I think, on the whole, that David Cameron is a vacuous politician who thinks more about style than substance and whose main policy seems to be "look at me, I'm like tony Blair, but nicer". However, today he has made completely the right decision on Grammar schools and deserves praise for doing so.
David Cameron has highlighted that Grammar schools are full of middle class kids. This is a glaring admission that selection favours the middle classes at the expense of the poor.
The Tory party have a long way to go on this and David Cameron has to do a lot more than this to convince me he has anything to offer those of us who work in education, but it is a good first step in the right direction.
Well done Mr Cameron - Now that's a first from me.
1 comment:
Grammar Schools are full of middle class kids because they're in middle class areas. Before they were destroyed in other areas they were full of children from the area where they were, be it middle class or working class.
I never understood why socialists were against the tripartite system, it gave the working classes the best route out of the unpleasant work they did (what miner would want their child to go down the mine?)
The best comprehensives are full of middle class kids too.
The comprehensive system is abhorrent. It seeks to treat all children as the same, to the detriment of their opportunities.
We should allow choice and selection in education. Let parents and children decide on the school through vouchers or tax credits. Let schools select based upon ability. Let education be tailored to the children not to some ideology of egalitarianism.
This also has the huge benefit of removing the state from the running of most schools.
The only problem is the unions won't like it because it reduces their power, but surely this is a case where the children should come first, not the politics of teacher's unions.
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