Creating the elite

 

In the Guardian, Andrew Anthony writes about Alex Renton`s study of abuse at Ashdown House, "a boarding school that also educated Boris Johnson."

"Renton, and other investigators, estimate that as many as half of Britain`s private schools have harboured paedophiles in recent years. During the same period, historic cases of extensive teacher-pupil abuse have come to light, leading to a number of criminal cases and prison sentences..."

"As Renton shows, boarding schools were once seen as the first step to creating people fit to run an empire. That imperial self-justification has long been out of date, but something of its spirit lives on in the belief that removing children from their parents is the best way to prepare them for the rigours and demands of a fulfilling life."

"By the end of this thoughtful and sensitive indictment of one of the cornerstones of the British establishment, it’s very hard to conclude anything except that generations of children have been emotionally damaged on a truly shocking scale."

"That these people have often gone on to occupy senior positions  in politics, the military and the judiciary should, at the very least, give us pause for thought."

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/apr/10/stiff-upper-lip-secrets-crimes-schooling-of-a-ruling-class-alex-renton-book-review?