That's an interesting thought palimpsest - lets have schools that are punitive towards gay students or towards those who refuse to accept the status quo- actually we already have some of those schools, and the truly amazing thing is that some parents actually pay money -big money - to have their child harassed, belittled and condemned. Few psychiatrists have spent as much time dealing with the damage teachers have wrought (unless the poor kids were boarders or altar boys), in comparison to the time they've spent repairing the misery created by crap parents - often those who believe their children ought to be little reproductions of themselves, rather than big themselves. And that's the problem with having a rigid view of an acceptable way to be human (often, but not always thanks to religion) it stuffs your kids.
My daughter who attended a co-ed comprehensive public school in a wealthy area which had become a safe haven for all the boys who didn't fit the boy's private school model (mostly the gay ones) is now at Sydney Uni. Recently she was asked by an ex student of an exclusive girls school how she found uni and whether she'd made friends. Yes, she said, her best friend was a gay guy who she loved. Oh, said this escapee from single sex, one note schooling - we all have our token gay friend in first year. No, said my daughter, I've had gay friends since year 7, I didn't go to an all girls school. I'm not friends with him cos he's gay, I'm friends with him cos I like him. You may have something to prove, but I don't.
That's the trouble with separatist schooling - it gives you the illusion of superiority while really creating ignorance -and, unfortunately, ignorance's best mate - arrogance.

curious ena that you base your narrative on something I did not say. My point is that the perceptions of what is wrong with public education need to be addressed. Nowhere did I say that the points made were my viewpoints.

In plain English for you- does the authors idea of inclusiveness allow for views such as I highlighted above. Because these were examples of the sorts of reasons I've heard people give for sending their kids to private schools(along with tradition, distance etc).

I've got friends who were privately educated who give the lie to any idea of being somehow superior by virtue of their education by being thoroughly decent people and, shock horror send their kids to public schools.

Ofcourse this is a publiv v private schools article. To say otherwise is a dishonest ploy whether it's deliberate or not.

NSW is taken as an example however, NSW is the example of why the differences are needed since a parent has no choice of which public school their children attend. If your children go to a NSW Government school and are bullied, beaten, harrassed and vilified, you still must send your children to that school. If the school has poor management which creates a poor learning environment, you still must send your child to that school or, you pay up for private education.

It is the neglect of government schools that has forced parents into private schooling since standards of government schools has fallen. In QLD, we are now seeing P&C's starting to find funding the wages of classroom staffing for their Prep grade. Not to forget just how much P&C's are responsible that should be paid for by government.

Government buildings are exempt from paying local council rates but not schools, they must find this funding from their school budgets that would otherwise go to the learning environment. Government schools like all infrastructure is less and less funded in real terms no matter who is in power.

Australia won't see an education revolution until the needs of the young are put first, second and last. Australia must move away from the degenerate American education system and move in the general direction of european nations such as Finland who is the world leader.

The great tragedy of private schools is that it provides groups the opportunity to seperate their children from the rest of the population.

The jewish schools in Victoria do not follow Victorian school holidays so that their pupils have limited time to fratanise with the state school product.

While buying dried fruit I was alone with an Exclusive Brethren woman and it was very hard to find a topic to strike up a conversation. I was rewarded with a shy smile. That's the real reason for private schools to seperate and corral the young women so they have no contact outside their church and have no possibility of a future outside their church.