Sad Little Men: Assessing the impact of an elite education

I would like to offer a perspective I don't think you should miss. Many English authors wrote about their horrible experiences in boarding schools and of life in stodgy, middle-to-upper-class Britain; I find that sentiments similar to theirs persist in many people who came out of what we would call "repressive youth systems". You can hear similar complaints from the children of Nigerian immigrants or of Indian students who came through the IIT network, namely that they were pushed too hard by cruel people and uncaring systems.

However, I must notice that these people, especially the British authors, are often proud, learned, disciplined, well-spoken, and knowledgeable. The horrible memories they have of their past experiences are saddening, but I cannot deny that whatever repressive and authoritarian systems spawned them often did a damn fine job at raising extremely impressive men and women. I went through far less cruel or invasive schooling than they did, and cannot make the same assessment about the subjective worth of the vast majority of my peers, nor even for their parents. When I read prose of average middle-class thinkers, journalists, authors, etc. from more than 60 years ago to today, I see very plainly a marked downturn in the civic knowledge, moral backbone, and eloquence of these speakers and of the thoughts themselves as Western society moves away from its severe past into its "empathetic" future.

I myself harbor extreme anti-school sentiments and do not ever intend to send my future children to school unless they desperately want to go, but I still believe that extreme, conservative societies tend to produce the most impressive human specimens. Orwell is considered one of the greatest writers in the English language--I often wonder whether or not contemporary society is capable of producing his equal, or even his less impressive peers' equal. When I read the letters and musing of my grandparents- normal American country folk born in the 1930s- I am taken aback by their knowledge and eloquence, and I mourn for what I perceive as a loss of societal standards.

I suppose there are many who might mistake me for saying that I think it's worth returning to the cargo-cult corporal-punishment methods outline in the essay, but that is not what I wish to communicate. I would like to figure out what makes these citizens of strict and severe societies so impressive, and see if it's possible to yield similar results without all of the stupidity and cruelty.

You are right that what constitutes a public school is hard to define, but I think membership of the Headmasters and Headmistress' Conference is the usual definition.

However, the working definition given in the Wikipedia article, and definition used by the British government for the Public Schools Commission means that there are almost 300 “public” schools in England and Wales .

Your list is supported as being part of the “major” public schools AKA Clarendon schools:

‘Today, while the hierarchical distinction is less commonly used, only the "Great Nine" public schools of England – Eton, Harrow, Winchester, Charterhouse, Merchant Taylors', Westminster, Shrewsbury, Rugby and St Paul's – are referred to as "major"[citation needed] on account of this historical association. Schools outside this group are referred to as "minor"[citation needed], irrespective of contemporary influence’

Citations are missing for that paragraph however, all throughout the article it’s made clear there are certainly a few hundred public schools, and not just a handful. For instance, the link to the HMC page, of which membership seems to be more or less a good rule of them for a school being “public” : https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headmasters%27_and_Headmistr...

Colloquially I do know that boys who attended Eton only acknowledge 3 or so other public schools, but the general public does have a broader definition. Nonetheless have a few hundred is still substantially less than the thousands which exist across England and Wales.

“While all of you, in the city, are brothers, we will say in our tale, yet god, in fashioning those of you who are fitted to hold rule, mingled gold in their generation, for which reason they are the most precious—but in the helpers, silver, and iron and brass in the farmers and other craftsmen. And, as you are all akin, though for the most part you will breed after your kinds, it may sometimes happen that a golden father would beget a silver son, and that a golden offspring would come from a silver sire, and that the rest would, in like manner, be born of one another. So that the first and chief injunction that the god lays upon the rulers is that of nothing else are they to be such careful guardians, and so intently observant as of the intermixture of these metals in the souls of their offspring, and if sons are born to them with an infusion of brass or iron they shall by no means give way to pity in their treatment of them, but shall assign to each the status due to his nature and thrust them out among the artisans or the farmers. And again, if from these there is born a son with unexpected gold or silver in his composition they shall honor such and bid them go up higher, some to the office of guardian, some to the assistanceship, alleging that there is an oracle that the city shall then be overthrown when the man of iron or brass is its guardian.”

‘Socrates proposes and claims that if the people believed "this myth...[it] would have a good effect, making them more inclined to care for the state and one another.’

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noble_lie

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