"Privileged" Education

[Trillian]

I"m divided on it. I've met a lot of people who were private school educated who are absolute tools and have a huge sense of entitlement, but I've come across those same people who never set foot in a private school - just as I have known a lot of publicly and privately educated people who are truly the most amazing people you would ever meet. I was publicly educated and DH was public for primary and then private boarding for high school for 7-10 and then came back to his local high school for 11 and 12 because he couldn't live with the knowledge that his parents were paying $20k per year for his education when he knew he wanted to be a farmer. He said he got jack of the pressure from the school to change his mind and become something else that entailed a stint at Uni. He felt there was absolutely zero support for students who did not want professional careers. His brother on the other hand stayed at the school, went onto business college, then became a demolition worker before coming back to the farm. Their sister refused point blank to go to the same private school, spent 7 weeks there in year 7 and came back to the local high school and scored nearly a perfect 100 in her HSC. She became an accountant and even then still had people say she should have done medicine because of the high marks she got. There are no guarantees that private school will set your children up a certain way if they truly want to do something else.

Krisp, I think the person you met was probably just a tool in general and totally unrelated to where he went to school. Granted yes that some people do have an unhealthy obsession with where people went to school, even if it was so long ago, but if it wasn't school, the people with personalities like that would cling to something else to brag about kwim?

To answer your questions
Does the school you went to matter? Unfortunately in some cases it does. Not saying this is right, but it's the way it is. We have neighbours who homeschool their kids and one of their sons is a very handy Rugby Union player. They have aspirations of him playing for the Wallabies and make sure he gets into local rep teams in the hope that he gets spotted, but the reality is that without a private school education, this kid has buckleys and none of getting into the Wallabies. When was the last time you ever heard of a world-class rubgy player coming from public school, let alone being homeschooled?
Does private schooling afford you priviledges that would otherwise not be open to you? No. Life is what you make of it, plain and simple. It might put you in the place where you have all these opportunities available to you, but what is the point of it if you don't want to take it kwim? If you don't come from that background, there is absolutely nothing stopping you becoming whatever you want to become if you have the drive and determination to get it. And just being in private school does not mean that you will succeed either if you don't have the drive to do it. And in the case of my DH, it can possibly set you up to be something you don't really want to be for fear of 'wasting' that fancy education you have.
Does it play a role in your future eg job selection, lifestyle choices etc? Yes and no. I know that if I had of gone to private school, I would have felt very uncomfortable living that lifestyle because it just does not align with the way I choose to live my life now. And anyone can live the high life if they want to. I have no doubt that it plays a role in job selection but it works both ways - if you have a public school educated person going for a corporate job, you are likely to get dismissed as being a flannie-shirt wearing plebian just as if you are a privately educated person going for a job as a tradie, well you'd be likely to get dismissed as being a knob. Neither is right but sadly it is something that has become ingrained in our culture to think like that.
Does it shape the person/adult you become? Again, yes and no. I would have become the person I have become regardless of the school I went to. I am just too cool for school Seriously though, when I finished school I did not want to go to Uni at all and I honestly don't think that would have mattered whether I went to public school or private school, only with private school I probably would have went anyway because Uni seems to be a natural progression of private school but I would have dropped out because it wouldn't have been what I wanted to do. But look at me now - well on my way to getting a Bachelors degree because I WANT to do it.

And as for private school instilling self confidence and the ability to hold your own, in all honesty I think that isn't true. Self confidence can't be instilled in you by anyone - you have to find it yourself. In my experience, some of the most confident people I know went through public school and they can hold their own because they had to *fight* more kwim. Me included - I can kick anyone's ass if I have to and I call a spade a spade and I think I have the ability to not get people offside while I do it.

Bath, I think you would like the public school that my kids go to (and the one DH himself attended). They have an awesome attitude to education and some very successful people started their educations at this school. The teachers are amazing and totally dedicated to their jobs. It's the school I ultimately want to teach in myself when I graduate because their core beliefs align perfectly with mine. The kids have every opportunity given to them and we have many state representatives for both sport and academic persuits and our school scores pretty damn high on the My schools website too LOL.