'Private education is unfair', said Alan Bennett last week, stating the bleedin' obvious.  England has a greater variety of school models than any country on earth.  This is good for some, but not for most, and in that sense the system is unfair.

Private schools are often referred to as 'good' schools and state schools mainly 'bad'. In truth, they are all bad, and the real unfairness is that so much potential is squandered by them.

I must add that my argument is centred on schools in the West, especially on British schools.

When girls in Afghanistan demand to be educated, school and education then overlap considerably, if not become synonymous.  But in the West, 'education' has become a class-ridden, divisive, anti-educational business. 

There is now a condition called 'schoolphobia'.  To me, this means the natural reaction of a healthy child to school.  Too many pupils see school as a kind of boring prison.  Indeed, in prison they would have far more rights.

At this point I feel it is worth repeating a story I heard years ago.  Apocryphal or not, it speaks volumes:

A British soldier, captured by the Japanese during World War II, was sent to a prisoner-of-war camp. One day, he saw an old school friend coming through the gates of the camp,  and he yelled to him: 'Humphrey, come on in!  This place is much better than Charterhouse!'

I want to assure readers that gradually my blog will present positive ideas and alternatives, and not just be a weekly rant and rave - unless, of course, readers want that kind of stuff.  Let me know.