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No, but they keep tellings us they are, so people begin to believe it. Our system in UK is different to the US one, but we both have one education system paid for by taxes, and one that is privately funded. In our country the "top" people will tend to have attended private schools (that is up to 18 years). Naturally they know other people who have attended top private schools, so a self-perpetuating "Old Boys Network" builds up. This explains why the majority of students at Oxford and Cambridge Universities are from private schools. It does NOT however, mean that these schools are better, or that the pupils who attend them are brighter. Just one example; my friend's boy went to a private school, as my friend felt the public school was not doing enough for him. In his private school class there were only fifteen pupils (there were about 30 in his state school). At the first parent's evening, the private school advised her that T needed additional help in Maths and English. So she got him private tutors in these subjects. He ended up with a decent set of exam scores and went on to University. However, in my view if that school could not teach a well-behaved, polite, fairly bright young boy to a decent level by themselves in a class with only fifteen pupils, so that my friend had to buy in yet more additional help, then why should we consider this school better? My kids have both attended state schools - one is now at University, the younger one is headed the same way. They have mixed with every class of pupil, they have learned independently and their school has also managed to teach a number of unruly, unmotivated, deprived kids to a decent level as well! Obviously if you compare the exam results of a school which only takes well-off, middle-class kids with parents who can get extra tuition if they should begin to fail anyway, and compare those results with a school which takes anyone from any background and at any ability level, the results will be better in the private schoool - but better? No way.

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