Why I choose state education over private school

John O'Farrell

why he chose a public school to give their children the best education

last week in Guardian Education Janet Murray wrote why she sent her son to a private school. Within hours, 500 comments were posted online, some of them congratulate the Guardian this brilliant satirical parody of the same article, we see once a year to journalists in London. I do not want to have a go at Janet Murray, in particular, although education looks like a concert Guardian curious for someone who has not even tried kindergarten statewide. Instead, I humbly suggest that Janet is wasting their money. Even worse, you do your child a disservice. There are things in this country where we do pay more get less results. And for me, private education below the G4S security.

Twelve years after being deeply involved in issues of education taught me that do not respond well to parents are told that they have made the wrong choice of education for their children. It suggests the subtext "I do not like how their children are to come", which is never guaranteed to be in love with old friends. A mild social occasion in a middle class home can turn in an instant. "That's why we thought to take the local primary Timothy to prepare for the entrance ..." A few hours later, police sirens outside flashing yellow "crime scene" tape blocks all the way that guests are party helped ambulance clutching the bloody noses and broken jaws.

But because this is a very important and emotional. It feels like the first line of the eternal struggle between personal interests and what is best for society in general. Any person may be left if it means just read the Guardian and then vote Labour. However, having enough faith in the public sector to entrust the well-being of your child, which requires confidence in the system and confidence in their children that many parents do not seem to have the leftists.

But this is a false dilemma. In the choice between "my children" and "society as a whole" we all put our children first. My wife and I send our children to public school because we wanted the best for them. We wanted the best education I could get. Guess what - it was all free! Imagine, we said to each other, if it is not spending £ 10,000 per year in tuition each? It would be a sum six figures when they go to university. How it would be better if this money is deposited in a savings account for a down payment on a house or save for later everyone, even when they were starting a family? Either Obviously, we were never able to save money, I think I spent most of the beer and curry, but the point still stands

is quite possible that if I had spent a fortune for them, they would have received an additional degree A GCSE here and there, and a journey of rugby in Johannesburg on the way. But this is not the same as getting an education. My children have both walked to their local school with classmates who have never met in private bus to Dulwich College. (An important tip in fact, there is a bus in London, free for children, which takes place in exactly the same way.) My children are rubbed with colleagues of all races and classes. They know that other people in your community, do not be scared when they walk in the street at night, they have gained a better understanding of how the company could never get into an institution where the majority of the company is excluded.

There is a world of difference between the study of Islam and goes to school with many Muslims. Sociology is another case when peers missing the school trip because they can not afford a passport. . (And please do not tell me how mixed their child's school is private, because believe me, it is really not Passing a secondary school near my home, my daughter said: "I did there were not many people in London blonde. ")

• Such was my confidence in the public sector that has largely left alone. Oh, except for the new school year, and then became president of Governors for eight years. In fact, my involvement in school increases my admiration for the exceptional teachers my children are in Lambeth Academy. I'm not quite sticky to the list of results here, but they and their friends have done amazingly, despite a poor start in the new school year. And all this without the misery of two or three hours of overtime every night school and Saturday morning.

Obviously, there is no way that you will never Lambeth Academy examination statistics on private schools. But the study results of schools with socially selective intake is a false science. Children from disadvantaged backgrounds will be much better wherever they go to school - that is a GCSE module 1 in the bleeding obvious. If you read to your children at an early age, if bad things are dragged round museums every weekend, if you have the time and energy to them and not leave them alone at home every night because he a second job cleaning floors at Heathrow, while their children do better in school. If your local project achieved 50% five A-Cs, including English and mathematics, this does not mean that your child has only a 50% chance of reaching this benchmark too simplistic. That parents generally perceived as a "better school" usually means a school with a consumer's easier to teach.

Janet Murray was seduced by the idea of ??the extra attention that her daughter was in a class of 11 (very small, unprofessional in my opinion). But in reality, it is very important to learn to take turns, keep in mind that everything in life is handed to you on a plate, it is up to you to make things happen. I would not mind if both the privilege and the social benefit of the most famous public schools in Britain has led to further respect for others or female, but it is not, but it tends to teach snobbery rank and deserved sense of superiority. Private schools are always bragging about all the extra-curricular activities. Eton is a shame not to offer after-school classes in humility.

So you do not need to send their children to private school if you want to run on a particular way. Much easier to put a hundred thousand dollars on the barbecue and teach them to be rude to the servers yourself. Or spend 10 years to £ 50 notes in the shredder while instructing fear of hoodies.

Not only does this division wrong for two groups of participating students, it is also bad for the country. The highest levels of our institutions and industries are filled with former public school students, who are there only because good relations and trust that does not match their ability to do a great job. Chancellor George Osborne is not because he is a financial genius unprecedented in the United Kingdom. It is because he is friends with the Prime Minister. When all restaurants smashed together, it was perhaps Osborne who produced the wad of cash to pay for the damages. "George looks pretty good with money - maybe you should be Chancellor?"

But none of that matters as much as what is best for your child. There are all kinds of different children and all kinds of different schools, and I understand that all children develop at each institution. But when you decide to pay, you can not deny your child a basic education that their society is like. So do not be afraid of their own community, their children will surprise you with their resilience and adaptability and fluidity of the African, Caribbean difficult words. One of the best lessons we can give is that it demonstrates the confidence they have in them. So be selfish. Put your children first. Send them to your local public school.

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