That certainly wasn’t my experience twenty years ago. Not in the slightest. Admittedly my school wasn’t the top of the heap in this stuff but elitism really didn’t come up at all.

Smaller class sizes, the filter of an entrance exam, and a culture of getting involved fostered kids who were interested in their education, were comfortable taking up space socially, and were eager to have a go at whatever they could. By contrast my wife’s school encouraged her to not get her hopes up. She didn’t listen, thankfully, but it was a bit of a contrast to mine.

Sending kids to a private school doesn’t automatically make them sociopaths, even if that’s what their horrid parents might want in some cases.