WEBVTT

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-Paying for school seems sort of
nonsensical to me in the sense

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that society is a lot
better when everyone's

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mixed together, isn't it?

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-People have this idea
of people who go to Eaton

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and so on, the people
who, by and large, end up

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running the country, if
they go to these really

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elitist schools, they're never
going to encounter people

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of quite a low
social status that,

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ultimately, the majority of the
people they may be representing

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will be.

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-Yeah, exactly.

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-That's certainly a problem with
some of the big schools, Eton

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and Harrow and so on.

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It's not something that I
really find at my school.

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-I don't know.

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It seems sort of
fundamentally unfair

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that people who can afford to
go to private schools do so.

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-I do absolutely take
your point that there

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is something very wrong
with the system that

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allows heavy privileges in
education to the wealthy.

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But at the moment,
it's a reality.

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And to me-- I mean, I know
it's very for me to say that,

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but it is pointless
to ignore it.

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-I was sent away
to boarding school.

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My time there, initially,
was-- it wasn't great.

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I didn't enjoy it.

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I would have preferred
to be at home.

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So I spoke to my parents
probably every day.

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And then once I got more
and more comfortable there,

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I'd find my social life
used to kind of eclipse

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my yearning for home
cooking and Mummy and Daddy.

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-I like acting.

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And there've been fantastic
facilities for actors.

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They do GCSE drama.

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They've got a theatre here.

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That's one of the
things that I've really

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enjoyed here-- the emphasis
on extracurricular activities

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that you can really do when
you've got, I guess, money.

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-Some good things
about it, I suppose,

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is you become, I guess, more
empathetic with other people.

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You understand their
situations more.

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It's more diverse, I suppose.

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-Do you mean ethnically diverse?

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-I suppose ethnically
and socially.

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-Socially, yeah.

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Sort of, class difference.

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-And it's free, yeah.

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I've always got on with girls.

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They've always been
very relevant to me,

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being quite like
friends of the boys.

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Up until now, they still played
a really major part in my time

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at school as well.

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-You know, you would
get a lot of guys

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who were quite frustrated
that they had no means

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to meet girls who
got, basically,

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really desperate and felt
really alone and just thought

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that no one liked them,
desipte-- some of them

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would have quite a
lot of bloke friends.

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-Me and a couple
of other guys, we

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played hard to get to the extent
where we didn't go near girls.

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We were petrified of them.

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We'd get our skateboards
and skateboard off.

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-In terms of the good
sides of private education,

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one of the things
you get out of that

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is that your school it's
got money, basically.

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And that means that you
get better facilities.

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-The facilities at my school are
not as good as they could be.

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-At my school, there was
an abundance of facilities.

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And upon leaving, I live in
hindsight, just thinking, god,

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I should have taken advantage
of all of that stuff that

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was there on a plate for me.

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-To me, I mean, an
ideal school would

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be a school has the facilities
of the school I attend, has

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the educational outlook and the
freedom that a private school

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has, and has the money
that a private school has,

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without having to get it from
the parents of the children who

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go there.

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Do you think that what we've
described would be ideal?

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-I suppose it is unrealistic.

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Nothing worth knowing
can be taught.

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-I think that's a very wise
closing sentiment, isn't it?

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