Hopefully this should put an end to this:
'Equal opportunity' Is one of those phrases that sounds great, and is highly applicable to specific situations:
But its one of the many equality concepts that should only be used in isolated cases, and cannot be extrapolated to a wider scale.
As a society, striving for complete equality of opportunity, goes against our basic instincts to compete.
It does not seem to, because you may think 'well, I want equality of opportunity, rather then equality of outcome.. i want everyone to start the same, they can still then compete and achieve based on their own merits after that.
But in practice it does not work, because the singular overarching purpose to our competition and our lives is the strive to continue, to reproduce and then provide whats best for our children. This is the reward, its the reason we compete. By creating equality of opportunity for children, you are in fact creating equality of outcome for parents. You are saying to parents, no matter how hard you work, or how much you achieve.. It makes no difference in regards to supporting your child, as every child should get the same treatment'
Thats where this all falls down. and why, even if they cant fully explain why, many people who are for equality, are against the idea of closing private schools. It creates an equality of outcome, which is something we have aimed to move past as an equality focused society.
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After all the idea that all children should have the same opportunities? It will never happen. Get rid of private schools and you only scratch the surface of childhood inequalities. You still have: disposable income, free time, location of where they live, education aiding equipment, and so so much more that is wealth-related and causes an inequality. Private-schools are just the tip of the iceberg, the most obvious example of a universal problem.
I work as an educational consultant, for both private schools and state schools, a big part of my job is advising parents on the education of their child, and believe me - private school or no private school is not actually the issue that really matters. So many times its the effort the parent puts into extra teaching outside school, the equipment they can buy to inspire their children, trips to museums/abroad, time spent engaging their children in reading etc. All of these are often wealth-pedant, and especially time-dependent, but they are aspects that you are never going to create equality between children within.
When you actually look at it, as a society in the Uk we have a very good system:
We provide a base level of opportunity for every child born in the UK. The base-line standard, that all must receive.
But then parents are free to add on top of that in any way they see fit for their child. Some add in a positive way, enhancing their children s education, and some in a negative way, taking away from their education.
Our goal for moving forward is simple: Create more equality by raising the base-line standard of education provided by all children. Not by removing the ability of parents to enhance their own child's education.