The Curmudgeon

YOU'LL COME FOR THE CURSES. YOU'LL STAY FOR THE MUDGEONRY.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Thick and Rich

The education secretary has noted, in the endearingly crass phraseology which so many politicians seem to think makes them sound like real people, that "rich, thick kids do better than poor, clever children before they go to school". I suppose this must be a rather difficult insight to avoid in the Conservative Party, especially when one has to sit at a Cabinet table on a regular basis with the likes of Daveybloke and George the Progressively Osborne; but of course Gove has mentioned it for a reason. As with all Conservative insights into the nature of society, the reason is to propagandise against the state's prying into areas that are none of the state's business, such as the welfare of the country's own children. Gove has just rushed through a law which will allow those parents, teachers and charities which the Government considers non-extremist, such as Benedict's paedophile club, to set up their own schools in the name of what Gove referred to as "choices for children"; which, like David Davis, is alliterative but rather silly. Taking yet another leaf out of the now rather soiled and dilapidated New Labour book, Gove has also emulated the previous government's indiscriminate use of anti-terrorist legislation by pushing the law through Parliament using procedures normally reserved for national emergencies slightly larger than having Michael Gove as education secretary. Any stray Liberal Democrats who may have wandered into Gove's department do not appear to have been asked about their objections to this circumventing of the public's elected representatives; otherwise no doubt they would have been vociferous in their condemnation.

4 Comments:

  • At 11:24 pm , Anonymous a humble pacifist said...

    Since Finland appears to have the best school system in the world, going by the global indexeses, we've had delegations from everywhere come and study our quiet, pale, handsome children in their "relaxed and informal" class rooms. As far as I recall, our children start school late, have the least amount of homework, the longest summer vacations, and the shortest days. When I went to school, there were no rich and poor kids, the concept "top of the class" had no meaning, the thickest kids were the most popular ones because they were the least quiet and pale, and even the smarter kids were honestly pretty thick. We all developed late and aspired to nothing. We were free, our giant heads were filled with fantastical nonsense. BUT THIS HAS CONTRIBUTED TO A SITUATION WHERE WE HAVE VERY FEW NOBELISTS!

     
  • At 11:45 pm , Anonymous a humble pacifist said...

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/world_news_america/8601207.stm

     
  • At 11:50 pm , Blogger Philip said...

    Are you sure it's because of the education system, rather than Swedish resentment of the débâcle of 1809 and all those double vowels?

     
  • At 12:23 am , Anonymous a humble pacifist said...

    They'll deny it like they deny everything, but the Swedes are full of all kinds of weird resentments. Slim and civilized - or just repressed? But they have Ingmar Bergman.

    Putting in two letters when you pronounce a long sound - including the consonants! - is indeed genius. Almost everything is spelled exactly like it sounds, no matter how ugly it ends up looking. English kids have to work more to learn how to read and write, I suppose. But they have Shakespeare and Ministry of Sound.

    I had to go to wikipedia to learn what happened in 1809. Proud to say that through all 12 grades, I never learned a single historical fact. Mostly learned how to stare out the window for hours and hours without getting bored, which has come to be a useful skill in the age of YouTube. Another positive was that I never learned the value of work.

    So to answer your question, maybe.

     

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