Boarding school boys rule Britain, at what cost? | The New Statesman podcast

I have long thought that the contempt, arrogance, cruelty and gaslighting from parliament and other powerful institutions within the country stem from the warped Public School system.

When Oswald Mosely was thrown in prison in WW2, he remarked that prison was a breeze for someone who had been to English public school.

Sending young children to boarding school is a posh form of putting them in care. As a mental health professional I have worked with both public school educated and care leavers. The overlap in psychological injury is telling. Children need to be nurtured, receive affection and most importantly have healthy, nurturing attachment relationships with parents. Institutions cannot provide this.

A breeding ground for the sociopath.

As a privately-educated, African American woman, so much of this discussion echoes through my reflections of my educational experience; especially, the propaganda surrounding exclusivity. The very idea is predicated in disconnection with community which, I think is at odds with how educated, civilized people should relate and behave.

I was 6 years old when sent to boarding school. I became mute during my time there to avoid trouble. Miles from home, I had no idea why I couldn't see my mum and dad. There was elocution lessons and silk serviettes. I thought I'd been sent to prison and I didn't know how to articulate my fears. I was lucky that everyone was very protective of me and was only there for three terms. My parents recognised a distress that I could find no words for at the time

Much of this just makes me sick. Yes, I went to one of these boarding schools and it was as awful as described, but I revolted. I fought back. I refused to take the bullshit dished out to me. The result was that I was beaten black and blue, of course. I once held a record at my school: the most beatings in one term (46, if I recall - about 4 times a week). I was also beaten by the prefects, the seniors, and just about anyone older than I was. But it never stopped me. Years later I remember meeting a man from my school who remembered me as the fellow always on detention, always gardening (a punishment) and always standing up and objecting to collective punishments (and getting punished for it). He just thought me a nutcase. No-one ever DID anything. What gets me is that there are so many men out there now bleating about how horrible their school experience was, but I can't remember any of them EVER doing anything about it. Even as children they lacked the courage to do anything except bleat. And "leadership"? Oh, those schools taught leadership alright. How to shine in the eyes of your superiors, while stabbing your colleagues in the back and beating up anyone less powerful. This is the "leadership" that we see all around us: in politics, in society. Bah, they can all go *&^%$%#$*(^&)(*)_(

As a foreigner coming from a rather unhierarchical country, I am appalled. My (British) partner told me of his experience. It was a day school though, and his mother who thought getting him this sort of education would help him in life took him away as soon as it transpired he and another boy had been beaten. She was so upset that she was intrumental in making the other boy's parents take him out too (She was a fantastic woman).

I too went to a horrific boarding school where emotional and physical abuse was common. Andrew Motion's statement that all of one's emotional resources were spent in just trying to survive, rather than being able to focus on the education, was one that I recognise completely. I will name the dreaded school here since it also made the national headlines after being featured on Panorama. It was the Royal Alexandra and Albert School, also known as Gatton Park. The reason it was featured on Panorama was that a number of its teachers had been convicted of sexual abuse - although the senior members of the school were never held to account for hiring or overlooking the abuse. If anybody is still wondering, yes the place is still open.

England is a class based place where aristocracy and those snobbish of a middle class support the status quo. Europeans have dropped their Von's and De so and so's. Britain lives in another century of acceptable inequalities and funds it. British people are deferential to those 'born to rule' and the working classes are as Kant would say, 'politically immature'. Britain has become a de-regulated, low cost, low caring business, akin to a 19th Century workhouse for too many.

No wonder they are so cruel, selfish and abusive when in power. It's beyond time to end the abusive "public" school system completely.

What lovely, sensitive men — despite their ghastly experiences.

I got a tour of Eton about 15 years ago, I saw a number of very "unhappy" youth, they seemed about 14 or 15.  It got to the point that I commented on what I was seeing.  The man giving the tour admonished me that they knew what they were doing as they've been about it for centuries. I promised myself that I would NEVER put my own child into such a sterile environment.

My father died of alcoholism in his early 50's, I'm pretty sure his time at Prep / Boarding school is at the heart of it, but I can't ask him now

The Brits should learn from countries that successfully educate their young without elitism and violence.

I would guess that those who think it’s okay & even funny to set light to £50 notes in the face of a homeless person are missing a few brain cells and therefore devoid of common sense

i remember as a teenager a boarding college lad asked me where i was boarding, to which i replied, `my parents loved me so they kept and reared me themselves`. I think he got my point.

I went to a private all girls day school. I hated it, but was always told how lucky I was to be there. I would have given anything not to be. I saw it push favoured children and totally fail others who needed extra help. It did not equip anyone with life skills. When I did well, against their expectations, they couldn't even grudgingly acknowledge it. I vowed I would never put my own kids through it.

The problem with privately educated people is their incompetence and inability to problem solve large scale infrastructure problems etc. Its always going to be beyond them.

Ive met a few public school men in my life. I felt they were very damaged in a somehow uniform way. Very cruel to do this to children