Welcome to the Great British Underclass

[fallen-archie]

I was chatting to a young lady who recently completed her teacher training and this week was inducted into the new Primary School where she will commence her chosen career. The school is multi cultural and located in West Yorkshire, it is a deprived area but by no means as bad as some inner city areas. Despite this around 90% of the childrens parents are welfare dependent. Most of the children have been labelled as having some kind of lerning difficulty reading standards among eight year olds is expremely poor.

The young Teacher who comes from a middle class background with a strong work ethic is the only member of the family not to be following a medical career, she has always wanted to Teach and help young children.

So what was her verdict following the three days?

The majority of pupils appear to have no respect for authority in any form, Gentle persuasion is the order of the day and the children respond with a tirade of abuse and colourful language.Attempts to impose discipline inevitably result in a family visitation where the source of the colourful language is confirmed. The Head Teacher in conjunction with police and the education authority has introduced a code of conduct and special measures to protect staff from irate and often hostile guardians. What is clear is the children are being raised in a manner likely to confine them to state dependence in one form or another and deprive them of the opportunity to escape poverty. 

We have a young, committed new teacher, keen to get on, with talent and the drive to succeed faced with the uncertainty of a career dealing with feral kids and their often broken families who challenge her ability not by interlect but by threat of physical abuse. The Only beneficiary of this sad situation is Jeremy Kyle. 

Why is it that despite having a welfare state designed to ease poverty and an education system which is free to all we end up with an Underclass seemingly incapable or unwilling to grasp the nettle break away and get on? 

Will this new teacher tough it out or simply follow many others and seek an alternative career? 

[malacandran]

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@upthecreekyetagain wrote:

And who can say what skills will be needed in 40/50 years time? ???

The media for instance is already a very large employer - it may well be one of the primary ones in 50 years time.

over 80% of workers are currently employed in service industries and this is more likely to grow rather than decrease and many of the degrees considered by many as "useless" may well suit future employment opportunities.

This is an interesting article

http://thetab.com/uk/newcastle/2014/03/27/history-french-and-english-students-among-most-likely-to-b...

It lists the 'top' twenty degrees in terms of the degrees with the lowest employment rates following graduation.  There are many traditional degree courses in the list including Geography, History and French amongst the top 5!

This is the full list which had a few surprises for me.

1. Geography

2. Sport science

3. Criminology

4. History

5. French

6. Primary Education

7. Media studies

8. Ancient History

9. Film Studies

10. Accountancy

11. Events management

12. Sociology

13. English language

14. Business management

15. Advertisement

16. English Lit

17. Sports and business management

18. Music

19. Religious studies and theology

20. Psychology

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That's a very revealing post, it shows that Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics are not being studied much these days, as they are too difficult for modern youffs to grasp

[upthecreekyetagain]

Actually it doesn't reveal anything about which subjects students study - of course that may be too difficult for some to understand 🙂

[malacandran]

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@upthecreekyetagain wrote:

Actually it doesn't reveal anything about which subjects students study - of course that may be too difficult for some to understand 🙂

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I think it shows that students these days, are incapable of understanding Science.  They have been fecked by watching TV.

[upthecreekyetagain]

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@malacandran wrote:

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@upthecreekyetagain wrote:

Actually it doesn't reveal anything about which subjects students study - of course that may be too difficult for some to understand 🙂

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I think it shows that students these days, are incapable of understanding Science.  They have been fecked by watching TV.

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As I said, it may be too difficult for some to understand 🙂

[malacandran]

Obviously some Britons these days have had their heads ruined by television. 

The television has made them complete fools.  They even listen to Rap gibberings. And wear their pants halfway dow

[jd.linklater]

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@malacandran wrote:

Obviously some Britons these days have had their heads ruined by television. 

The television has made them complete fools.  They even listen to Rap gibberings. And wear their pants halfway dow

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Maybe someone could come up with a degree course that even the stupidest school leaver could do. 

How about idiot street patois, dem is all talkin like dat now innit.

[malacandran]

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@jd.linklater wrote:

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@malacandran wrote:

Obviously some Britons these days have had their heads ruined by television. 

The television has made them complete fools.  They even listen to Rap gibberings. And wear their pants halfway dow

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Maybe someone could come up with a degree course that even the stupidest school leaver could do. 

How about idiot street patois, dem is all talkin like dat now innit.

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The British people will regain our country, we are not fooled by idiots.

[jd.linklater]

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@malacandran wrote:

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The British people will regain our country, we are not fooled by idiots.

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Only if there is a revolution.

