The case for state boarding schools

My philosophy of education has always been simple and I believe it unites right and left: namely, what wise parents would wish for their child, so the community should wish for all children. It’s a paraphrase of R.H. Tawney, who — being a socialist — said ‘state’ rather than ‘community’. I much prefer ‘community’ since it is an injunction to us all, including to local government, charities and social organisations, as well as to the state and its servants.

I feel this intensely personally, since the community — in the form of a local authority, Camden council in London — was my legal parent for the whole of my childhood. It did a pretty good job, thanks to the wisdom of the manager of my council children’s home, Gladys Baron, who became my surrogate mother. Dispensing a combination of tough love and brilliant strategic judgment about my education and future, she gave me a decent start in life from a ‘home’ where more inmates ended up in prison than at university, and most of whom are now dead.