Society/Culture School Old Boys clubs - what is the obsession?

[Chief]

I've never really gotten the obsession some people have with their past students associations.

What is it that drives people to cling on to their high school, wanting to control its course long after there is no reason for them to be involved?

I can see that the schools milk them for money, so there is that.

"Old boys protest new girls at elite Sydney school"

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/su...OUPB-Segment-1-NOSCORE&V21spcbehaviour=append

It just seems sad that grown adults can't let their school days go.

Is it that they see their school as a pillar of society, and any change there will see the world changed for the worse?

 

[Gough]

My only connection was sport, the old boys team gave me a chance to play cheap cricket on good pitches.

 

[Chief]

Kind of sounds like public money going into facilities that only past students can take advantage of.

I don't know your school's policy though.

 

[Gough]

Kind of sounds like public money going into facilities that only past students can take advantage of.

I don't know your school's policy though.

Entirely likely but this was also before the turbo charged injection of funding into private schools by the Howard government. My experience of private school compared to my mates who's parents sent them public in the 1980s was better trips and turf wickets, there was nowhere near the gap in facilities that exist now and there wasn't the sense of entitlement that private school kids seem to have now.

 

[Kurve]

My old elite girls boarding school back in the day, only took boys in because they were going broke. As a nod to the history, this became tradition but nobody including the school now seems to understand how and why. When the boys came in, sometimes they'd wear the girls uniform, it just wasn't a big deal.

I like this, it makes me feel a bit nostalgic, so the connection is still there if I only went to one reunion.

 

[owen87]

The boys club has to meet somewhere to find new boys to recruit for the jobs for the boys.

 

[Better Loosen Up]

I've never really gotten the obsession some people have with their past students associations.

What is it that drives people to cling on to their high school, wanting to control its course long after there is no reason for them to be involved?

I can see that the schools milk them for money, so there is that.

"Old boys protest new girls at elite Sydney school"

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/su...OUPB-Segment-1-NOSCORE&V21spcbehaviour=append

It just seems sad that grown adults can't let their school days go.

Is it that they see their school as a pillar of society, and any change there will see the world changed for the worse?

I think it just gives them a false sense of social superiority.

 

[ElectricG]

I’d probably have a sentimental attachment to my school if it doesn’t suck

 

[kickazz]

If you have or will have children going there, then there's an obvious interest.

Otherwise - association I suppose. We all want to belong, this is just another way of doing it.

For some of the wealthier examples then old boys' clubs provide access to networking with powerful/influential/useful people.

 

[Engimal v3]

Such a weird thing to hang on to. I went to the same school for 12 years, which was the same school my parents went to. Who gives a s**t after you leave?

 

[demondavey]

I've never really gotten the obsession some people have with their past students associations.

What is it that drives people to cling on to their high school, wanting to control its course long after there is no reason for them to be involved?

I can see that the schools milk them for money, so there is that.

"Old boys protest new girls at elite Sydney school"

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/su...OUPB-Segment-1-NOSCORE&V21spcbehaviour=append

It just seems sad that grown adults can't let their school days go.

Is it that they see their school as a pillar of society, and any change there will see the world changed for the worse?

Pretty much.

I notice more of a connection with the increase in school fees. ‘Elite’ private schools charge high fees and that’s where the highest level of connection exists. There’s this connectivity somewhat that they feel bound by because they were part of a group or cohort.

I personally couldn’t care less. I went to a mid tier Catholic college that has a limited old boys association and reunions etc, but it’s nothing too big. I don’t go because I simply don’t care. I am being forced to make small talk with people from decades ago that I was only ever by chance put in a room with. I’ve got my friends from school but that’s about it.

On the Sydney school thing I find that pathetic. That’s just institutionalised misogynistic white boy circle jerking. That’s also Sydney for you.

 

[demondavey]

There’s also a notion that because your dad went there that you have to. This totally limits scope. Some parents I know put their kids down hours after they were born to the same school they went to. It’s actually quite sick. That’s the upper class though, the kids are basically knocked into lives that their parents want for them.

You just find a much bigger range in the middle. I did anyway. School doesn’t determine your career. You want to do accounting, plumbing, excavating, teaching, nursing etc, then they don’t really care.

 

[Chicken Treat]

The access to privileged networks for the purposes of better career prospects is the main selling factor to send kids to these schools.

I know someone I umpired with (Aquinas College in Perth) who took 7 years to finish a 4 year Engineering degree. He had no problems finding work because of who he was friends with. Had he gone to a public school I reckon his career prospects would be a lot more glim.

 

[demondavey]

The access to privileged networks for the purposes of better career prospects is the main selling factor to send kids to these schools.

I know someone I umpired with (Aquinas College in Perth) who took 7 years to finish a 4 year Engineering degree. He had no problems finding work because of who he was friends with. Had he gone to a public school I reckon his career prospects would be a lot more glim.

Yep, networking is huge.

 

[Blue1980]

Such a weird thing to hang on to. I went to the same school for 12 years, which was the same school my parents went to. Who gives a s**t after you leave?

I haven’t stepped foot at my old schools since I left 26 years ago.

I’ve got 2 mates still who went there and none of us have any interest in any reunions or anything. I wish I had better memories of school but I don’t, life was much more fun after school ended for me.