Closed shop at the top in deeply elitist Britain, says study
In today’s UK, the class difference has grown significantly and the social mobility is becoming lower . It’s not possible for the average person to attend private school and top universities. Numbers from a study done by Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission proofs just how hard it is to climb the social ladder in the UK. Jobs at the top of society are taken by those who come from the elitist backgrounds and whose parents can afford private schools and top Universities.
In the article “Closed shop at the top in deeply elitist Britain, says study” political correspondent for The Guardian, Andrew Sparrow, explains how the British elite has created a “closed shop at the top” through their education system. Furthermore, he expresses that the people who have attended private schools and top universities are the ones who have created this “closed shop at the top”. In addition, Sparrow thinks that an elitist point of view is deeply embedded in Britain’s society. Using quotes from a study done by Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission Sparrow explains how unhealthy it is to have such a narrow social group consisting of the elite at the top of the country.
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Importantly, in this article Sparrow defines the elite as people who have gone to private schools and top universities. Sparrow explains that the top positions in the UK are taken by the elite. “About 14% of judges attended one of just five independent schools(…).” (L. 29-31). Undoubtedly, the UK has thousands of schools, therefore it is a lot for 14% of the judges to have attended just one in five private schools. It is problematic for a democratic country to have an overrepresentation of one social class at the top of the
Preventing poverty and improving the school system can help prevent class reproduction, but Macleod argues that, "what is required is the creation of a truly open society--a society where the life chances of those at the bottom are not radically different from those at the top and where wealth is distributed more equitably" (260). Until structural inequality is eliminated, wealth is more evenly distributed, and discrimination between classes ends, social reproduction will be to well known by society.
Robertson Davies’ colourful novel “Fifth Business” outlines and describes the development of a lost and emotionally void man, Dunstan Ramsay. This is a man who carries the weight of Paul Dempsters premature birth on his shoulders his entire life. It portrays his quest for self knowledge, happiness, and ultimately fulfilling his role as ‘Fifth Business.’ This would not have accomplished without Liesl, an extremely graceful and intelligent woman imprisoned inside a deformed and gargantuan body. Liesl plays a vital role in Dunstan’s development and psychological rebirth, as she helps him rediscover his body, his emotions, and himself.
Fifth Business by Robertson Davies In the essay Fifth Business, each of the main character traits is developed more and more clearly throughout their lives. Childhood characteristics are evident in the characters of Dustan Ramsay, Percy Boyd Stauton and Paul Dempster. All paranoia, and memories of the town of Deptford resurfaced in each of them after they all had left to start lives on their own. It was childhood that scared or marked them as people and the fact that parents often have influence on children so, there is no question that these characters were definitely influenced by the parents in Deptford.
family and force's Paul to leave the town and create a new image for himself.
The novel Fifth Business, by Robertson Davies, is the first installment of Roberson Davies’ Deptford Trilogy. The novel is a memoir of Robertson Davies’ fictional character, Dunstan Ramsay, in the form of a letter to the school’s headmaster. Dunstan speaks of his childhood, being involved with the town fool, Mary Dempster, and his evolving interest in hieroglyphics. Fifth Business has been ranked 40th on the American Modern Library’s “reader’s list” of the 100 best novels of the 20th century.
Allen supports her claims about hierarchies and power dynamics in her chapter “Social Class Matters.” She dives into the structures of society by examining power and social class in various contexts. In this chapter, she explains that people are categorized according to themes of class difference and struggle. Social class is associated with the relationship between power and the distribution of resources. Because this stratification system of social class is one of the biggest predictors of school achievement, social identity plays a large role in the social reproduction of inequality in the education system.
A second piece of education policy that could be said to have a main aim of reducing social class inequality is The Education Act of 1944. Before this, only the middle class children could go to grammar schools and receive prestigious education due to the cost. However, The Education Act of 1944 introduced the 11+ exam and the ‘Tri-partite system’. All children sat the 11+ exam. Those who passed could go to grammar school, those who failed went to secondary moderns, and those with special abilities went to the secondary technicals. This meant that even if a working class child didn’t have any money, but successfully sat the 11+ exam, they could then go onto grammar school. Although at face value it looks as though this policy is reducing social class inequality, the 11+ exam and the Tri-partite system have been criticised. This is because the 11+ exam was seen as being biased in favour of middle class pupils. In addition, there was supposed to be a parity of esteem between the 3 schools. However, Grammar schools were deemed much better. Further to this, working class children who secured a place at a grammar school by passing the 11+ exam couldn’t even go anyway, as the price of various uniform and sports attire was too much. In response to this, in 1965, Comprehensive education was introduced. This sys...
