Public schools have gone soft

As you read this, I’ll be preparing to give an after-dinner speech at one of the oldest prep schools in Kenya. The school motto is Fortuna Favet Fortibus, so my theme is going to be the importance of character. I’m going to ask whether there’s any point in spending upwards of £30,000 a year to send your child to an English public school — a decision that many of the Kenyan parents will shortly have to make. If one of the purposes of a good education is to teach their children resilience in the face of adversity, wouldn’t they be better off sending them to a state school in Nairobi?

This is partly for provocative reasons. On the night I’ll be speaking, the audience will be crawling with agents for top public schools. They’ll be trying to gull the parents into parting with their life savings, so I feel dutybound to debunk some of the myths they’ll be peddling about the benefits of a public school education.