Ruth Kelly sending her son to a private school

[Dr Lobster*]

perhaps i've got something wrong with me, i don't know.

but why is it every time i see ruth kelly i just want to throttle her great big fat neck, not letting go until she promises to go somewhere far far away and never come back?

[Nick Harvey]

It has to be said that, whatever your particular politics, Tone's picked some very strangely shaped people for his cabinet.

I remember remarking to 'er indoors at one of his reshuffles that perhaps you have to be an odd shape in order to get picked.

[Gavin Scott]

Why is it we call it private school now rather than public school?

I'm glad the Scots use of "private school" has drifted down south.

It's never made any sense to me to call a fee paying school "public".

[Rob Del Monte]

well, come on, if you had the money, would you choose to state school your child ?!

[Gavin Scott]

well, come on, if you had the money, would you choose to state school your child ?!

Don't be a snob, Rob. I had a fine education at a non-private school (although I appear to have missed the lessons which taught the extraneous use of punctuation symbols).

The point about Ruth Kelly is she was a one-time Education Secretary, and her short tenure was fraught with problems.

It clearly shows that she has no confidence in the system previously under her own governance. What must parents who don't have the money for fee-paying schools make of that?

She deserves every ounce of criticism we have to give.

[Sput]

The kid *does* have severe learning difficulties

[marksi]

I see she's grown her hair; perhaps in some vain effort to stop people thinking she's a lesbo.

[cwathen]

well, come on, if you had the money, would you choose to state school your child ?!

No, actually. There are some excellent, excellent private schools - and there are some shit, shit state schools. But there are also some excellent, excellent state schools, and some shit, shit private schools.

I do not belong to that badge-wearing club of snobbish parents who believe that private schools by definition must be better.

If I find myself living in an area where I feel that local private schools will offer a better education to my children than it's state alternative, and I have the money, then of course I'd send them to the private option. But similarly, if I feel that the state school is fine, then regardless of my financial position or the existance or not of a private school, they'd still go state.

A good school is not defined on the basis of being state or private, it's defined on what sort of an education it provides, and a parent opting for private education certainly has no right to claim that fact as some sort of badge they should wear (and often forcibly apply to their children) as an indication of their superiority over those kids across the road who 'only' go to a state school.

[Dr Lobster*]

The kid *does* have severe learning difficulties

i'm not surprised, it has been sucking ruth kelly's tits every day for the first three years of its life, after all.

[cdd]

well, come on, if you had the money, would you choose to state school your child ?!

If you're the product of the Private education system, I think the answer is yes!

[Gavin Scott]

The kid *does* have severe learning difficulties

Which the state has to, and does, make provision for. Her Local Education Authority spokesman said as much.

At the end of the day she's entitled to make her choice; but it can hardly inspire confidence for parents with troubled kids out there.