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The Forum > Article Comments > I feel guilty my son is at a public school > Comments

I feel guilty my son is at a public school : Comments

By Leslie Cannold, published 8/11/2007

Why do only the wealthiest parents in the community, and the most religious, deserve a real choice about where they educate their kids?

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tommybob

Don't lay your smug self-righteousness on us.

Some of us have very good reasons to send our children to government schools. One of the main ones is that we love our children and care very much for their education (as distinct from their schooling) and want them to grow up knowing a broad cross-section of Australian children.

Then there are many, many families who genuinely cannot afford the fees even if they start at 'only' $2000 a year. Private schools tout their 'generous' scholarships in their PR brochures but in fact these represent in the order of 1-2% of private school enrolments. The scholarships are a mere token to let the affluent parents feel better.

Finally, your efforts to help your children are no doubt genuine, but have you thought about the possibility that you are wasting your money? With three children now through the government school system now all with Master's degrees at the best universities except the last who is just entering his Honours year. They learned exceptionally well at government schools and were not spoon-fed by private school teachers anxious to cram Year 12 facts into their heads and not at all interested in how they would cope after that.

My children's schools also didn't chuck the under-achievers out in order to falsify their academic results. These were government schools that took all-comers and cared for them all whatever their backgrounds, their bank accounts or their abilities.

Why should you be surprised that State governments spend more on government schools than they do on private schools? Are you also surprised that the Commonwealth government spends more on private schools than on government schools?
Posted by FrankGol, Saturday, 17 November 2007 11:22:07 PM
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The scholarships question is an interesting one isn't it? I know a couple whose twin daughters are very bright academically. They are in their last year of government primary school. A particular private college, which has admitted to the parents that it trolls through primary school newsletters to identify bright primary students has been pestering them (by "pestering" I mean repeated and unwanted attempts) to accept scholarships for the two girls at the college. This college is using its schlarships to rob the state school system of academically gifted students for its own later self-promotion based on Year 12 scores. The market place throws up some great educational values, doesn't it!
Posted by mike-servethepeople, Monday, 19 November 2007 9:24:00 AM
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Frankgol,

I am really glad that your children performed so well at public school, but your comments about independent schools show that you actually know very little about what goes on at independent schools and the independent route was actually never considered for your children.

If you had you would realise that independent schools do not exclude under achievers. (they have so many applicants that they could do so easily). Also they are not cram colleges, and one of the main attractions is that they focus on a far larger variety of life skills such as music, drama, debating, community focus groups, languages etc.

One of the biggest problems is that many graduates come out of university totally unable to cope with any of the curved balls that life and business throw at them. The skills of negotiation, communication etc are severely lacking and while they perform well in a narrow band, will struggle to advance their careers.

Most parents do not spend the fees so they have something to boast about. If the benefits weren't significant the waiting lists wouldn't be so long.
Posted by Shadow Minister, Monday, 19 November 2007 9:50:20 AM
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I would like to see the figures etc., regarding this idea that is being thrown around about Public School students performing better at University than Private School students. I would like to know how many students they are talking about, how they came to this conclusion and what schools they are talking about because public schools in rich areas are very different to public schools in disadvantaged areas. We should be comparing the public schools from disadvantaged areas. Now I wonder how many of those students from public schools in disadvantage areas actually get to University and actually manage to excell whilst they are there.

If we are going to compare, we should at least be fair.
Posted by Jolanda, Monday, 19 November 2007 10:09:34 AM
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Thanks Frankgol for your history of your children schooled in Govt high schools and their obvious success. Tommybob is fairly typical of the the pathetic state we have got to in Australia where there are large parts of the population that believe not sending your children to private schools is tantamount to parental failure. We send our children to govt primary and secondary schools and earn $200k + pa-we choose govt schools for the vlaue of programs offered, the excellent and dedicated staff and the value of being in a real community made up of students from all sorts of backgrounds. Scholarships have been debased to the point where private schools use them purely to skim academically bright kids that will boost their VCE results and support their marketing-Tommybob is obviously not bright enough to work this out. Jolanda through her many and varied posts is obviously very unhappy with the govt system in NSW. The situation in Sydney is much like that in Melb-high performing Govt secondary schools are all clustered in middle class suburbs. The outer burbs have the worst performing high schools because there aspirational parents flock to low cost Catholic and independent schools. The population left in these schools usually have the most social and educational problems. Again the Tommybobs of this world are desperate to differientiate them selves from this group.School choice has much to do with aspiration and the desire in the burbs to isolate from what is seen as "negative"-walled estates full of Mc Mansions next to struggletown from which most of the Mc Mansion owners see themselves as escaping from.
Posted by pdev, Tuesday, 20 November 2007 1:29:33 PM
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"My wife and I both work and scrimp and save to send our kids to private schools, the cost is that we cannot afford to buy a house or new cars,"

"The extra hours I and his mother work helps. The cheap car I drive helps. Not having holidays outside my city helps.
Yes, I sacrifice a fair bit for my child. That is what parents who care about their children do."

In any debate where the private / public school issue is brought up, this same facile statement rears its ugly head. I have read it hundreds of times in many different forms, and I'm SICK of it.

If we had a decent public school system (and we don't), you wouldn't feel the compulsion to "sacrifice".

And what about the kids whose family background is pretty sad, and they don't have the choice to have a good start in life? Is it THEIR fault that they have to attend the "crappy" local public school, and that their parents can't "sacrifice"?
Posted by petal, Tuesday, 20 November 2007 2:34:16 PM
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