Tag: Collection

Doors 264 – Doors from Highgate, London, November 2023 (Part III)

I went to a private (public) school in London, Highgate School, which was regarded in those days as a ‘second division’ public school for boys. In fairness, it has changed immeasurably since I was there. Then, it was a hotbed of white male privilege, and an anachronistic hangover from our colonialist days as a nation.

I received a very good education there and made a select few lifelong friends, but I frequently reflect on my time with some regret, that I was, and by inference am, a product of a system that has resulted in so many things that are bad about our country today. Misogyny, arrogance, inflated confidence, entitlement, racism, hierarchy and many other aspects of a social and financial elitism were nurtured in the public school environments of the 1970s.

We see in the current (and previous) Conservative Government the outcome of a dysfunctional and utterly unfair and unbalanced educational (and class) system. So many of our decision makers have enormous ‘blind spots’ where their position and status have been forged by their privileged experiences and selfish desires, without even a cursory glance at the wider society they serve.

Make no mistake, the private educational system in our country perpetuates the class and social divides and in my view should be abolished. A good education and educational assets should be the right of every child in the country, without exception, irrespective of background or ability to pay. Raise the bar for everyone, and if we have to pay more taxes to get it, then so be it. Those paying £30,000 per year (or term in some places) would be able to divert their savings into the public purse and feel the warm glow of helping the nation rather than themselves.

It is clear from the last 14 years, that our Eton-educated leaders have absolutely ruined our country, not because of the quality of their education, but because of their prejudices and ideology nurtured on the playing fields of British public schools.

OK, so I have got that off my chest. There are some parts of my school days that I do look upon fondly. My friends, some of the teachers (the Zoological Society – see last week’s post), the access to sport and the buildings were positive aspects, and through the years I had something of a love/hate relationship with the school. I worked hard, was never particularly academic, and was generally well-behaved. My reward eventually was to be made a school Prefect and head of my house (Eastgate), I say this to put into context the final photograph in this week’s selection where I am sitting to the left of the Housemaster (right as you look at it).

As you might have gathered, this week’s doors are all from the buildings of Highgate School, photographed on my visit there last November. Definitely mixed feelings when I saw the old place. I hope you enjoy the doors.

I am sure that is it the same for many of us that our school days contribute immeasurably to who we become. I have spend many of my adult years gently unpicking and scrutinising my time at Highgate School, and think I now have a much healthier relationship with the place and circumstance I found myself in, and have challenged the attitudes and prejudices that surrounded me. I am content with it.

More of an essay than a Thursday doors – I promise to revert back to concentrating on doors next week, when I will feature some more Highgate doors.

If you have made it this far, you probably like doors, and you really ought to take a look at the No Facilities blog by Dan Anton who has taken over the hosting of Thursday Doors from Norm 2.0 blog. Links to more doorscursions can be found in the comments section of Dan Anton’s Thursday Doors post.

by Scooj