英国私校协会(Independent Schools Association)主席Richard Walden星期四在协会的年会上说，公校学生缺乏道德指向（moral compass），因为公校老师在排名榜的压力下没有时间教学生什么是对的什么是错的（teachers cannot find the time to teach the difference between right and wrong）。
点评：从媒体渲染的大标题看，这完全是对公校学生和老师的侮辱，再说孩子的道德指向应该是父母的责任啊。不过仔细研究他的讲话可以回答两个很多人经常问的问题（1）私校到底好在那里？（2）为什么很多私校不上排名榜？他说：teachers must provide pupils with a “rounded” education to equip them with the “moral compass they need for life”.He suggests a failure to provide old-fashioned values may even risk fuelling extremism, saying education “is the mark of a civilised society; we believe it should prevent barbarism”. Many private schools help build old-fashioned values by providing extra sport, community service, collective worship, pastoral care and school trips outside the classroom。The state education system is shunning extra-curricular activities and pupil wellbeing because of pressure to inflate exam results。就是说私校注重的是对孩子人格的全面培养（rounded education），公校在排名榜压力下为了吹成绩通涨大泡牺牲了基本的课外活动。
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Independent Schools Association: state schools fail to provide ‘moral compass’
Chair Richard Walden claims state teachers are distracted from providing children a more rounded and enriching education
http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/may/15/claims-state-schools-fail-to-give-students-moral-compass
http://www.channel4.com/news/state-school-v-independent-school-moral-compass
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/10829987/State-schools-churning-out-a-generation-of-amoral-children.html
State schools are failing to provide pupils with a “moral compass” because of the pressure on teachers to deliver good academic results, the head of a fee-paying-schools association will claim on Thursday.
Richard Walden will also imply parents are partly to blame by buying into the notion “that the only results that matter are those which have created added value in terms of raising a pupil’s statistical level more than the norm from one age group or stage to the next”.
Walden’s assertion that too many staff in the state sector, living in “a climate of fear”, are unable to provide children with an enriching education, was rejected by state head teachers’ leaders.
The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) said there was no evidence of an “amoral generation” leaving state schools and pointed the finger at those who had a privately funded education for events such as the financial crash.
Walden, making the remarks as chairman of the Independent Schools Association meeting at Combe Abbey, Warwickshire, will say: “The focus on league tables and attainment levels distracts teachers and effectively disables them from providing children with a more rounded and enriching education – one that will give them the moral compass they need for life”.
The 340-member association does not include the best known fee-paying “public schools”, with its membership often of smaller schools, including those owned by their head teachers.
Walden, head of Castle House school, in Newport, Shropshire,for two-to-11-year-olds argues fee-paying schools devote more time to extra-curricular activities, a wide curriculum and personal, social, health and economic education. Learning good values allows students to “distinguish the good from the bad and the true from the false” and develops their character.
“The very nature of our schools, with their respect for discipline and academic seriousness, sport and culture, citizenship and community, service, environmental awareness, spiritual life and personal responsibility, sends out into the world young people with emotional intelligence, developed moral understanding and a willingness to make a contribution to society,” he says.
“These are not measurable by statistics or on inspectors’ tick charts, but they are the qualities that employers want and the world as a whole needs. We cannot measure the growth of maturity in a young person grade by grade. It is not a linear progression anyway.”
Walden says: “It takes time, but if we hold our nerve as educators and as schools – and that may mean resisting the demands of parents who want quick-fix results, or the pressures of external statistical grading systems, not to mention the difficult financial situations that we can face – if we hold our nerve, we will continue to turn out well-rounded individuals who make a difference to society, as we have for many years.”
Russell Hobby, general secretary of the NAHT said: "I don’t think there is evidence to support an amoral generation emerging from our schools. In many ways, the coming generation has higher standards than our own. Indeed, one has only to look at sectors with high proportions of publicly-schooled people – like those who led us into the financial crash – to doubt the truth of this proposition.
“Values are not just found in the curriculum but in the way you teach the curriculum, in the behaviour policies and code of conduct, in the way adults treat children and each other. Teachers in state schools would love time for greater breadth and extra- curricular activity, but they are teaching strong values nonetheless.”
A Department for Education spokesman said: "All schools should provide a broad education and have a duty to promote the wellbeing of their pupils. Our reforms will reduce the number of tests that children take and have given teachers the freedom to use their professional judgement to tailor lessons such as PSHE to meet their needs.
“We are also giving all schools more freedom to offer extra-curricular activities that will build character. These include sports matches, debating competitions, cadet training and inspirational careers talks from outside visitors. We want more schools to take up these freedoms.”