The Dead Roo

With bullying in the news, I suggest the claim of private schools to be creators of good citizens is easily tested by prospective customers (oops, parents) if they use public transport between 15:30 and 17:00 and correlate student behaviour with uniforms.

Living in the "private school belt" of Melbourne (junction of the 5 and 16 tram routes), epilepsy forcing public transport use, often working at home, thus with a reasonable sampling, I offer these clues as a service to parents thinking of spending big bucks for old school ties, coffee-shop owners choosing weekend staff, and state education policy-makers.

First, feeling that student behaviour is somewhat improved since 5 years ago, I doubt my criticisms are merely those of a grumpy old fart getting older and grumpier.  I admit these are generalizations, and don’t address curriculum content.

The loudest, most foul-mouthed and inconsiderate students are perhaps exhibiting a sense of superiority to others because they attend the most prestigious schools.

A tram full of purple blazers (from one of the most expensive schools) is usually the most unpleasant.

Students from a minor-league school, St Michael’s, are amazingly neat and considerate, always offering seats to seniors, never disruptive, and I’ve only seen about half-a-dozen with socks down or shirts out in 20 years.  Obviously the school is doing something right, and this proves that it is possible to teach civility even to adolescents.  How do they do it?

Apart from this single instance, there is little to suggest that private-school students are more civilized than state-school counterparts.

Interestingly, students from co-ed schools (private and state) seem more obnoxious than those from single-sex schools, apart from the obvious drop in shower use by boys after sports training.  This is somewhat counter-intuitive, as one might expect kids from single-sex schools to go wild with the opportunity to show off, and suggests that it may be useful for governments to create a few more single-sex secondary schools.

The dramatic increase in Howard-government spending on elite private schools seems worthless as far as good-citizenship is concerned.

Apart from children at either end of the spectrum of gifts, rurals boarding children in the big smoke, or those desperate for prestige, parents should save money, decrease hours at work, and use the savings to spend time with their children and buy musical instruments, more books, or better laptops.

If you are from a different area, or come to different conclusions, please add your own observations.

Disclosure and caveat: I was at Geelong College on scholarships in the 70s, and was severely concussed in an unusually dirty hockey match against the purple blazers.  Glenferrie Road is a "doctor’s wives and latte-drinkers" area that swung against the Howard government in the last federal election.

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