The positive sides of public school

Originally I used to feel the negative-positive very powerfully. The very fact of having got through made me feel that I had achieved a great deal. I do not say this lightly. I left happy to have survived.

Developing this point further I have often found myself since leaving Goring in a sticky situation. Once I found myself in a very humiliating situation. I resigned my job and told every one I was leaving the company to start a new enterprise. Next day I found that due to unforeseen circumstances my scheme had a significant flaw and so two days after saying goodbye I went back to the same office and begged for my job back. My co-workers were all saying to me – “what are you doing back”. It was a serious egg on my face ordeal. But I found it quite easy to go through because in my mind I said to myself – this is nothing compared to being at Goring.

And indeed so it has proved. Worse things have happened to me and each time I find I can “roll with the punches” because the bad experience has been so much less emotionally damaging than my experiences at Goring.

It was an enormous achievement on the part of my struggling father to have put me and my siblings through the English Public School system. He was a teacher but he knew his teaching income could not provide the funding for the public school education that he wanted for his Children. So he set up a small teaching business on his own to try to make a greater income. We were nearly removed from our schools because of his inability to pay at certain moments. Finally his business became more successful and he was able to pay his way for us. He had 12 years of private school fees for his children. In total he paid for 99 child terms before he was finished (including both prep school and public school)

In addition the public school network exists – and will continue to do so. Getting my first step on to the job ladder was made through meeting an old boy (Hannington) of my school who knew a friend of mine of the generation above (Lozer). The latter had also been to the same school and recommended me to him. This meeting earned me an interview with a salesman at the organistation where Hannington worked. The salesman grilled me and got me to do certain assignments. I got the job. It earned me very little (just above the minimum wage) but it got my foot on the ladder into the world of banking. A year later I was on the graduate scheme and my salary had more than doubled.