As someone that got a scholarship to the "ruling class education system" in high school, it really sucks ass. The people there are just evil, the schools (especially the all boys or all girls schools with boarding) are rife with abuse, and most of my peers were spoilt little shits.
I currently share a workplace with people who went to expensive private schools and they're like a different species. One of my coworkers told me she saw nothing wrong with blackface, since their school theater did it all the time when there were black characters because there weren't any black students to play the roles.
Also some of them had like Guatemalan slaves who'd bring them lunch or drive them around. Also they had stuff like a bowling alley and a full sized movie theater.
Shit happened to me as a kid too. Only got into the elite school because of my athletics. I was the only non-white kid for five years in a country that's 95% brown.
Me it was academics. I live in South Africa, so it's actually the inverse, the school was mostly white similar to how it is in your story, but I was the only white kid in the scholarship programme lol.
Even if I was a little prick, at least I wasnāt that bad. I knew someone that got an airplane. Not a model, an actual āgo VFR into IMC and end up in a smoldering crater in a parking lot, killing yourself and your friendsā airplane. Which he eventually did.
Is it as much of a rich/lucky situation in SA as it is in the Burgerreich? Luckily I had a large part of my own training costs covered by a scholarship. Have to say, nothing will teach you risk aversion as fast as dumb kids getting themselves killed with their dumb decisions.
I was an instructor myself (technically still am, but havenāt taught anyone in years that job paid like shit). 16 year olds and 70 year olds as students get you almost killed the most. Always nerve wracking to sign them off to solo - if they do anything stupid you can go buy a suit for your court appearance, sell all your possessions to cover the lawsuit money and say goodbye to your career. Moved myself to an airline and now have the benefit of union protection plus a reinforced door separating me from rich dumbasses.
Definitely a rich old boys club in SA. Some cool people in there, but few and far between. I can't really go into more detail because I don't want to doxx myself or anything. Don't work in aviation, just know people