowed to have any opinions that were not of the christian norm. The one teacher who was open-minded was fired for no real reason. Ironicly though he then got a job at the public high school I go to now.

[Nickademus]

Quote: from drunktank on 4:26 pm on Nov. 1, 2001
how can someone
who goes to
a private school
talk about sociaism?

HYPOCRISY


drunktank many don't really have any choice in the matter over whether or not they went to private school


i went through public school. and am doing my second degree at my second public university

[RedCeltic]

Quote: from drunktank on 10:26 am on Nov. 1, 2001
how can someone
who goes to
a private school
talk about sociaism?

HYPOCRISY


Drunktank, Some people scimp and save to send their children to Catholic school and give them the best education, while cutting back on spending on themselves. It's not like the children had a choice... and as far as Public vrs Private education at a university... sometimes still one doesn't have a choice, provided their chosen field and availability of courses.

[Moskitto]

in the UK university education is not free. It depends on how much your parents earn that affects how much you have to pay. And that's Labour who did that who have the nerve to make themselves sound like a socialist party. Of course the Liberal Democrats want to make it free again but would have to raise taxes to do it and people don't want to pay more tax.

[Drifter]

gosh,, makes you think that last comment.

[gooddoctor]

drunktank, private school was where i learnt about socialism. before i left the state school system i was just another ignorant corporate son who wanted to become a big businessman like my father. what can i do about that? it's how we're all brought up - to think of ourselves, make money and get ahead. but whilst i was at private school i taught myself to think for myself and understand the world. just because i had a change of heart halfway through my education didn't mean i was going to chuck it in. a part of me wondered whether i should've stayed, for sure. but, i figured i'd be able to better serve the cause with a good education because, in this day in age, the war of information will need to be fought within the system. the revolutionary vanguard no longer fights on the streets with guns, but in our media, in parliament and at protests. we have to become the system before we can overthrow the old one.
and just because i have one flaw in my past doesn't make me a hypocrite. don't forget that most revolutionaries weren't grass roots, che being one of them, but enlightened intellectuals from the upper classes, lenin being another. i could just as easily call you a hypocrite because i bet you don't always shop at fair trade outlets. noone's perfect.

[sabre]

Public school here in USA, but its rated in the top 5 best public schools in the US

[Zippy]

I started my education in Emmanuel Junior School, a CofE school funded by the state, where i was forced to read the bible everyday and was blessed and cleansed once a month for 4 years. We sang hymns in assembly and this didnt really set me up very well for a life in an older school.

I then went to Westfield School and fell out with education. I wagged it a lot and i just passed my exams and went to college where i failed everything after two years of taking drugs and hanging about with strange people i didnt really know.

I took a year out, cleaned myself up, read a lot, listened to a lot of music and im now back at college again, studying for a National Diploma in Media.
Not bad for a CofE lad. :)

Zippy.

[gooddoctor]

nice goin' zip! good luck. i want to become an activist-journalist too one day in the george monbiot vein. there's just too much fucked up shit going on in this world to leave the news to the corporate media.

(Edited by gooddoctor at 9:42 pm on Nov. 5, 2001)