It's hard to believe that 12-year-old Prince George is not finding it difficult these days to fall asleep with probable nightmares as the countdown to his enrollment at Eton in the autumn approaches, if he has heard the lurid anecdotes about his uncle's time at the most prestigious secondary school in the UK, his paternal uncle, Prince Harry. For the rebellious Windsor, the years at that boarding school were a constant struggle. "Eton had come to refer to itself not as a school but simply as... The School. It was paradise for bright boys but, for that very reason, it could only be purgatory for a boy who was not very much so," he recounts in his controversial memoirs In the Shadow. Of course, on the other hand, the firstborn of the Prince of Wales, William and Kate, would have also heard a thousand times the amusing stories of his father in the same place, where the current heir to the British throne did manage to enjoy as a student and indulge in his passion for sports.
Eton College, the exclusive boarding school where about 1,350 students study each year, all males, aged between 13 and 18, is undoubtedly a school that maintains a huge reputation for the academic level it offers, but at the same time a center with a reputation for being old-fashioned and in recent decades has been marked by various controversies and criticisms, such as being a symbol of social inequality and another instrument to perpetuate the country's class endogamy. There have also been campaigns of rejection because the institution does not modernize and open its doors to women. Hence, there were doubts about whether William and Kate would opt for Eton for the education of their eldest son. In the end, tradition and the fact that the school considered as "a factory of kings and prime ministers" guarantee a very high curricular quality prevailed. Additionally, although George, like the rest of his classmates, will stay from Sunday to Thursday in one of the 25 houses on the campus in its 160 hectares of green meadows, he will be able to easily reunite with his parents on weekends, given Eton's proximity to Forest Lodge, the historic mansion located in Windsor Great Park that is now the residence of the Wales.
The annual cost of studying at Eton College represents an expenditure of almost 75,000 euros, undoubtedly a small amount for the vast majority of families who send their children to the school. But the school's directors like to emphasize that they have a scholarship system that reaches approximately 20% of enrolled students, youngsters without great resources. In fact, since its foundation in 1440 by King Henry VI, a deeply intellectual sovereign and quite a rarity for the time, who granted huge tracts of land, rights, and benefits so that some of his subjects could be educated in medieval and newly embraced Renaissance knowledge, Eton boasts the so-called King's 70 scholars, bright boys from humble backgrounds whose entire secondary education is fully funded.
Nevertheless, it is difficult for the school to shake off the labels of elitism and endogamy when up to twenty prime ministers - including David Cameron or Boris Johnson - and many children of the British business and financial class have passed through its halls. The school is also closely associated with royalty. Before Prince William took one of its desks in 1995, close members of the throne such as Queen Elizabeth II's cousins Richard of Gloucester; Edward, Duke of Kent; or Prince Michael of Kent had already enrolled. Also, foreign blue-blooded youngsters, such as Prince Tokugawa Iesato of Japan, Nicholas of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen - the second son of King Ferdinand I of Romania -, the future Leopold III of the Belgians, the Crown Prince Dipendra of Nepal, or Aga Khan III. From other fields, the list of celebrities who passed through Eton's classrooms is endless: Ian Fleming, George Orwell, Horace Walpole, Aldous Huxley...
For a long time, education in England undoubtedly encouraged and perpetuated the characteristic classist society of the country. It used to be said that belonging to a wealthy and well-positioned family was enough for Eton's gates to open to you, regardless of being utterly foolish. However, the school rejects that stigma and highlights the tests that must be passed before admission, like the ones Prince George has also had to undergo. Of course, Harry was not a bright student, and if his parents decided to enroll him in Eton, it was because the then Prince Charles and Princess Diana felt that if they didn't do the same with him as with William, the tabloids would crush him, labeling him as nothing short of an idiot.
School life at Eton is governed by many strict rules through which values such as discipline are also sought to be instilled in the students. Thus, they must arrive punctually to their obligations every day to avoid their names appearing in the Book of Tardiness. The school's rigorous uniform, which must be purchased at one of the few authorized school tailors in the city, is also harshly criticized in his book by Harry, who felt the utmost ridicule with the theatrical performances, very important at Eton. We will see if Prince George has a knack for comedy.