Tom Daley about to get towel whipped to within an inch of his life...

Do you remember Tom Daley? The little chap who was very good at falling with style from a very high platform into a deep pool of water at the Olympics? Apparently, as soon as he returned to his state secondary school he had the crap bullied out of him. Thus, after someone threatened (quite seriously, one must suppose) to ‘break his legs’, Daley’s father thought it was time for his son to go. Where to? The private sector.

This might not seem a particularly big or important issue, but it is. Yes, kids are bullied all the time, in both state and private schools. After all, children are horrible. They’re shits. I can say this with authority as, from the age approximately 11-15, I was a horrid, little twerp. It’s inevitable that some kids will get picked on. But why pick on Daley? The answer is simple: Daley was/is extremely successful. And why will he better off in a private school? Because private schools, unlike state schools, do not have a culture where success is abnormal, and thus something to be attacked over.*

In state schools, if you stick your head above the parapet – by being too clever, too funny, too good at something – there will be a crowd of people ready and willing to pelt rotten fruit at you. Now why is this?

This is not because state schooled kids hate success; it’s because there is a culture of mediocrity that surrounds most state schools. Teachers do not care about turning A’s into A*, they care about turning D’s into C’s. Mixed ability classes mean that clever kids have to slow down, dumb kids still struggle and mediocre kids do, well, mediocre.  A lot of state schools simply don’t bother pushing kids to apply for the best universities.

It’s a dull argument, and one often repeated by boorish fools with whom I have no wish to be associated, but I think it rings true. Daley having to move to a private school simply because he was successful is a sad indictment of the state education system in Britain as a whole, where mediocrity is cherished and children – rather than being viewed as individuals – are simply a clump of  5 A*-C results waiting to happen.

Tom Daley is just one very talented fifteen year old, but the state sector can’t afford to lose talented kids. The whole point of comprehensive education is that people of all abilities and all backgrounds go to school and mix together. If state schools don’t stop being so anti-talent then the gap between the private and state sectors will not close.

*N.B I went to a state school. It was alright. Not good, but alright. Please note that many state schools are wonderful, and really push pupils. Likewise, some private schools are dreadful shitholes that would be closed if they were in the public sector.

Related posts:

1. A*? It won’t get you far.
2. Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Secondary Schools* (*But Were Afraid to Ask)
3. Should universities be allowed to drown in debt?