Why is it fair for people with money to get a better education than me?
Discuss issues that have a social and cultural impact, including but not limited to issues such as racism, teenage pregnancies, the social impact of religion, and the state of the education system.
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Why is it fair for people with money to get a better education than me?The title is more of a crowd drawer than my actual opinion, I'm still undecided on the 'private school issue' but I'm prepared to swing either way so convince me otherwise TSR.
I was just speaking to a girl who told me she wants to do Law in KCL, and she told me her brother got 12 A*s and she got 8 A*s. Me and my brothers went to state schools and I never got a single A*, one had mostly Cs and one had mostly Ds. So I've done much better than my brothers.
At first I thought wow for both to get such good grades they must have really good parents. But then I decided to ask "Do you go to a private school or state school?" She answered "Private school."
For both to have done so well having gone to a private school, I'm assuming this a common thing? Where as my school is a band 1 state school (Top band) and the highest achieved grade was 11 A* and 1 A, the second was 7A* and it went down from there out of 200 people. My GCSEs were considered well above average for my school. I can't however apply to the top Universities because my GCSEs aren't as good compared to, say, people on TSR and I am a hard worker.
So why is it that people who go to private schools get better grades? Why is their standard of education so high and why can't teachers in state schools copy it?
I'm just wondering, so discuss.
Oh, and I don't think there are welsh private schools are there?
Before anyone tries telling me their own opinions or situations e.g "I went to a private school and failed all of my GCSEs" here are some facts taken from the BBC and elsewhere.
8% of Children go to private schools, 92% go to state schools.
50% of Oxbridge undergrads are from private schools.
More than half of all students in Private schools come out with A or A* GCSE grades.
38% of all children getting three As or better at A-level are from Private schools.
"Pupils at private schools are more than three times as likely to get AAB in the key A level subjects that help candidates gain access to top universities as those in state schools, according to the first analysis of its kind released by the government." ~ Nick CleggLast edited by Miracle Day; 12-06-2012 at 11:59. -
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Re: Why is it fair for people with money to get a better education than me?Not an equal comparison. Education should be the great equaliser, not whether you have D&G underwear or not.(Original post by Drewski)
Why is it fair for someone with more money to have better clothes than me? -
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Re: Why is it fair for people with money to get a better education than me?Should've worked harder. Stop making excuses for yourself.(Original post by Miracle Day)
The title is more of a crowd drawer than my actual opinion, I'm still undecided on the 'private school issue' but I'm prepared to swing either way so convince me otherwise TSR.
I was just speaking to a girl who told me she wants to do Law in KCL, and she told me her brother got 12 A*s and she got 8 A*s. Me and my brothers went to state schools and I never got a single A*, one had mostly Cs and one had mostly Ds. So I've done much better than my brothers.
At first I thought wow for both to get such good grades they must have really good parents. But then I decided to ask "Do you go to a private school or state school?" She answered "Private school."
For both to have done so well having gone to a private school, I'm assuming this a common thing? Where as my school is a band 1 state school (Top band) and the highest achieved grade was 11 A* and 1 A, the second was 7A* and it went down from there out of 200 people. My GCSEs were considered well above average for my school. I can't however apply to the top Universities because my GCSEs aren't as good compared to, say, people on TSR and I am a hard worker.
So why is it that people who go to private schools get better grades? Why is their standard of education so high and why can't teachers in state schools copy it?
I'm just wondering, so discuss.
Oh, and I don't think there are welsh private schools are there?
No, it's not fair, but what do you propose? Scrapping private schools? That will never happen. -
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Re: Why is it fair for people with money to get a better education than me?I attended a state school and got 10 A*s and 2As.... which was by no means the best grades in the year either...
Depends on the state school I guess. It was a catholic school though, but does that really have all that much bearing on the situation? -
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Re: Why is it fair for people with money to get a better education than me?Well yeah when your parents are paying for the education and you can see the sacrifices they have to make to do so, you'd have to be a ****ty kid to not work hard.(Original post by Miracle Day)
So you think there's a different atmosphere in private schools? Interesting.
The people who worked the least tended to be really rich anyway, and just got good at sports instead.
When I went fees were about 3k per year, so a lot more middle class people were going. Now I think they are closer to 10k so maybe it's changing towards upper middle class.Last edited by jpye11; 11-06-2012 at 19:55. -
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Re: Why is it fair for people with money to get a better education than me?Only in an idealised utopian world. In the real world that'll simply never be the case, no point pretending otherwise.(Original post by Aramiss18)
Not an equal comparison. Education should be the great equaliser, not whether you have D&G underwear or not. -
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Re: Why is it fair for people with money to get a better education than me?What would be the point in paying for it then.(Original post by OU Student)
A private school isn't always better than a state school. They could just be more intelligent than you?
I think the main priority should be to make state schools better, especially those in large cities, never mind what private schools are doing. -
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Re: Why is it fair for people with money to get a better education than me?That's why people pay for private schools, otherwise they wouldn't be fulfilling their purpose. It's to give children an extra advantage.(Original post by Miracle Day)
I'm not making excuses, I should of worked harder. But the fact is I probably would have gotten better grades if I went to a private schools. -
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Re: Why is it fair for people with money to get a better education than me?No it isn't fair, and you may not necessarily have gotten better grades if you went to a private school, plenty of people who do get bad grades. That said - it's definitely an enviornment that's better for learning. You can't exactly blame private school students or their parents though, they're just trying to make the best for themselves/their kids. Bring back grammar schools, I say
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Re: Why is it fair for people with money to get a better education than me?So you don't disagree that it is morally wrong for children to have a better education and therefore prospects due to their birth but think it's something we should just accept as it would be extremely difficult to equalise? I think adults owe it to future children to be more ambitious with policy.(Original post by Drewski)
Only in an idealised utopian world. In the real world that'll simply never be the case, no point pretending otherwise. -
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Re: Why is it fair for people with money to get a better education than me?From what I remember of state school, it might be class size? When I was in my local state school, we had around 20+ people in a class. In my private school now, we have around 10. Also, not meaning to point fingers, but the teachers in my state school weren't very supportive of the slackers in lessons - extra help was pretty much out of the question
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Re: Why is it fair for people with money to get a better education than me?It's human nature.(Original post by Aramiss18)
So you don't disagree that it is morally wrong for children to have a better education and therefore prospects due to their birth but think it's something we should just accept as it would be extremely difficult to equalise? I think adults owe it to future children to be more ambitious with policy.
Some kids are predisposed to illnesses because of their birth. Whether it's morally wrong or not frankly doesn't matter. The idea that the younger generation has to do better than the one that went before it is inherently bad because somewhere along the line someone has to miss out in order for someone else to get that gain. -
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Re: Why is it fair for people with money to get a better education than me?I've put up some statistics from the BBC which obviously shows that people do better in Private schools, doesn't matter if you tell me I should have done tried harder or I should have done better the bottom line is people have an advantage if they go to them.
