I can relate to the quandary about school.

I might imagine sending my children to a school which is outside the boundaries of the country în which they live.

In a sense that is what happened to me. I lived in one place with my parents during holidays and was sent to a school 150 miles away.

I believe I learnt things I wouldn’t have learnt otherwise but I can’t imagine doing that to my children.

It’s not great being isolated from peers around where you live.

I believe that it is important to learn about the system in which one lives (at whatever level) in order to change it as far as possible over time.

One of my kids went to a school which had a population which for him was very difficult where there was a lot of violence, racketing, etc.

I naively imagined – like local politicians – that it was a means to break down barriers between communities – that it would be a positive step for ´integration’. Well, he lasted a year.

I wouldn’t subject one of my kids to that now. It might/does work for some very tough kids…not for him. It is indeed a question of mix. If you have 20 kids in difficulty you don’t resolve it by sending into the class one kid who is different. Then you have 21 kids in difficulty…

Politicians talk the talk (for othe people’s kids) and send their own kids to elite schools..

It is not satisfactory. I believe in being pragmatic – that is not compromise (for me) and trying to enable children to be critical of the system in which they live – wherever they live.

We change what we can change…