- guardian.co.uk, Sunday 19 October 2003 00.22 BST
Apparently, he is better than Tory spokesman Oliver Letwin because he at least considered a comprehensive school for his own children. And he is better than the lefties who send their kids to private schools from the age of five because he waited until his were 11 before shovelling his principles aside and sending them private. Shaky moral high ground that.
I sent my children to comprehensive schools for the very reason stated in the strap line on Aaronovitch's piece - only a leavening of better-off children can save the state schools. 'So who's first?' your article asked. Well, I was - but why weren't you following?
Tony Rennell
London NW3
Unusually, I find myself agreeing with David Aaronovitch. What most people want is to ensure that their child gets a 'good' education. But what is a 'good' education? By definition, 'good' means better than average, which is probably what you'd get in the local comp. What some are aiming to do is to buy their child a better start in life than the children of less affluent parents. It is depressing how rarely this issue is discussed in the media, even in The Observer and the Guardian . Aaronovitch's article is one of very few I recall seeing in years of reading both papers. One wonders what the reason for this is: I would be very interested to know, for example, how many Observer journalists, fair-minded and principled as I'm sure they are, educate their children privately.
David Williams
Southampton
Why is it that professional middle-class parents such as David Aaronovitch consider their presence to be such a valuable asset in our state schools? In my experience, as a working-class single parent, they take up a considerable amount of the teacher's limited time discussing anxieties about the fact that their offspring are not racing ahead of other pupils.
What we need is money, support and resources in our education system, not pushy middle-class parents accumulating in our more successful state schools so that working-class children don't stand a chance of getting in.
Imelda O'Brien
London N8
