What Sophie Said

It’s the fourth Sunday of Lent today, and that makes it Mothering Sunday. A staple event in any yearly calendar, it gives us a chance to celebrate our fantastic mums. I’ve heard a few grumbles around mother’s and father’s days in previous years, with some arguing that ‘every day should be Mother’s/Father’s Day’. Great, let’s all love each other and be thankful for the great people around us every day. But we all know that’s not the case. People live apart, people have their own lives, and life is busy. All too often, we forget to take that time to show families and friends that we love them.  I’m lucky enough to have two fantastic parents, who are still very much in love, and who would do anything for my sister and me, but that doesn’t mean we always tell them how much they mean to us! Lots of us (thankfully) have our families ever-present, and it becomes easy to take them for granted, and assume they are doing what any parent would do. However, it’s far from fact that all pa...

Last week, whilst ill, I was watching This Morning , and an old issue was reignited. The debate was titled ‘Is it wrong to pay for your child’s education?’ Immediately, that title blurs what is, in fact, a logical argument: what are the differences/benefits of private vs state schools? Instead, it turns the act of sending your child to private school into something malicious, and a calculated way to ensure your child tricks society into letting it achieve greatness in life. There are, of course, huge gaps between certain private and certain state schools, in terms of employment figures, grades achieved, and class sizes. Let’s not forget, though, that there are also huge differences between the schools within each category. Some state schools sit happily at the top of league tables, and plenty of people whose parents pay for their education slip through the net, drop out at 16, and spend their lives working in dead end jobs, or not working at all. The state/private debate is certainly...