We might take with a pinch of salt the popular portrayal - from the days of J R and the other Ewings - that all the residents of Dallas are oil barons. However, recent reports show a great increase in private schooling there. The number of private schools in the Dallas-Fort Worth area has more than doubled in the last decade and parents are finding it increasingly difficult to find places for their children. Private education is apparently now widely regarded less as a luxury than an expensive but attainable necessity.

The reasons cited by parents for making this choice for their children include safety, smaller class sizes, with individual attention, and the fact that - as more than 90 per cent of the private schools are religious schools - there are morning prayers.