Wear having been to a comp (or in the American vernacular public school) like a badge of honour.
Impossible.
Nah it's not. In fact, I'd say if you went to a school that wasn't particularly well-respected, or known for offering high standards of education or producing men of great import and fame, then to go on from that background and do well for yourself does you more credit than if you'd been to the grandest of private schools. I mean, my comprehensive wasn't terrible (as indeed the vast majority of British comps aren't) - it wasn't good, but it wasn't awful. But I still feel a much greater sense of pride and satisfaction having been to a comp and achieved some respectable grades and gone on to a decent university than I would have done had I attended a private school and done the same. I mean, if I'd attended a private school throughout my schooling, as opposed to when I was but a young boy, there might've been a debating club, we might have sung hymns in regular assemblies, there might have been a sense of community and togetherness that you don't perhaps, get to the same extent at many comps. But, in the end, that was all a bit superfluous - I got to witness other things; girls who got pregnant in their early teens, a boy who tried to beat a teacher with chair, administrative shambles after administrative shambles - and I went to a comparatively decent comp in a fairly affluent area (although it did take quite a few from the not so affluent areas surrounding our patch of countryside).
Going to a comprehensive school prepared me for life far better than a private school would have (which, incidentally, is what my father drummed into my head when I was bullied in the first couple of years I was there for having a posh accent, being a little on the chubby side and being a little too fond of the sound of my own voice). I learned to work independently, because most of the teachers had zero interest in doing much beyond the minimum of what was expected because they weren't paid particularly well and had to deal with a load of ghastly bastards (which children of secondary school age are) on a day to day basis. I learned to keep my mouth shut, be aware of what others thought of me; I learned how to take mindless abuse and dish it back out with interest. Of course, not everybody who was educated full time at a private school is a spoon-fed, naive dipsh**t; however, many of them are. Although, in all fairness, I did receive a fair amount of help from my mother and father, something that a lot of the kids I knew didn't unfortunately.
I guess the point I'm trying to make is this; comprehensive/public schools have their merits. They may not be grand institutions with storied histories, hundreds of famous alumni and cash flowing from every orifice, but they are nonetheless a challenge. To get through them in good shape for the future and as a more rounded and capable person, as I believe I did, is something to be proud of.
*As a note, plenty of British private schools are absolute dogs bollocks, and probably do contain a handful of the things I ascribed to comprehensive schools above. Bu you know, I can only report what I witness myself and what I hear, and I never heard about a teacher getting a knife pulled on her a private school (although I'm sure there is an example out there somewhere if someone is diligent enough to find it).
