School choice

Classical or Mainstream state?

The difference between Classical and Mainstream state is mostly one axis: a view of the world. Classical sits toward school should teach a view of the world; Mainstream state sits toward school should stay neutral. They agree, more than most people expect, on what it is for and measuring it. Neither is the correct one. What follows is what each asks of a parent, and where the difference actually shows up on a Tuesday.

Classical

A specified body of knowledge, taught in a deliberate order, on the argument that you cannot think critically about something you do not know. The trivium stages it: facts and memorisation while memory is easy, then logic, then rhetoric. Often Latin, usually history in chronological sequence, and always explicit instruction from the front.

What it asks of you

  • Comfort with memorisation and recitation, which are unfashionable and central here
  • Accepting a canon, and that choosing one is a value judgement however old it is
  • Homework, and a household that supports it
  • Checking which tradition a given school belongs to — the name covers a wide political range

Mainstream state

A national curriculum, same-age classes, regular assessment, and an intake drawn from whoever lives nearby. It is the default rather than a philosophy, which is exactly why it belongs on this list: choosing it deliberately is a different act from ending up in it. The mixed intake is a real feature and, for many families, the main argument in its favour.

What it asks of you

  • Accepting that you get the school you get, and that teaching quality varies inside it
  • Being willing to supplement at home where the school is thin
  • Sometimes, moving house — which is how selection works in a system without fees
Side by side

Where they differ

Classical is the filled marker, Mainstream state the hollow one. Widest difference first.

V1A view of the world
school should stay neutralschool should teach a view of the world

Classical sits toward school should teach a view of the world; Mainstream state sits toward school should stay neutral.

C2Money and distancewhat your life allows
free and local, or it is not an optionwe can pay, and we can travel

Classical sits a little toward we can pay, and we can travel; Mainstream state sits firmly toward free and local, or it is not an option.

E3Technology at school
kept out until latebuilt in from the start

Classical sits firmly toward kept out until late; Mainstream state sits a little toward built in from the start.

V2Who else is there
a broad, mixed intake matters mosta community that shares our values matters most

Classical sits a little toward a community that shares our values matters most; Mainstream state sits toward a broad, mixed intake matters most.

C1What the family can put inwhat your life allows
school has to run without the parentsbeing in it, daily

Classical sits between the two; Mainstream state sits toward school has to run without the parents.

L2When formal academics start
when the child is ready, and late is fineearly, and ambitiously

Classical sits toward early, and ambitiously; Mainstream state sits a little toward early, and ambitiously.

L5What a teacher is
a guide who steps backan authority who instructs

Classical sits firmly toward an authority who instructs; Mainstream state sits toward an authority who instructs.

Where they agree

Usually more than the argument between them suggests.

  • What it is for. Both sit a little toward it should set up university and a career.
  • Measuring it. Both sit toward graded and tested regularly.

Neither of these is the correct one

Which fits depends on what you value and on what your week actually allows — and the second of those is the half nobody writes about. The questionnaire scores both.

See which one you are already doing