Education superclass?

[Amber2]

blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/iainmartin1/100245274/it-is-much-worse-than-sir-john-major-says-a-new-superclass-is-being-created-in-london/

This is interesting coming from John Major ...sounds like more lobbying along the lines of the Sutton Trust but do people really think it's much worse than it ever has been..? and this is do with with the inexorable rise of London...and the global money flowing in there...and so to creating an elite superclass of private schools also ...not just any old private school but a small handful of elite ones, applications to which have reached record numbers, presumably more and more from London and from overseas with over inflation rises in fees pricing out the traditional middle classes that used to be able to afford these schools.

ok but the context of what he said was about selective schooling and bringing back more grammar schools i.e. he is vaunting segregation in schooling if you like, of the most intelligent ...agree though that no-one should write off the 16% and important for the fabric of society that a good education is accessible for all..

Kenlee don't underestimate Boris, I am no fan by the way,underneath all his buffonary is a very very very smart man. He was a KS into Eton and even then it was only offered to the very brightest.

I think he actually deliberately cultivates the smart buffoon image and uses it to get away with remarks other politicians would not be able to voice, and he's managed to get him elected more than once ...so however elitist his remarks and his Etonian past, the masses seem to vote for him.

I know...thats why you wonder about all his silliness but if you see him at work and his thinking you know he is smart....I saw him on Question time and you can tell with his answers that he is smart...

Yes, Indy5, I think he gets great amusement out of watching turkeys vote for Christmas.

...and the turkeys will likely continue to vote for him even after the latest speech....the Editor of the Independent did a nice summary on the Boris appeal:

"How is it possible that this politically incorrect, verbose, Greek-epigram-spouting scruff-bag can wow crowds wherever he goes, even those that should by rights be "anti"? I've seen Boris on the streets of Brixton, where antipathy towards the likes of David Cameron and George Osborne is palpable. Instead, BoJo plunges in, quipping and high-fiving; charming all around him.

Sometimes, after meeting him and soaking up the bonhomie and bon mots, I have walked away and wondered what exactly just happened; what did he mean with his "codswallop", "whiff-whaff" and "vast inanition"?

No other senior British politician could have got away with a counter-attack on Mitt Romney. I think therein lies the appeal. He is who he is. He does not pretend. He's not Cameron on a bike with clothes and briefcase in the car behind. At a time when every unguarded remark is seized upon mercilessly by an instant global media, most politicians are reduced to beige. Boris is, by comparison, psychedelic – even if he has had a short back and sides."

Boris has the ability to make people laugh at him and with him and we all like people that make us laugh. And as Indy said in the PC grey world of ours he is psychedelic and people like that as well.
I once met him at a social thing before he became famous when he was just editor of the Specy. He was obviously very capable and and I'm embarrassed to amusing and likeable. He has a lot of big noises in the media supporting him which is what he's going to need if he's going to take over from Cameron, he a shrewd long term planner just waiting for his moment.

There is a colossal difference between what personal attributes the public will be attracted to in their Mayor of London and what they will vote for in a world leader. And he wouldn't be allowed to say what he really thinks as leader of the Tory party, anyway - Prime Ministers are not allowed to go out on a limb like London Mayors.

Yes but he will in fact has I think already modified his behaviour. He's not like that in real life. IMO it's the fact that he's a chameleon is what makes him such a threat to Cameron (who I also can't stand) the liberals (don't like Clegg much either) and the Labour Party (nothing to dislike about Milliband but he just seems unsuited to the job, too nice).

His policies on free markets, support for business,low taxes, extolling those who pay a lot of tax , pro-immigration and the like (my views) are very in tune with the view of many who are not represented by the current very wet Tories (nor of course the left). Whether he could become leader however is another matter. I would hope be might

Yes. Very nice.

Could you now all stop counting angels and apply yourselves to the real world - the "Shock, worry..." thread needs you.

I have already disgraced myself there but you're clearly much calmer than I can manage.

Pretty please. (Fairly urgent too.)

But we've liked it here..:-) ..and it's been so civilised ...meandering into opera (esoteric in parts), the Harkness method, benefits of rural idylls, importance of different languages, chinese vs, Western Europe approaches to education, genetics of IQ and now Boris......

