I don't think there is any question as to how it happens punkdoc but there are questions about how to change things, given that the people who could simply don't want to. All very wrong.
It will always be there Dove, especially whilst public education is such a lottery. I suspect the problem is as much about teachers in state schools having prejudices about Oxbridge and not expecting enough or pushing their better students to try for a place. Another is the choices of A level subjects and yes, there is also a question of Oxbridge favouring people from schools where they work towards a place there from day 1.
OH's birthday today and the wetaher is definitely not celebrating - filthy, grey and wet. On the up side, we do have a brace of plumbers here to finish off the shower room. Promises to get that all done today but may have to come back to do the other bits and pieces with other taps and connections. Currently having a coffee break with warm chocolate chip biscuits fresh from the oven.
I had planned to garden today but I think it's a sewing sort of day instead.
On a domestic curmudgeonly front - anyone remember my heroic furniture shifting and reorganising las June while OH was away for 3 weeks? Last night he asked me when I'd changed the lilac bedroom around! 6 months to notice? A record I think.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
I'm with you there Dove. Sadly I lost my best mate, when he sent his daughter to Public school. We argued, I agreed that he could do anything he liked with his money, but that I fundamentally disagreed with the system. He has never spoken to me since. His daughter is doing Veterinary medicine at Cambridge.
How can you lie there and think of England When you don't even know who's in the team
I always think that it's better to sneak up on sacred institutions and ideas and change them by quiet dilution. The more "ordinary" folk who get to Oxbridge and the other fancy places like St Andrews and do well, the more these places will see that they benefit form having a wider range of people and talents in their midst. If those students then also go on to encourage others to go there, so much the better.
One of the worst crimes Labour politicians ever committed was to remove the option of grammar schools for poor kids. Doubly unforgiveable given how many top politicians on both sides of the House had benefitted from direct grant places in teh 50s and 60s and gone on to top universities themselves. Compounded by a failure to ensure that the comprehensive system was comprehensively good in term sof buildings, tecahers, faclities and aspiration for all to do as well as they could. You do not make people more equal by removing avenues for improvement.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
Many members of my family have attended public school ... it’s proved very divisive. If it can cause such divisions within a family is it any wonder that it’s divisive within a country. I believe that if those who cared enough about their children’s education to pay a lot of money for it actually paid that in taxes, sent their children to the local state schools and then put some energy into overseeing the state system by being governors etc they’d raise the standards of the state system.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
What I am feeling really curmudgeonly about today, is education. How come more pupils from 8 Public schools go to Oxbridge, than all the students from every state school in the UK.
Whilst I agree with the sentiment I think this isn't exactly what was reported, if I'm understanding it correctly. The actual statistic was that more pupils from 8 schools (unidentified because it was anonymised but assumed to be private schools) went to Oxbridge than went from the 3000ish state schools which were least likely to send pupils to Oxbridge. About 500ish state schools were excluded from the statistics because they do send a lot of pupils to Oxbridge.
Also the reasons are complex and difficult for the universities to control. One big factor is that pupils from these state schools are much less likely to be encouraged to apply.
If I am wrong, I apologise, but I don't think it alters my basic point that the education system is completely broken. Sadly, it appears to me that your life chances are almost totally decided by what school you go to, and as a result of that all our major institutions and companies, end up being run by a small self perpetuating clique.
How can you lie there and think of England When you don't even know who's in the team
If I am wrong, I apologise, but I don't think it alters my basic point that the education system is completely broken. Sadly, it appears to me that your life chances are almost totally decided by what school you go to, and as a result of that all our major institutions and companies, end up being run by a small self perpetuating clique.
Yes Pdoc but the wayto improve it is to get more in tehre and, as Dove says, invest time and effort as well as funds in improving all state schools. Much the best way for a nation to grow and improve quality of life for all form employment prospects to health and life expectancy.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
Posts
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
OH's birthday today and the wetaher is definitely not celebrating - filthy, grey and wet. On the up side, we do have a brace of plumbers here to finish off the shower room. Promises to get that all done today but may have to come back to do the other bits and pieces with other taps and connections. Currently having a coffee break with warm chocolate chip biscuits fresh from the oven.
I had planned to garden today but I think it's a sewing sort of day instead.
On a domestic curmudgeonly front - anyone remember my heroic furniture shifting and reorganising las June while OH was away for 3 weeks? Last night he asked me when I'd changed the lilac bedroom around! 6 months to notice? A record I think.
Sadly I lost my best mate, when he sent his daughter to Public school. We argued, I agreed that he could do anything he liked with his money, but that I fundamentally disagreed with the system. He has never spoken to me since.
His daughter is doing Veterinary medicine at Cambridge.
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
One of the worst crimes Labour politicians ever committed was to remove the option of grammar schools for poor kids. Doubly unforgiveable given how many top politicians on both sides of the House had benefitted from direct grant places in teh 50s and 60s and gone on to top universities themselves. Compounded by a failure to ensure that the comprehensive system was comprehensively good in term sof buildings, tecahers, faclities and aspiration for all to do as well as they could. You do not make people more equal by removing avenues for improvement.
I believe that if those who cared enough about their children’s education to pay a lot of money for it actually paid that in taxes, sent their children to the local state schools and then put some energy into overseeing the state system by being governors etc they’d raise the standards of the state system.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Also the reasons are complex and difficult for the universities to control. One big factor is that pupils from these state schools are much less likely to be encouraged to apply.
Sadly, it appears to me that your life chances are almost totally decided by what school you go to, and as a result of that all our major institutions and companies, end up being run by a small self perpetuating clique.
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border