Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Don't mention the (culture) war

Following on from my post about schools and social mobility the other day, I saw an item on the news yesterday (probably BBC, but it may have been ITV or even Sky - I can't remember) in which they reported that social mobility was worse now than it was in the fifties. The report made several references to education - but didn't mention grammar schools once.

The same report also featured the awful Baroness Shirley Williams - one of the architects of the demise of our education system - claiming that, as her stupid plans had clearly failed (my words, not hers) what was needed was something even more radical (her words, not mine).

I find it incredible that a news team can report the decline in social mobility since the 1950's, specifically single out education as the key contributor to that and NOT mention the very obvious fact that the one thing that changed between then and now was the demise of the grammar school!

Even more remarkable is to then go to the person who presided over the destruction of our education system to ask what we need to do to put it right. It's like asking Goebbels how we go about solving the Middle East question!

This is the thing with the progressive liberals - they never ever admit that got it wrong. Worse still, they pretend that the damage which they caused either never happened or occurred despite what they did - not because of it. With our education system in turmoil and social mobility all but ended, Shirley Williams should be pilloried endlessly rather than treated like an education oracle. Bright and articulate she may be, but she is still wrong and still refusing to admit it.

You don't have to be that old or that bright to work out what has changed in our education system since the 1950's - but those who worked to destroy the grammar school system are never going to admit that they one thing that could restore social mobility is the restoration of it. Instead they will come up with increasingly convoluted methods of pupil allocation, systems of bribes and punishments for school and universities to get them to take certain pupils and things will get progressively worse.

Only when someone has the guts to stand up and say that the grammar school system worked, worked well and will work well again - and go onto to commit to rebuilding that system - will we ever solve the problem of social mobility.

But who is going to do that?

1 comment:

North Northwester said...

The clever - why are they do dumb?

Say, that sounds like a good idea for a blog.


All education in England is privately funded and selective, being based on property values of the homes near good schools.

18th Century education in the Third Millennium.

May Labour get all that it deserves.