The independent advantage starts early – frighteningly early, if you’re a parent, says Fraser Nelson
Fifty per cent of children are of below-average intelligence, but try telling that obvious fact to their parents. Humans are programmed to find their offspring mesmerisingly delightful, and to consider them strikingly quick learners and budding geniuses. I know I do. But like many parents, I promised myself I would not let it drive me to delusional paranoia or make me project on the poor lad my own ambitions. Certainly, when it came to primary school, I was going to relax. How much can they learn at that age, anyway?
My mum and sister, both professional primary teachers, had warned me not to succumb to what they saw as the peculiarly English, middle-class phenomenon of worrying about primary schooling. I went to my local state primary, as did everyone I know. I only found about the social distinctions in early education a few years ago, when I asked George Osborne if it was true he went to primary school with Nathaniel Rothschild. ‘Yes, but I don’t think either of us would call it a primary,’ he laughed. I smiled, politely — I was baffled. That was two years ago, and I had no idea what he was talking about. By God, I do now.
Prep is private, primary is state, and there is a world of difference between them. Even a year ago, I would not have believed such a divide among children so young was possible. But as I began to survey primary schools for my eldest, the full horror dawned. The English are right to worry. There is striking segregation, and it starts horribly young. The private ‘prep’ schools ask boys to wear uniforms, behave in a certain way and charge the earth for a traditional school ethos which my father’s generation were given free.
Comments
Join the debate for just £1 a month
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for £3.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just £1 a monthAlready a subscriber? Log in