However you define the question of education comprehensives are not the answer

Over a cup of coffee this morning I reread Tanya Gold's article about the dominance of the public schools in staffing Establishment insitutions (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/nov/23/eton-schools-inequality-elite-social-immobility ).

It is a cogent article, with some interesting statistics and conclusions.  Especially the killer admission:  The privately educated have an insurmountable advantage – when Labour abolished grammar schools they should have abolished private schools too, or not abolished either.  This is not to say that grammar schools were / are perfect, but when the system works they do provide an easily-understood sequence of stages whereby ordinary people can be recruited into the Establishment elite (and in the process make the Establishment elite more grounded in the ordinary population).

I went to a comprehensive school, and I cannot be sure that if the old system had still been in place I would have passed the Eleven Plus and gone to a grammar school.  But my experience does allow me to say that however you define the question of education comprehensives are not the answer.  The structure and ethos of comprehensives implies collective equality, and therefore the staff are "nudged" in the direction of not differentiating between one student and another (and too often this fuels the natural laziness of some teachers, bolstered by tenure of employment, to just coast along in their jobs without making much of an effort).

There is another aspect of public (independent) schools that needs to be addressed.

At the university I eventually, and after several false starts, went to about 60% of the students were from public schools.  Among these were several Old Etonians, one of whom I knew very well (and gave me the Eton coaster in the picture above), and another four I knew fairly well.  These Old Etonians were not the most intelligent people on the course but they were all, without exception, supremely confident.

State comprehensive schools will never give their alumni a sense of confidence.  If anything, they give you a sense of insecurity.  That however hard you work the odds are already stacked against you and the best jobs are already reserved for others. 

This will only change when all schools have the sense of mission that the public schools (and formerly the old grammar schools) have - that they are the best in the world.