[electric*mayhem*band]

Well JD, it's about time. We haven't had a decent one since 1381.

From previous page. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/10146038/Graduate-jobs-top-12-degree-subjec...

• 11).  Architecture, Building, Planning. There are degrees in architecture ? Really ? ? ?

[bankhaunter]

Don't you think architecture should be a degree course?

[malacandran]

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@bankhaunter wrote:

Don't you think architecture should be a degree course?

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Architecture deserves to be a course in Practical Engineering. Like building long bridges, and tall buildings.

These buildings are essential to civilisation.  One thinks of the Roman Empire, with its trademark sturdy roads and far-reaching aquaducts.  Yet the Roman Empire didn't develope Science.  It only had  Engineering - which is something for second-rate intellects.

So probably true modern "degrees" should be reserved for Mathematics, Physics and (perhaps) Chemistry.

[upthecreekyetagain]

Yet those "hard working Germans" couldn't build Moon rockets without engineers who'd been to university - "ain't that the truth" 🙂

[malacandran]

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@upthecreekyetagain wrote:

Yet those "hard working Germans" couldn't build Moon rockets without engineers who'd been to university - "ain't that the truth" 🙂

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That is a profound truth, Creeky. A scientist thinks up the ideas - the engineer makes them reality.

[electric*mayhem*band]

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@bankhaunter wrote:

Don't you think architecture should be a degree course?

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Well it already is, but judging by the shoddy, grotesque, and hideously formed eyesores that architects are dreaming up on their blueprints now-a-days, you'd never believe it. 

[joamur_gosof]

welcome to the upper class ...mps get 10 percent from 700 a day 2 day a week independent grafter Sir Ian.. ,rest of country gets 1 to minus 6 .from now on 🙂

[fallen-archie]

One thing I have noticed during my working life is the number of incompetent people occupying responsible positions, an article in the Independent may throw some light on this and sadly condemn even bright people from poorer backgrounds to employment obscurity. But the question is what parent wouldn't do their best for a son or daughter even if that meant they were punching way above their weight.

Wealthy parents create a "glass-floor" to ensure that their less academically gifted children “hoard the best opportunities” over smarter but disadvantaged peers, a report has found.

The report, from the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission, found that children from wealthier families but with less academic ability are 35% more likely to become high earners than more talented children from poor families.

The study, entitled Downward mobility, opportunity hoarding and the ‘glass floor’, analysed the lives of 17,000 people born in the same week in the UK in 1970.

It found that: "High attaining children from less advantaged family backgrounds are less able to, or at least less successful, at converting this early high potential into later labour market success."

"If policy makers are determined to increase social mobility in a climate where ‘room at the top’ is not expanding then the factors that limit downward mobility will need to be addressed."

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/middle-class-parents-use-glass-floor-to-ensure-their-...

[upthecreekyetagain]

Just read that article.  It just states as a fact, (which the statistics support), that children from middle-class families get more well paid jobs than their peers of a similar ability from poorer backgrounds.  Unfortunately it doesn't give any explanation as to how this phenomena occurs.  ???

To address the problem surely requires the reasons behind it to be shown.

[**caution**opinion_ahead]

Interesting wording ...

"Wealthy parents create a glass floor ..."

That implies middle class parents are actively conspiring to hold back poorer children, which I don't think is the case.  It is not an individual middle class parent's job to worry about creating opportunities for a working class child.  It is not middle class parents who are somehow in the wrong for wanting the best for their children and using all the means at their disposal.  It is a problem with the way society is structured and it can only be tackled at that level.

I'm all for social mobility, and there are ways of evening the playing field.  7% of children go to private schools, so maybe Universities could be forced to provide 90% of places to state school applicants, which would bolster the chances for poorer children.  Maybe employers should not be allowed to ask where an applicant was educated.  I certainly think the "old boy's network" should be closed down.

Maybe every ballet class or piano teacher or horse riding establishment should have to offer one free place for every paying child (difficult to create provision where it is needed, of course), so access to extra curricula enrichment is greater.  And so on ...

As a start, maybe all politicans should have to have been continuously in state education in this country from the age of 4.  That would change the make-up of parliament in interesting ways.

[Anonymous]

As a start, maybe all politicians should have to have been continuously in state education in this country from the age of 4.  That would change the make-up of parliament in interesting ways.

I would love to see that happen.

Most of those people are sooooo out of touch with the real world.

I think they should also be made to live a year on the dole, preferably in one of the big cities, before they are allowed to gain a place in parliament..

[malacandran]

But if some people on the dole in big cities, got into Parliament, wouldn't they most likely loot the place, then set fire to it?