Etonians. Anyone Agree?

[FredPuli43]

From Saturday's,today's, Times: //The number of Old Etonians at the heart of the Government is a reflection of the school’s “commitment to public service”, according to one of David Cameron’s new policy advisers.

Jesse Norman, who was appointed this week to the Prime Minister’s parliamentary advisory board of MPs, launched an impassioned defence of his old school, saying that it imbued its students with an “ethos” of public service.

In an interview with The Times, Mr Norman said: “Other schools don’t have the same commitment to public service. They do other things. It’s one of the few schools where the pupils really do run vast chunks of the school themselves. So they don’t defer in quite the same way, they do think there’s the possibility of making change through their own actions.

“Of course, they are highly privileged — it would be absurd to deny that — but the whole point of what Michael Gove is trying to do is to recover that independent school ethos within the state system, so that people from whatever walk of life can feel that they can take a proper part to the maximum.” ?//

Worth quoting, for full effect, but doesn't anyone here agree? Any comments? (I don't agree with the specific defence of Eton)

[Gromit]

I cannot comment on the quality or ethos of Eton School, but I do not think it is good for Government and the country to have so many people with very similar backgrounds. A diversity of experience, upbringing and academia would give a better Cabinet team. A wider range of views, thinking and skills is what is needed, not an ethos drummed in by a single public school.

As it is, we get (from all the 3 major parties) rich people from priviledged backgrounds who go to the same school and University. They never have a proper job and then become party activists then MPs then ministers. It is a well worn career path and leads to a lot of mediocre members of parliament.

Oh, and the notion that Eton ingrains public service is b0llox. It is a great start in life for anyone with ambitions of power. It knows it and promotes it.

[tonyav]

Just another example of 'The Old School Tie' imo.

[Zacs-Master]

It's not just how many old Etonians are in power or working in a governmental capacity, it's how many of their alumni are heads of large (footsie 100?) companies and banks. Whilst I am aware that not all old school chums are friends, it still makes for an unhealthy situation for the economy.

[naomi24]

I disagree. They are not trained for public service, but to become leaders in their chosen field - whatever that may be - and the same applies to other major public schools.

[Zacs-Master]

Hence my proposition.

[humbersloop]

does understanding the relationship between "commitment to public service" and "of course they are highly privileged" require the complete irony bypass that only attending Eton instills?

[Svejk]

Bring back grammar schools.
We had 20yrs of PMs who attended grammar schools.
Since they were abolished we've reverted to public schoolboys taking all the top jobs, not just in politics either.
There's an ever widening gap in income & opportunity, yet, perversely our socialist friends always block any attempts to rectify this situation.

[naomi24]

//Bring back grammar schools. //

I second that!

[leahbee]

I believe that all these colleges should run a degree course in common sense. Academic qualifications are worth nothing without it and unfortunately most of our polititions seem to. be sadly lacking.

[DTCwordfan]

I'll third it.

Nothing wrong with social elitism based on meritocracy.....

[jim360]

What would the common sense syllabus be, though?

It might just take a certain type of person to be motivated to go into politics. Goodness only knows what we can do about it -- but surely the answer is more likely to be to lift people up to the level of a public school education, rather than dragging Etonian, etc., education standards down.

[Sqad]

jim....;-)

[jim360]

Yes, Sqad ... ?

[Sqad]

Jimm....just me smiley to myself at your post..........I agree with you entirely.

[jno]

in what way is the outcome different from "promoting your chums"?

[Gromit]

Grammar Schools gave us Callaghan, Thatcher and Major.

Is that an arguement for or against them?

[jno]

grammar schools gave us a wider range of choices, but the choices we made were ours.

This Old Etonian network smells lilke it's back to the 50s.

[Zacs-Master]

I don't think this debate is about the level of education in any system. It's about the unhealthy nature of one institution breeding leaders of government, business, the church and royalty. If that doesn't engender a bit of a 'closed shop mentality' then you can paint me blue and call me Mildred.

[Sharingan]

I can't comment particularly on Eton and it's ethos, but I can add something anecdotal regarding state schools perhaps lacking the ability or inclination to endow their students with leadership abilities. We were at a bowling alley when a man collapsed in the car park. I was there with 5 other people all 14-18 who are all home educated. No-one from the bowling alley or indeed anyone else made a move to do anything constructive to help him until one of the others in my party checked his status and began cpr. Still no-one else took control of the situation, so another of our party checked his mobile phone as he seemed to be alone and called his home number informing the lady who answered what was happening and I called an ambulance on my phone. Someone else from our party ran into the bowling alley and asked them if they had any trained staff, got no sense from the girl on the desk so ran into the bowling area and asked amongst the customers if there were any medical staff present which thankfully there were and they came and took over until the paramedics and ambulance turned up a few minutes later. I'm not necessarily suggesting that people from a state school background wouldn't have helped him, but certainly it seemed to come more easily to the people who have not been through state school to actually act quickly and decisively. It's a single event, so may not have much weight but it did shock us all exactly how little anyone wanted to take the lead in addressing the situation and how happy they were to allow a small party of quite young people to deal with what could have been a potentially fatal situation. I don't think we need Eton to provide our leaders but I would be interested to see exactly what state schools do in terms of preparing people for leadership or emergency situations, because if Eton are doing that and state schools aren't then clearly that's where things are going wrong imho. You could then perhaps question however whether people who go to Eton want people who go to state schools to be groomed for leadership lol, but if it is Michael Gove's intention to maximise people's capabilities whatever their walk of life, I could not possibly argue with that, even though I do not personally like him.

[emmie]

Grammar schools gave a lot of people a chance who wouldn't ordinarily have had it from poorer backgrounds. My o/h went to a grammar school and he did very well afterwards in his chosen field.