New Idea for the New Year -Updated

Retaking the Shining City Upon a Hill!

It’s Glenn Reynolds’s DISINTERMEDIATION — my own suggestion for 2010′s Word of the Year — in action:

link

I attended one of the worst schools in Britain, probably in the whole of Europe- as it is in a very deprived urban area in a city notorious throughout the country (they snigger when you tell them where you’re from- you can see it). So I have very much my own thoughts about education, & if there’s one thing I do know it’s that working-class people are not morons, & a lack of qualifications or going to a lesser university doesn’t prove anything negative. I like people who are on an upward trajectory- such as, did badly at school, undefeated, carved out something for himself later on. Not necessarily in qualifications but in private reading.

Obviously as an avid reader since I was first taught my letters I know about this- isn’t it depressing when you meet an illiterate?- I do value formal education but it isn’t the whole story.

When I have mixed with people who can just about afford private education for their kids I advise against it. I see why people move to affluent areas that they have to sacrifice to afford the mortgage on- the scrambling for a decent school place is horrifying, especially for someone whose parents had no realistic prospect of any of that- but I think a child with reading, supportive parents will do fairly well anywhere.

I also think, strongly, that a school should be a community. People who only mix with the affluent end up quite possibly even worse off than those who live amongst the very poor- it is disconcerting that in Britain, & possibly even more so in America, there exists an overclass cut off from society just as surely as people living on some estate somewhere. (They call the place I grew up “tin town” because some of the houses look like prefabs- even we, on the street I lived on, would look down on them).

I support, essentially, fully comprehensive schools. We used at one stage to have a system that, for all it was dressed up as something else, had some state schools for more academic pupils & some for those considered to be factory fodder. I see the point in them, & a system which is similar but better & less crude exists in Germany, but it was also riddled with flaws & in my view should not be brought back.

So I would like to see some form of school as a microcosm of society, without concentrations of rich, or poor, or able or less able. I do think that sending people from modest homes on scholarships is a bit tokenistic- as it will always leave people behind.

But this I will say. A system which is in place in Britain, without whose help I would certainly not be able to write this comment, is the system of “streaming” whereby pupils are taught in groups according to ability. They have it, & it is opposed by some, but I will withstand their opposition.

The usual whingers say that it upsets the less able. But the fact is, it’s a better system than having them in altogether different schools & if there is streaming in all subjects a pupil is bound to be good at something. I was in the bottom set for art- only the fact that I was scared of the art teacher prevented me from expressing my deeply uncomplimentary views on her & her subject

I see nothing radically wrong withy the state school system as it is- in all honesty, I don’t shed any tears when I hear about private schools closing due to the recession- but I think it is better to aim lessons at the ability of pupils rather than pretend they can all magically learn at the same pace. We had mixed ability teaching in English but not in other subjects- though having said that, I found English veryy, but very boring- we had to read stuff like Of Mice And Men which probably are of literary worth, but which I would never in a million years want to open up

But it is my view that education would be improved if some way were found of getting certain parents, & it is certain parents, to actually care whether their children live or die & take an interest in their education. Because they exist as a sort of plughole down which any hopes the likes of me might have had get dragged down.

I have always thought that only a tiny minority of people are hardcore scum. Your average young offender can be rehabilitated in prison, given a focus on the literacy he probably never picked up at school. But when there are massd concentrations of poor people, such as in public housing, the fringe cases, who are probably none too bright but would be able to get some form of job & a reasonably ok life if they lived in the south-east, get dragged.

So it is in all walks of life that the silent majority must yield to the noisy minority. I don’t for a second think most Muslims are fundamentalists, but where Islam predominated the fundamentalists don’t take long to establish their rule because what most people think is irrelevant.

You see what I said about parenting though- a child spends more time at home than at school & hat is a teacher meant to do if that is wrong? They already have one job, they don’t need another.

Having said all that, I really hated school. I even hate driving past the place. So I never really think about education because I don’t like the thought.

[Most of this sounds like one of my sons could have written it! - admin]

Did you send your kids to a state school then? Sorry if you said so already- it may have been before my time if you did.

[My sons both graduated from a public ("state-run") high school, and the eldest graduated from a State University. My younger son attends a private University, thanks to a scholarship he got on the strength of his singing. -admin]

Count me in. If it was not for a scholarship, my little munchkin would be attending a Charleston county public school (SC is 49th in the nation re education), not a private catholic school.

A group of women in the Washington, D.C. area are organized and sponsor teas to raise money and awareness for programs/people who are adversely affected by the current administration’s decisions. Their latest tea benefited a local private school’s vouchers for needy students. Their first tea benefited a local crisis pregnancy center. Audacity of Tea God bless women who gather in His name to bless others in tangible ways.

I pledge at least $50.00 to the Anchoress Scholarship fund-or what ever it ends up being called. This is a brilliant idea. It needs to be supported.

I’m on board with this quest as well. I’d love to show the politicos the power of private fundraising, and its ability to undo the harm they inflict in support of their special interests’ demands.

You have to admit the ‘Small Dead Animals Fund’ has a great ring to it!