Posted on 12/20/2004 8:07:57 AM PST by Jimmyclyde
bump
Hope that the author didn't get paid much for these revelations.
This attempted hit piece on private schools is more a self-indictment and warning to the management at ANY school (or business) public or private.
I'm glad my parents pulled me out of public school. The pot at the public school sucked, and at the "Academy", we had access to some really good Thai weed.
The piece is on private schools in England. (Of course, private schools in England are called "public" schools.)
"This attempted hit piece on private schools is more a self-indictment and warning to the management at ANY school (or business) public or private. "
Such behavior at boarding schools (and worse) has been going on for as long as there have been boarding schools. Over-indulged rich kids all plopped together in dorms run by a single individual will always find ways to do mischief.
Parents should think long and hard before sending their kids off to these schools. Single-sex boarding schools are hotbeds of homosexual initiation. Coed boarding schools are hotbeds of heterosexual intitiation. Drinking, drugs, and who knows what else are a matter of fact at all such schools, secular and religious.
Didn't Dickens' Oliver Twist attend such a school? Just because it's costly and/or private doesn't mean it's good. And some public schools are good (aack! heresy! spit! spit!)
And do they have condom dispensers in co-ed "barracks" for these pampered children?
"And do they have condom dispensers in co-ed "barracks" for these pampered children?
"
Nah. The school nurse's office doubles as an abortion clinic on weekends.
At least at a private schools, they don't invite in groups like Glaad & GLSN to teach fisting, etc, like some public schools do.
My experience is that even with greater freedom and access to the stuff, the same percentage will try drugs & alcohol, and most will outgrow any yearnings before college. Of course some will push the limits and get into trouble, but I highly doubt any more so than kids educated at public schools.
There is a lot of pressure to perform in class and at sports with a typically much smaller class size and it's a hell of a lot harder to fly under the radar.
I graduated with 76 kids and our teachers were our coaches and dorm parents. They knew who was a stoner, boozer or loser or just a suckup, etc.
If Mike, UK "housemaster" has that much experience, WHY doesn't he provide some info on what percentage of these
kids are placed in private school by parents who have
abandoned their responsibilities re the offspring's upbringing?
One has to assume (!) that the schools are charging
a good buck for "educating" the children. What are
the parents getting for their money? For this guy
to admit there is a total lack of guidance/discipline
in the dorms is a pretty crass attitude.
Rather than parent, it became easier it appears to send these kids away to boarding schools in seperate states. That way they could sweep the issue under the rug and add to their "pedigree" by stating that they "went away to school".
2 flunk outs later for one, and an expulsion due to alcohol for the other lead to a (assuredly embarrassing for the families) re-introduction to the local public school system.
Oh, BTW, one discovered the joys of LSD and cocaine at the advanced age of 15 while away. An issue still struggled with today.
Yeah, it was an easy decision for the family. Can't have the tasks of actually parenting get in the way of having the right guests at the right parties...
Funny they start "critizing" the schoold after the little "prince" and baby brother graduate....
"Funny they start "critizing" the schoold after the little "prince" and baby brother graduate...."
Not really. In England, stories about boarding schools go back a long, long way. There are many novels that take place in them, and such misbehavior has always gone on. It's the nature of the surroundings and the students.
Most kids who attend boarding schools are from the privileged class, have too much money, and parents who are shuffling them off there after they're too old to have nannies and governesses.
Same situation here in the US. Trust me, you don't want a private boarding school in your neighborhood. If there is one, lock your daughters away.
As for the "rich kids" (I was not one of them for I was accepted on an acedemic scholarship), they too had to meet "educational" requirements and belive me we didn't have rich stupid slackers attending MY school. Too many families and students wanted to attend, and the school didn't need to fill the roster with academic deadbeats.
Did we have party hounds in attendance, why of course....but tell me WHERE that doesn't happen???
Where ever there is an institution (boarding school, college, hospital etc.) you will have RULES and we all know rules are made to be broken.
I consider it an HONOR to be among a chosen few to have attended an elite boarding school AND with a scholarship.
Thanks for your opinion it is an interesting one, and Merry Christmas!
Am I the only one who sees it as an unintended indictment of taking power away from the general public to control what goes on in their own establishments? All through the piece I kept reading about how no action could be taken against a student caught breaking the rules because no one was allowed to take action of any kind.
"Am I the only one who sees it as an unintended indictment of taking power away from the general public to control what goes on in their own establishments"
EXCELLENT POINT. The battle for the Alamo was about private property rights. So is the battle for private guns and property today...among other battles of course.
Modern smoking clubs and the Prohibition era "speakeasies" also beg the same question. The context of the Constitution is that we abide by the moral laws implicit in the endowing by our Creator of our inalienable rights....in that context some behavior is simply personally unacceptable and when I choose not to behave as, for example a murder and pedophile--there is no need for a law against it. Living above the law is not being shielded from prosecution but rather not doing things which are evil. "An examined life."
At least at boarding school they aren't drinking and then driving. It's a pretty safe place to experiment, if one has the tendency to do so.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.