There's a wonderful post here by the former teacher Katherine Birbalsingh, who was recently disciplined for "dissing" the Socialists' education system.
The Eton upper sixth boys smile as they stand around me, wearing suits, confident, bright and interested, as I ask them various questions. I can’t quite believe that here I am in the place they call “Eton”, the mythical, magical land of learning which up until now, I have only ever been able to imagine. I feel a sense of privilege just for having been allowed to visit.Frankly, I don't think she's wrong.
I am told that some two thirds of their year group are applying to Oxbridge and that nearly a third of their year group will gain a place. That’s a far cry from the two or three I have been accustomed to seeing make it to the spires of scholarly tradition. My eyes open wide with true amazement.
“When one of your friends doesn’t get in, why do you think that is?”
The boys shrug. “It’s because he messed up at the interview or the tests.”
I lean my head to the side. “Yes, but hasn’t there ever been a really really bright boy, one who you’ve always thought was so clever, who hasn’t got in?”
They agree that sometimes that happens, that there was one boy from a couple of years ago, who was superb and yet somehow, he didn’t get in.
“Why do you think that was?” I probe.
They shrug again. “He must have messed up at interview.”
I shake my head, rejecting their polite conversation. “No, no, don’t you think that maybe there is a bias against you boys? Being from Eton and all?”
They shake their heads vigorously. “No, no… it will have been because he messed up… maybe on the exam…”
I keep going. I’m not satisfied with all this business of taking responsibility for oneself. I mean, they’re kids after all, and kids make excuses for themselves. At least most of the kids I know, do.
“Doesn’t it annoy you that some state school kids might gain places because of their potential, rather than their achievements? That some of you might have more A grades, more accolades, more to show for yourselves and yet they get a place instead of you?”
One of the boys draws back from me as if I’ve said something dreadful. He frowns. “But we’ve had advantages that they haven’t had. They haven’t had the privilege of our education.”
I am literally stunned into silence.
Later, I am with one of the boys’ teachers and I cannot stop talking about how wonderful a school it is. He is flattered, but not convinced.
He sighs. “It’s all very well coming here, wandering around the old buildings and presuming that it is excellent. But all you’ve seen is old buildings.”
I am offended that he should think so little of my powers of analysis. “Your buildings? Sure, your buildings are lovely, but that’s not what makes me think as I do. It’s your boys to whom I’ve been speaking most of the evening who have impressed me.”
He smiles knowingly, and I explain how dumbfounded I am by the boys’ sense of responsibility. Even though he nods reassuringly, I’m not so sure he truly understands my genuine sense of awe. He hasn’t had my experiences, you see. He doesn’t know how I simply expect the boys to respond to failure with “It’s cos I is from Eton”. He doesn’t instinctively expect the normal excuse-making which is rampant in the world in which I live. He likely doesn’t realise how the fact that his boys do just the opposite from what I expect says everything about the school, and so perfectly demonstrates that schooling isn’t just about teaching children to say “It is because one attends Eton”. Indeed, it’s about so much more.
I'm damn sure she's right!
ReplyDeleteThank you for finding this article - it's quite refreshing at pointing up the gap in society we all know exists.
And I don't just mean between gay and heterosexual folk.
It's just even more unfashionable to talk about wealth or class these days, isn't it?
I wasn't aware that it was unfashionable, I have to say. But at the moment it's politically correct to play up the not particularly substantial difference between the "poor" and the "middle classes" (i.e. the rich), whilst ignoring the enormous and ever growing gap between the super-rich (who basically own and run the real government) and the rest of us mere mortals, who still like to imagine that our votes and opinions actually count for anything.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah - but slagging off the sup-rich is just plain envy, isn't it? If we'd all tried a bit harder and the omens had been right (or whatever one believes in to represent 'fate and fortune') then we might all have become super-rich.
ReplyDeleteCertainly my school thought so. That or run the army or the government or something.
I don't particularly slag off super-rich people - but that's mainly because I've never met any of them. If people do slag them off though I'd guess that's to make themselves feel better - because whatever one might say about the super-rich there's absolutely nothing we can do about them. (The Government can, if it chooses, drive both them and their money out of the country with punitive taxes. But that's about it.)
ReplyDeleteI use super-rich to mean richer than everyone else - so I suppose by definition we can't all be super-rich.
What was your school?