The myth that Australia is a classless society is still, till this day, circulating. With education opportunities differing, depending on your status in society and socioeconomic background, not all Australians share the same opportunity of education. Whether being a middle class citizen or an “elite” or from working class, all education opportunities offered, will be influenced by your financial status and hierarchy in society. Power can influence the outcome of an individual’s life.
The myth that Australia is a classless society is still, till this day, circulating. With education opportunities differing, depending on your status in society and socioeconomic background, not all Australians share the same opportunity of education. Whether being a middle class citizen or an “elite” or from working class, all education opportunities offered, will be influenced by your financial status and hierarchy in society.
The ideal concept of American society is one in which all of the citizens are treated equal in all every realm and situation. Class, race or gender does not divide the utopian America; everyone is afforded the same opportunities and chances for success. In this chimerical state Americans are able to go as far as their dreams allow and with hard work and perseverance any thing is possible. Many Americans subscribe to this pluralist view of the Country, believing that within our democratic system it is the majority who maintains control and sets policy. Unfortunately this idyllic country does not exist nor has it ever existed. America is made up of distinct social classes and the movement within those classes is for the most part, limited to the various classes in the middle where the lines of demarcation are blurred. Although the majority of the Country's population would attest to the myth that America is a classless society, the distinctions definitely exist and influence the entire life scope of most Americans. Housing, health care, education, career prospects and social status are all dependent on the amount of wealth one has and their class standing. Our system needs the built in inequities of the class system in order to perpetuate itself and the upper class needs to have their interests as the dominant determiner of corporate and governmental power and policy.
Paul Krugman, in his article “The Death of Horatio Alger” suggests that social mobility among classes in the United States is becoming more difficult by the day. Krugman explains that the idea of the American Dream and moving from class to class was once semi easily attainable; but is now seemingly impossible. Although America is thought of as a classless society, the country has a whole is moving into a caste society run by the rich.
Good Boss, Bad Boss by Robert Sutton PhD tells what good bosses do and learn what not to do by bad bosses. Dr. Sutton breaks the book down into nine chapters that cater from having the right mindset to it is all about you. The book breaks down situations into common sense thinking.
The first difference you see between the middle and working class in education is the selection of primary schools as for some it is the first time they are going to enter into the academic world. At this point the family as a whole are entering into “unfamiliar worlds” (Jackson and Marsden, 1966, page 99) in the process of selecting and applying for schools. The middle class aim is to have their children go to a successful school with a good Ofsted report just like the working class. However it is harder for the working class to get into these schools due to a range of factors. Some of these restricting factors are their knowledge of the system and economic status or wealth; they may not have the facilities for tra...
Research reveals that the higher the social class, the higher the levels of educational achievement are likely to be. The children of parents in higher social classes are more likely to stay on in post compulsory education, more likely to achieve examination passes when at school, and more likely to gain university entrance. These features painted a true picture of British education in the twentieth century and can be argued to follow this trend today. However, whether there has been any reduction in the inequalities is more debatable, but some research suggests that these inequalities are as great as ever, despite the overall improvements within the education system. Many researchers argue that IQ tests are biased in favour of the middle class, since members of this group largely construct them.
In an education journal, Anyon (“Social”) provides the reader with the concept that there are four different types of schools, working class schools, middle-class schools, affluent professional schools, and executive elite schools, after observing five schools. The working class schools are made up of parents with blue-collar jobs, with less than a third of the fathers being skilled, and the majority of them being semiskilled or unskilled. “Approximately 15 percent of the fathers were unemployed… approximately 15 percent of the families in each school are at or below the federal ‘poverty’ level…the incomes of the majority of the families…are typical of 38.6 percent of the families in the United States” (Anyon, “Social”). In a more recent study conducted by Anyon (“What”, 69), she states that,