Thread by @PennyRed

I went to a private school. I am keenly aware of how privileged I am to have done so. They are absolutely, categorically, engines of inequality, and I don’t know how anyone of conscience can argue otherwise.

> It wasn’t just the actual education I received at that school that made a difference. It was the support of teachers who had time to engage with a needy, intelligent child like me, within a structure that encouraged the highest expectations. >

> the most important lessons I learned at private school included that sense of entitlement, that base assumption of ‘why not me?’. I was on a large scholarship, and I was expected to repay that charity by achieving the highest grades and getting into Oxbridge.

And when I became unwell, and my life fell apart in my teens, I had life-changing personal and academic support from the school. I think my life would have been different if I had continued in the state school system- for reasons that have nothing to do with merit.

I don’t think anyone needs to be ashamed to have gone to a private school. Shame is unhelpful. I think those of us who did have a responsibility to acknowledge how much we have benefited, and how unfair the system is- and to be proactive in admitting how it needs to change.

I didn’t have a wholly enjoyable time at the school I went to- but I was thirteen, strange, fragile and easy to bully. I would have had a dreadful time at any school. At my private school, the attentive teachers and after-school activities saved me in so many ways.

To be clear: I don’t think private schools should be ‘abolished’ in the sense of being torn down and disbanded. I think they should be nationalised, the assets and structural privileges made part of the commons and opened to everyone.

The most important reason for that is that as long as private schools exist, there will be no collective investment in public education. If the wealthy can buy their way out, they will. If they can’t, things will change very quickly.

There are lots of people whose talent and drive alone is enough to make them successful in life.
I am not one of them.
I’m very good at what I do and extremely hard-working, but that is not enough. It often isn’t. That’s what this discussion of privilege is all about.

What made every difference for me was:
-the attention, support and second chances that come with class privilege.
-a safety net, meaning that I could take risks and know that failure would not mean disaster.
I got to fuck up. Badly. Many people don’t get to fuck up even once.