11 Plus Exams Forum

A really interesting and passionate debate this morning on the Big Question. Catch it if you can on BBC i player. Education and jobs was of course at the very heart of this. I thought the most interesting comment was from a recently qualified Law graduate from the University of Hertfordshire who has discovered that it is not just having the right degree that counts, but having the right degree from the right university. She finds herself being beaten to jobs by Oxbridge graduates. James O Brien, educated at Ampleforth, made comments about his not very bright peers who ended up at lawyers because they were given the right education. And a young man in the audience brought up the very sobering fact that life expectancy in Peckham is twenty years less than just two miles away in Surrey Quays. There have been lots of comments on this forum on the last few days from members who felt that their parents did not encourage them to get the best education. Does it all come back to the parents and their drive and encouragement and of course money?

I think parental drive and example is a very important factor - not just in education but health, wealth and many other areas.

I think parental support and guidance defintely helps. If the child receives praise and encouragement, then they are bound to be more sucessful. Money helps, as it enables the child to have a wider education, whether academic or being able to do more afterschool clubs etc. However, I think if the child feels wanted and secure, and encouraged by their parent, then they will do better.

(The University of Hertfordshire used to be Hatfield Poly. I guess the poly tag still lingers after all these years).

Class definitely still exists and it is a saddening thought. I see it all the time and although education helps those from working classes at independent schools they, and more so their parents, will still struggle to fit in or be accepted in upper/upper-middle class circles.

Just wondered - why exactly is it a saddening thought that class still exists?
I do not think that class in Britain today has anything at all to do with income (perhaps unlike countries like the USA).
It seems to me that it has a lot to do with attitudes, ideas, aspirations etc. What is so wrong with that?
If you come from a decent family, have decent ideas, behave decently, conduct your relationships decently and bring up your children decently then of course this society should reward you because you are more valuable to it than those who do not choose to behave decently! Seems like a truism to me!

I have no doubt that a number of people will now be baying for a definition of " decent" and no doubt that I will be villified for providing one !!
But, hey, just ask and I will provide one - you may not like it!!!!!!

Most people do act decently but I wonder how decent those who are in an apparent higher class act when they socially exclude likeminded peers because they did not grow up within the "huntin, shootin, fishin" set or their family isn't in thepeerage.com.

Social mobility personified.

Anyone cares to make a guess which school these two posh boys (middle class?) come from?

Answer in the following posting - see paragraph 9.


Picture taken from The Telegraph

Did you get your answer right?

See here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/ ... photograph

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Interesting how in upper class families the children were handed over to Nanny and then off to boarding school - might not see their parents much at all.
When families from the other end of the social scale have so little nurturing contact with the parents the kids end up in care.

(remember a tiny Prince Charles shaking hands with his mother not having seen her for weeks?).