What do you think is the social class of a headteacher?

[franceslucia]

Discuss.

I long for the day when people are embarrassed that we put human beings into 'classes'. I cringe at the Indian caste system, for example. What's the difference?

I really don't think they understand just how ridiculous they sound to anyone living in another country.

Yes, I hate it. It's like an instruction from a head teacher 😜

Head teacher in 'approximated social grade' would be B. As others have said, though, 'class' is multifactorial. You can have an aristocrat working as a museum or playgroup assistant, D or C2 jobs and crap pay, but they're still upper class and likely wealthy. Poor aristocrats are upper class unless actually destitute. Highly successful working class people can be in social grade A, multi-millionaires yet still working class.

Premier League footballers are C2 (skilled manual) by occupation and mostly working class by 'class', despite earning millions.

Welcome to Britain 😂 though other European countries are as bad - including Ireland!

I'm glad I don't live in the UK if this is what people think about

It's impossible to say and no-one agrees how to define class so it's meaningless. Too many variables to definitely 'class' most people.

Why don't you tell us what you think instead of instructing us to 'discuss' like you're a GCSE sociology exam question.

@Twistybranch

Not in the UK. In places like the US maybe
Absolutely in the UK is job one of the factors that contribute to determining class.

Surgeon or barrister very much most likely MC or UMC. Sure there will be those who started as WC but class is not fixed.

Someone who grew up WC but ended up at Cambridge and became a highly celebrated surgeon is no longer WC

What is even worse is when the OP doesn't come back 😔

Dump and run, dump and run

Why is this important? As long as they do a good job who actually cares?

Both my parents were headteachers.

And I still don't care what class that makes them. Or me.

That is such a weird, bitter, silly, and ignorant point of view.

Class is much more than your job title. In fact, I would say it’s nothing to do with your job at all.

What is the class of a teacher? Fucking hell I'm glad I live in Australia and most people here don't give a flying fuck....

I don’t think you understand social class, OP.

It's pathetic isn't it. All this earnest discussion about class - it's just ridiculous, but they take it so seriously. Thank goodness we are well out of it (I'm in NZ).

We need class analysis to see the unfairness in the world and address it. Social class is one of those things.

A head teacher would be middle class. However there are distinctions within MC, you have LMC, MMC & UMC. A head teacher born into a WC family would probably be LMC. A head teacher born into a family of teachers would be MMC. A head teacher who attended a boarding school and who had parents who were doctors or barristers would probably be UMC.

Discuss = rude

That's not what upper middle class means in the UK though. It's quite a small group of non-aristocratic Sloan Rangers with actual family money who always send the boys to public school. Think David Cameron, who spent a lot of time describing himself as "middle class".

A mate of mine has just been promoted to head of a private but not public school founded in the 1600s. He's rock solid third generation middle class (family are Army officers, doctors, small business owners) but not close to UMC.

You are confusing class origin and class destination.

We’d have to meet them to know. Pointless question.

I'm 100 with you on this (fellow Aussie)

No, I'm not. Consider Alan Sugar.

Ours is working class. But her daughter's may well have had a middle class upbringing and go into middle class jobs and live middle class lives, being upwardly mobile. Or not.