To think that intelligence is more important than looks

[jordanink]

As a Dad of a pre- teenage daughter I was surprised to see the comments from Putney high school equating a girls 'achievements' as a model to those of her and her peers academic results. I would imagine some of the other girls at PHS who did well would be annoyed that they weren't individually mentioned simply because of what they look like. I hope the girl in question does well in life because of what is between her ears and not simply what she looks like. I am very surprised that a girls school still seems to have this 1970's attitude towards women.

Putney High School
is today celebrating outstanding GCSE results, with 87% of entries achieving A or A grades. Some 58 per cent of girls secured at least 10 A or A grades, with 10 girls achieving 10 A grades. 20 girls secured nine or more A grades. Olivia Mason Pearson sat her GCSE exams just two months after making her catwalk debut at Paris Fashion Week, modelling for Balenciaga under creative director Alexander Wang. Olivia was signed by agency Select Model Management after being spotted in the street last October. She said: “I had to be organised to ensure I covered all of my GCSE classwork and revision but it was great to be part of such a high profile show for an iconic brand.” - See more at: www.putneyhigh.gdst.net/media/news/article/3873/Putney-celebrates-GCSE-results/#.dpuf

I don't see it as being selected on grounds of looks. I see it as a well done on managing to fit it all in and still pass your exams. I'd hope they'd have done the same for pupils achieving in other things that required time away from school and still passed exams.

Well, yes, I guess she was one of the twenty that managed the higher grades, with the additional complication of much time away from school.
Well done her.

But generally speaking, of course, I agree with you. (But I have a first class degree and I am a feminist munter)

Also generally speaking, I think there are a lot of people who are trying to avoid clicky linkies, currently.

Yes I think this is more of a "look what else she's done AND she's still managed to get high marks in exams" kind of thing than a looks vs intellegence thing.

Of course intellegence is more important than looks, although it doesn't hurt to make an effort with appearence too.

You are trying to find this offensive but it isn't really. All its saying is she been able to handle another challenge and still come out on top. Did you want the school to ban her from the modelling or something?

I commented on the other thread, and have now looked at the page.

The way it is written is poor. It's a paragraph, near the top of the page, which sits very oddly with the rest of the article.

No other non-academic achievement is singled out (have to go for links for that).

Yes, academic achievement is harder to achieve if you have a public performance schedule to juggle too. A fair point to make. But this article does not make it well.

In previous years, btw, they have included similar references to things like rowing and acting.

But they were in better presented articles, with the additional challenge of that level of performance in exam years make more explicit, and the paragraph coming after (not as here before) information on the cohort's exam performance.

This article is not as well written, and therefore unfortunate that the extra-curricular activity mentioned is one based on having the face that fits.

I agree with meditrina that the structure of the article is poor. The wording would have been absolutely fine if some other students had been singled out for exceptional non-academic achievement (other than being a twin! ), but the article as it stands does come across badly.

The school is celebrating achievements.

It could be sport, acting, music or academic results.

And yes, I do think modelling on a Paris catwalk is remarkable because so very few do it.

In this case it isn't about looks v brains.