Why is 6th form thought of more highly than attending FE college ?

[Summersunshinee]

I can never understand why if you say that you attend 6th form at school you are thought of more so than if you attended FE college.

I would feel that if anything it would be more impressive to attend FE college as you made the decision to go somewhere else and try something different /

god how do I block this stupid, pointless, circular thread. It's reached its conclusions so many times.

OP: why does everyone thinks sixth form is better than college?

Everyone: it's horses for courses, depends on the kid and the circumstances, there's no right or wrong, some areas there's a choice, some there isn't.

OP: yeah, but why do you all think sixth form is better than college?

Truly pathetic. How do you block a thread? I have no idea because I've never had to and this is the first one if 15 odd years that has made me want to.

Smart home you just stop posting on a thread and stop reading it

not hard? 😁

It's bonkers.

Probably the most frustrating thread I've ever been on yet strangely compelling. It's the total and repeated lack of logic.

No, I want it blocked, so I don't see it in 'Threads I'm On' in 3 months time when the OP reanimates it again, for some pointless, chippy reason.

@SmartHome Go to 'threads I'm on' and then with the 3 dots ... select delete thread. It stops being visible then.

In wider society there is.

A blend of the two would diminish this.

Evidence of wider society saying this?

@TeenDivided There are various references to this in this thread alone.

Go on, post links containing evidence. The majority view on here clearly disagrees with your assertion, and we have repeated why with detailed point tine and time again.

Time for you to do some of the running.

And also be clear whether you are talking institution or qualification.

No, there aren't. There are one or two people who haven't RTFT who say 'it's because they're snobs' without any evidence to support that point. Then there is a plethora of posters on the thread who have expressed their support for all kinds of post 16 education, whether vocational or otherwise, so that all young people can have the teaching they need.

Sure, snobs exist. But changing a functional if imperfect education system to silence them is silly. Just ignore them.

Like the OP there are reverse snobs as well!

@Summersunshinee out of curiosity I went back and re read from the start because I had forgotten a few parts.
You said your secondary school didn’t have a 6th Form so you would have had to change schools if you have wanted to go to 6th Form. You said your sister did that but you went to college instead.
So you went somewhere new (new people, new teaching staff, new and different facilities).
Your sister also went somewhere new (new people, new teaching staff, new and different facilities).
What’s the difference?

This doesn't make sense.

You obviously have this idea that sixth form at school is for academic subjects (which you don't think should be allowed - no one should be allowed to study purely academic subjects, all teens should be forced to study vocational subjects as well) and that FE college is for vocational subjects.

(Which isn't even correct.)

Yet you also think that sixth form shows a lack of ambition?

So you think... that wanting to study purely academic subjects and pursue and academic career eg as a doctor or scientist shows a lack of ambition? That only kids who want to be hairdressers or salespeople have ambition? Is that what you're saying?

Honestly what does it even matter. For most academic kids, A Levels are just a bridge to university, and once you're at university no one remotely gives a shit whether you went to 6th form at a school or a FE college.

What if a bright student who would on the surface be more suited to 6th form actually goes to a lower performing college and performs better there that they would at 6th form ?

If they're bright then they'll get good A Level results and a decent uni place regardless, and once you're at uni no one cares where you studied when you were a kid.

Honestly in the real world the snobbery regarding education is over which university you went to, or whether you went to uni or not. (As well as snobbery and reverse snobbery over private vs state education.)

Honestly in the real world the snobbery regarding education is over which university you went to, or whether you went to uni or not. (As well as snobbery and reverse snobbery over private vs state education.)

Exactly this.

There is no snobbery over sixth form vs FE college. It's around whether you go to HE or not and which university to attend.
And I'm very familiar with the research on this subject!

My sister is older than me and went to a different school which had a 6th form.

I went to a different school which did not have a 6th form.

@flurbubbly Do you think people who are hairdressers or salespeople lack ambition ?

Still waiting for evidence to back up your assertion....

@Summersunshinee so ok but you still had to go somewhere completely new whether you chose 6th Form or College. Either would had been new to you so that would be all the “meeting new people” that you keep going on about.
So I ask again….what is the difference?

Yes, if someone decided they liked cutting hair and wanted to do it for a living, I would assume they were not especially ambitious career-wise (unless they wound up owning a chain of salons, releasing a successful product line, etc.). This is not a negative in any way. If someone I knew realised they loved hair and were happy in that career, I'd be very happy for them.

"Ambition" isn't a good thing or a bad thing, it just is what it is. Sometimes ambition can be good, sometimes ambition can be bad. So you wording it as a quality some people "lack" is pejorative.

Do you think hairdressers are more ambitious than brain surgeons or NASA scientists?

I love this thread. It’s like a gentle itch I enjoy scratching every few days or so. As a previous poster said, it’s ‘strangely compelling’. Mildly frustrating, circular arguments, done without aggression but also without resolution. I will kind of miss it when it’s gone.

@RetinaRouge it's like picking a scab. You know it will slow the healing process. You know it achieves nothing. You still do it, and it's strangely satisfying.

Pointythings so true! But we must steel ourselves NOT to start a second thread, withdrawal symptoms or not...

@grass321 given that this isn't OP's only thread on this topic, that may not be in our control.

What?! There's another one? Noooo...

@grass321 OP has started more than one thread on broadly the same topic. Fortunately the older ones have disappeared into the Fields Where Dead Threads Go.