Somehow in all our well meaning push of education for all, their developed a real snobbery towards private schools (interestingly TAFE systems suffer the same snobbery. Seems the only safe path is public education at secondary school and then into a public university. (That you went to childcare just indicates if your parents are "modern"). Take this article from the Sydney Morning Herald, playing to its base on that same mix of jealousy and mis-placed egalitarianism.
UP TO 30 per cent of students at some elite private schools were given "special consideration" in this year's Higher School Certificate exams, raising questions about whether they gained an unfair advantage.
The NSW Board of Studies granted dispensations such as extra time to complete exams, coloured paper, large print and Braille or assistance with handwriting. The claims ranged from students with disabilities and illnesses such as diabetes, to those with unreadable handwriting and sweaty palms.
Braille ? They're fucking Blind! And yet still managing to sit the HSC. That's pretty god damn impressive. Even for the other very weak benefits,its often the case that parents of kids with problems will seek to send them to private schools which can offer better facilities to assist the child. If its the difference between getting through or dropping out for their child's future, most parents will, regardless of ideology or income attempt to make the cost. With stronger kids comes more assurance they can cope with the same process of the vast bulk of their peers in making it way through the trenches of High School in a government funded institution.
But what gets me here is not the lies, damn lies and statistics, its the inherent snobbery towards private schools that generates this list. Public schools are entirely ignored in the article, which distorts any sort of interesting story about if we are giving children too many medical exemptions from the usual challenges of growing up, and makes it one of elitist privilege, but without any foundation.
Yet this is a common attitude on the left. I recently was in a pub discussion on the subject of Rudd's new homelessness package, where my support and enthusiasm for it surprised one who wondered why 'someone who came from a private school' was concerned about it. Forget the non sequitur from housing to education, somehow a benefit earned in one area disqualified me from being concerned about a social ill. For me, a house, like a good education gives people a solid base from which they can begin to give order to their lives, giving them the freedom to live their lives as they see fit, and take responsibility for its outcomes. I'm sure many on the left see it likewise.
So why, when my parents sacrificed new houses or regular(any) trips overseas to pay for myself and my sisters private tuition, am I somehow regarded as having lost my connection to society. The newspapers take aim at private schools because few ever bother to defend them, likewise we graduates are supposed to almost apologies for our good fortune, when the experience for your hormonal, confused adolescent(ie every damn last one of us) was exactly the same to that of a private school. Adults confuse the rigors of school as being about the quality of the buildings and size of the school grounds. The real challenge is outside the classroom (or inside it behind the teachers back) as everyone seeks to find their place in the social system and begins to shape their own character. And when this anger slides from the newspages to the school bus's that share public and non-public students, or simply changes the people you end up hanging out with in your street, the already beleagured kids get hit too.
Sure, we can all imagine a taxi of Kings College 6th graders going past a public school and tauting on the poverty of the kids mothers, whilst holding their brand new laptops, but its occurrence is kids play compared to the adults encouraged snobbery by the public system towards the private.
John Howard defended these schools mainly because he thought it good politics, and liked putting a thumb in the eye of the left, knowing its capacity to over-reach. But at least he did it occasionally and forcefully. Australia has a fantastic mix of public and private schools, in one of the best education systems in the world. And it isn't even that dear. And part of that is our endorsement of a duel system. Whilst Howard got the balance wrong in favoring private schools too much (and i and many other private school graduates and parents strongly held a contrary view to the PM's) we should be encouraging all parents to try and send their children to private schools. If only because it means they are giving enough of a damn about their children's lives to guarantee that a good education is the main focus. Not all kids will get in, but I'd rather a family who never traveled so their kids could get the best start in life over one's who never even looked towards their children's homework because they valued other things. Public or private, its the parents investment in their children's education that counts. In terms of end product, it doesn't have anything to do with their income.
The left is just sidelining large sections of the middle and upper class, and for no god damn reason. It's not even Australian tall poppy syndrome at work, its just stupidity.
* I classify myself as liberal in outlook, which places me firmly on the left in Australia's political climate.
1 comment:
Stop 'tauting' the Left, Pinky!
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