Yes, yes - you can come back. But just run over to "State of shock, worry..." first. You can put all your esoteric good sense to practical use. Go now.

(I'm no use; too impatient.)

I read it Sthing...I think you did your best...and it's all been said by others on there...I'd be no good either as I would be frustrated also at the poverty of aspiration...but then I don't walk in those shoes...but hard for me to imagine not being wholly supportive and researching whatever it took to find out what was needed to support my DS's aspirations..for me there's no question that DS would go to uni and I would help him get whatever info or encouragement he needed, unless he was adamant that that is not what he wanted because there was something else he absolutely wanted to be.

The thing is - there was a thread several months ago (one of the first I posted on) where a mother was asking what to do because her 12 year old daughter had decided she wanted to go to Oxford or Cambridge. People fell over themselves to say she should encourage her. And then other people sneered.

And just look what happens.

why would anyone sneer ...do you think Barack Obama's mother or grandmother sneered when he said he wants to go to Harvard or be president of the USA one day... I wonder what would have happened if they had ...the spark has to start somewhere...John Gurdon, he of the Nobel Prize, got the worst science reports in his year from Eton, it was his mother who encouraged him in his love of science at home despite that. no-one says fill your children's heads with grossly unrealistic notions, (not everyone can be a champion league footballer if they don't have the requisite talent and good to have solid plan B even if you are very good) but you should not trample on their dreams or ambitions either.

By the way I love John Gurdon's story. If you ever feel exasperated at your child's progress at school in a subject in which you know they have a real interest and potential...take heart from it....amazing how things can turn around someday.

oh and don't forget this one....

A Munich science teacher said that little Albert Einstein 'will never amount to anything'

Quite. Though I like to think that he inherited a fair amount of his intellectual aspiration from his Df as well.

Oddly enough Barack Obama's example is very much in the mind of the Yr 7 child who is currently teaching me Greek....

sometimes you never know...it could be the sneer from a teacher that spurs them on...and then failure at some stage can also be a great teacher ..

Hmm - I meant I like to think Obama inherited some of his intellect from his father.

Over the weekend I was talking about boys' education with a fellow of an Oxford college. She thinks there's been a widening of access in the last forty years but I'm not so sure. From what I can see the little Barack Obamas of the UK are in just as bad a position as they were in the 70's unless they are lucky enough to get out of the state system.

I keep banging on about this here - but no-one believes me.

I am by the Barack Obama references here. He hardly came from the underclass. His father was Kenyan, but bright enough to go to America for an undergraduates degree and then Harvard for a graduate degree. His mum is middle class and educated to PhD level, and did some incredible things in her life! Their son would hardly be described as having a disadvantaged background!

John Gurdon and Albert Einstein didn't come from the underclass either - Gurdon went to Eton - that wasn't the point...the examples were about encouraging aspirations of children and not sneering at them no matter how high they are. Obama was hardly superclass whatever people think of his politics or his persona - coming from where he came from, and reaching the White House the way he did is a valid example in the context here.

Mominatrix Neither you nor I would consider Obama to be part of any underclass. But I can tell you absolutely that his fate in a state school in England would be as depressing as it might have been 40 years ago.

There is still extreme poverty of expectation in English state schools unless you fit the demographic that "they" expect to succeed.

(But I'm still angry about a thread from yesterday where I was too stupid to be able to explain how for some people education is not just an airy fairy "option" but life and death.

I took DS to school today, which is rare, but afforded us the opportunity for a good chat as we crawled through London.

And we touched on what an elite education was like. He told me that yes, analytical thinking, creative thinking etc was given high priority in his school, however knowledge was also given high priority. Teachers are fond of saying there is no point being super clever if you don't know anything.

I think it's this balance in education that is key. Gove bangs on about knowledge based education, industry bangs on about creative problem solving skills etc teachers are expected to make all lessons a singing and dancing experience...schools like the one DS attends have found the balance.

But, as I've said before, most parents would not want the type of education for their DC that my DC receive, even if there were enough resources to provide it.