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Did you mean private schools? Public school education in the UK is quite problematic.

• brd529 4y ago
  In England “public schools” are what they call elite privately run schools. Edit: interesting history on why: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_school_(United_Kingdom) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_school_(United_Kingdo... the schools “were "public" in the sense of being open to pupils irrespective of locality, denomination or paternal trade or profession.”
• smcl 4y ago
  No "Public Schools" in the UK refers to a very specific subset of fee-paying schools mentioned in the Public Schools Act of 1868 (sometimes informally includes a couple of others). Private Schools are the other fee-paying schools. What a non-Brit might think of as "public" schools are actually called "state" schools in the UK
  • frereubu 4y ago
    The way I explain it to American friends is that any member of the public, if they have £45,000+ per year to spare, can send their son to Eton. Simple.
    • ranko 4y ago
      Only if the child in question is male.
      • frereubu 4y ago
        Fair point - fixed.
      • deleted 4y ago
        [deleted]
    • SilasX 4y ago
      Is that really true though? Money is the only factor in admission? No entrance exams? No rejections for “families we don’t want to be associated with”? No special admittances for prestigious families that don’t get charged? If not, maybe that explanation isn’t a very helpful one.
      • frereubu 4y ago
        Well, it was a joke, but to take an earnest question seriously, there are entrance exams, but they're not especially hard, particularly if you've been coached beforehand, as many of these kids will be. Theoretically no special cases, and "celebrity" would certainly be frowned on at Eton / Harrow - these are old-money families, not nouveau-riches.
        • SilasX 4y ago
          I edited the comment — “celebrity” might be the wrong word, but I was thinking that they might care more about having a noble’s kid attend than the 45k, and, like you just implied, they’d reject nouveau-riches even if they had the money, especially if the riches came from a source that’s frowned upon. So it’s not a very good joke, as it implies that there aren’t any other filters, despite their intense concern for reputation.
          • frereubu 4y ago
            If you're looking for jokes to be factually accurate, comedy must be rather unsatisfying for you.
            • SilasX 4y ago
              They need to have enough truth/insight to be funny. When your premise is that Eton only looks at cash-in-hand for admissions -- pretty much the opposite of the truth -- that doesn't qualify. The joke would only work for schools that famously looked the other way on pretty egregious stuff if you paid them enough -- not on a school that makes a point of heavily filtering beyond the official tuition. (Sorry, "sticker price".) Side note: It's also kinda funny how the parent expects 45k to be some kind of jaw-dropping, outrageous number, when Americans routinely pay that much for college.
    • vmilner 4y ago
      Or win one of the (up to 4) 100% “New Foundation Scholarships” offered to state school boys.
  • rahoulb 4y ago
    And this comes down to history. When these schools were founded, the alternative was to have private tuition - as opposed to be taught "publicly" and live with children from other families. (The school I went to was founded in 1513 - but is known as a private school rather than a public one because it was never a boarding school).
• rich_sasha 4y ago
  In UK "public school" means private school, generally old ones with traditions going back to British Empire, or subscribing to a similar ideology. Training the new elites, building character, connections etc. They do tend to be very good schools but raise issues about social mobility, elitism etc (they tend to be expensive).
• yomly 4y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_school_(United_Kingdom) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_school_(United_Kingdom) Nine prestigious schools were investigated by Clarendon (including Merchant Taylors' School and St. Paul's School) and seven subsequently reformed by the Act: Eton, Shrewsbury, Harrow, Winchester, Rugby, Westminster, and Charterhouse. Confusingly, "Public School" refers to the most elite (and very exclusive) schools in the UK
• andyjohnson0 4y ago
  > Did you mean private schools? Public school education in the UK is quite problematic. Ita confusing. In the uk, private schools are referred to as "public schools". The last person to know the reason for this died in 1764. Probably. Schools that the actual public go to are called "state schools" because they're funded by the state (and not by daddy's estate).
  • zimpenfish 4y ago
    Back when I was a youngster, I was at a private school (council was paying for me) which was making a big deal about getting admitted to the Headmasters' Conference because that meant they could now refer to themselves as a public school. (Although that school isn't currently in the HC, presumably because it was run by Christian Brothers and one of the teachers has since been imprisoned for inappropriate behaviour with children.)
• pjc50 4y ago
  en-US "public school" is en-GB "state school".
• squidbeak 4y ago
  You mean 'comprehensive'. But I'm curious, in what sense are British comprehensives 'problematic'?
• adamsmith143 4y ago
  A non-Brit telling Brits what their school system is like. Funny.