Someone once said that the two greatest moments you enjoy when owning a yacht are the day you buy it and the day you sell it. You could make a similar case for school fees: nothing feels quite as good as the day you finally stop paying them.
Much as we are impressed by the hockey pitch, what we’re really choosing for our kids is a peer group
All the same, I feel a bit of an ingrate grumbling about private schools, since both my daughters did very well from them. Both ended up with a superb network of seemingly lifelong friends, had a mostly very happy time at school and attended the universities they wanted to attend, studying the subjects they wanted to study.
Perhaps most importantly – and this might be the dirty little unspoken secret of education – they’re good company, amusing and pleasant to be around, and can mix pretty happily with everyone in a range of social settings.
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