My elevation to some sort of elder continues apace as I was asked to help out with a friend’s troubled marriage. A difficult business, as I could see quite clearly where the backgrounds and assumptions of both parties interacted and caused blindness and resentment. I don’t think I was much help, but it still took up much of yesterday.
In the evening I hosted the dinner for the children (with spouses) of the uncle who had been unwell. This was pleasant, but went on a bit too long, especially towards the end where all the males in the room started talking about how wonderful Aitchison is, which just makes the eyes roll of anyone else who can see the damage a public school education does. One person argued that admission to Aitchison should not be on the basis of merit but on interviewing parents and assessing their family backgrounds. This is how my own school selected students back in the day, though now wealth alone, I understand, is a bigger factor. In any event, while I am not a fan of merit-based admissions for five year olds, this argument did take my breath away. I wanted to suggest randomised need-blind admissions, but I think this would have led to some sort of does-not-compute response in all the Aitchisonians present.
If I had a son, I would send them to Aitchison, but in the next window of admissions, when they are 12 and of actual public school entrance age. That would, hopefully, give them a grounding in how to interact with women as well as a grounding so they would be able to see the world outside the Aitchison bubble which is something I find corrosive.