You can tell politicians are out of touch whenever they talk about "discipline" in schools. Whenever I hear the word discipline, two thoughts enter my head: the cane and detention. Neither are particularly nice thoughts for parents worrying about whether their child will get on in a school.

I checked out my former school, Dulwich College in south London. Its website has an introduction by the Master who says the school is a "a caring, supportive and well-ordered community which encourages spiritual and personal development where boys from a variety of cultural and social backgrounds can feel secure and equally valued."

To get another perspective, I checked out website of James Alleyn's Girls School which says:

Girls are encouraged to do their best at whatever they attempt, to explore new opportunities and to enjoy every aspect of school life. Our pastoral care provides support and understanding as girls progress through school and meet new challenges. Community Service, partnerships with local state schools and the Duke of Edinburgh Award are all significant contributors to our aim that every girl leaves our school self-confident, imbued with respect and concern for others and eager to make an active contribution to society.

Both schools are private and neither bang on about promoting school discipline. Parents want their children to be happy at school. The idea that children are disciplined the whole time is, frankly, scary.

My suggestion to politicians who want to talk about state education is to get a stack of private school prospectuses and just crib from them.

Alex Singleton is director-general of the Globalisation Institute.