Does the school you went to

really say anything about you?

I have just been smiling over one of those "human interest" sort of articles in the local press. Are you asked what school you went to? This is (supposedly) a common enough question here. 

I think it was more common once than it is now. Yes, sometimes it did matter. There is still an "old boys network". There is even a bit of an "old girls network" I suppose but it is not as pronounced. 

The article allows for comments on the website and most people appear to be a little uncertain about how much it matters...if it matters at all. Feeling a little like stirring the pot I have left a comment saying I went to five different secondary schools. I also said I went to school with someone who became a world renowned neonatal heart surgeon, a judge and several politicians. I like the heart surgeon - no longer operating but still teaching and consulting I believe. The judge is one I respect. The politicians? No, not acquaintances I would wish to renew. Brother Cat actually went to school with someone who went on to be Prime Minister - and tells me that the PM's sister was a much nicer person.

Some years ago the Senior Cat answered the phone and someone asked to speak to me. I did not recognise his name but he apparently went to school with me. He must have been in my year group because he was trying to organise a reunion. I declined to go to the reunion. If I could not remember his name how could I even recognise everyone, let alone remember their names.

"But everyone knows you," he told me. Perhaps they do but I doubt it. 

I prefer to know people as people, not by some artificial standard. The school you went to does not need to define you. I always liked the answer the Whirlwind would give if asked where she went to school. "Just the local school," she would say. It was true. It was a local school even if it was fee paying.

A former Governor of this state, a man I do admire and respect, went to one of the old "technical high schools". They were considered to be the schools for the non-academically inclined but he did brilliantly. To my way of thinking it just goes to show there is more to this than "what school did you go to?"