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Thanks to the cringy association with supplements and PUA bootcamps, I've been conditioned to automatically suspect anything whose name begins with—or is just—"Alpha" is a scam or will otherwise underwhelm. It's petty but this is why I'm putting off watching 28 Years Later, despite originally being hopeful about its release and having enjoyed 28 Days Later and parts of 28 Weeks Later.
While the author might be a bit extreme than most, in general it's amazing how much handwringing people do over the details of children's school curriculum design and teaching methodology (teaching content might be more understandable) when the heavy-lifting is done by your partner being smart, you being smart yourself, and keeping your children away from the riffraff. The rest is window dressing.
Doesn't the author know how much Nutritional Security and Socioeconomic Factor he's leaving on the table by not supplementing his children's diets with Alpha BrainTM?
Whilst I agree with the general sentiment of your post I think there are is a very valid reason for why a child should be placed in this sort of program over public education, at the very least.
Considering the child will largely grow up to be similar to mom and dad, barring bad friends and unlucky accidents, why not put them in a program that maximally conforms to whatever ruleset upper class academia emphasizes? It's a good use of time if we assume the kid will inherit the brainpower to meet the demands of higher learning. Instead of being potentially stifled by public education, which is poor, it can potentially be motivated to pursue education and have the resume to enable that pursuit.
Quis paget entrat, is the joke about that. Though upper-class academia does have its share of clever, as well as well-connected, students.
It is worth noting that the top British public (i.e. private) schools do not run on a quis paget entrat basis, and have not done since roughly the 1980's. There is a standard examination (Common Entrance) meaning that the system is transparent enough that people would know if it ran like Harvard admissions. At the time Prince Harry got into Eton in 1997, they apparently still had slightly lower academic standards for children of hereditary peers (and significantly lower standards for royalty - he wouldn't have met the reduced standards for the aristocracy), but they had no need to let a dim kid in for cash, and didn't. The other top schools had published pass marks with no exceptions.
Part of the joke about St Cake's is that there used to be a lot of mildly shit public schools that were selling social exclusivity and nothing else (and the resulting stereotypes survive because the upper classes are one of the designated acceptable targets for outgroup-bashing humour) but most of them went out of business after WW2.
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28 Years Later may be in my top ten favorite films … just need a rewatch so solidify my opinion on that.
Top 5 are:
Event Horizon Suspiria (2018) Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Stop Making Sense
5th is always floating - just completely variable at anytime but it’s probably another Tarantino
Shit, based on your list I had better go see it.
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