Rageh Omah's programme about race and intelligence

[MaggieBruja]

anybody going to watch it?

I am proud to be working class and yet strangely we are all very intelligent, we even have professonal jobs and book cases full of books that don;t have pictures in. Shock horror

Morosky - well I grew up working class.......but my parents (and brother) now think I'm a snob...........and certainly we have more than professional middle class aspirations for ourselves (ie the material stuff as well )

I found it really interesting.
and realised how clear the view I have of the word intelligence is from a white western point of view.. I have alot more learning to do.. if anyone has tips for reading about the things the Englis social anthropologise chap was saying about reading etc I would love to learn more.

My whole family think I am a snob, which I find quite funny as my Mum has spent her life trying to escape her class whereas I am quite happy with what I am - a working class kid done good.

Have had all the material stuff and now don't give a shit as long as there is food on the table and the money to buy the odd second hand book and trip out. But I guess that is easy to day when you have had it and now don't really struggle.

Morosky - I guess that's true. We're laden with debt right now, (5 figure sum an awful ot higher than 10k). We have food on the table and pay the bills......but would be nice to see the end of it all

yes I'm me (new username is a sort of play on the old one).

We're lucky that our "location" (ie sharing 2 walls with the school.....which reminds me must try and sort out access to the walkway for Saturday for our builder friend to check the bathroom wall from the otherside) means that the DS's attend/will attend excellent infant and junior schools.

I found that his finding that a middle-class way of thinking really confirmed what I thought. That, and the fact that sadly black school boys perceive reading and studying to be white...

I haven't got the proverbial pot, but so far, the things we've done without won't affect my children's long term chances in life. I don't spend money on branded clothes for kids or nintendo DS etc, but I do spend money on extra curricular activities and that kind of thing.

I sincerely hope that just having this mindset (without the actual cash behind it) is what counts (in terms of one's children's success in later life).

I also thought it was very interesting the way the Asian-American parents have no qualms about boasting about what universities their children have graduated from!!! Of course it is something to be proud of! but we have to be quietly, modestly proud! They say to hell with that and raise a flag!! If my children graduated from an Ivy League University I'd be tempted to raise a flag for them!!

I think that the key issue is more about poverty than it is about race tbh. I recently did training on Speech, Language and Communication needs, and they said really to not class children in 'generational poverty' ie children from backgrounds where there is no history of educational achievement, as having SLCN was like ignoring the white elephant in the room. We need children to be able to communicate in a middle class way to enable academic achievement. Poor white kids are at just as bigger risk of failure as poor black kids, however the proportion of black kids who are poor is much larger. We need to work out a way of getting children out of that trap. Many kids in my school don't aspire to achieve at all, they don't want to be 'posh' or 'boffins' and their parents don't have any expectation of academic achievement.

Is very interesting how poor Asian children are able to achieve academically. They don't seem to allow thier povety to prevent them engaging with the system.

Yes, what they said about Confuscius was interesting! It is and always has been so wrapped up in their sense of self; working hard and doing WELL.