Wednesday, April 18, 2007
WHY I'VE GOT A CHIP ON MY SHOULDER, PART TWENTY FIVE
Why I have got a chip on my shoulder: one in an ongoing series.
When my mother was about ten, her parents had a discussion with her headmaster.
"She's a very bright girl is ****. I would recommend that she goes to grammar school because she has the potential to go to university."
My mother's parents had six other children and my grandfather was a coal miner. They couldn't afford to let her carry on living on their income for any length of time or to help support her through any sort of further education.
So she went to a Secondary Modern School (otherwise known as a You Will Amount To Nothing In Life, You Are Of The Scum And Will Belong With The Scum Forever, So We Won't Even Give You The Chance To Have Anything But The Most Rudimentary Education School).
In her mid teens she left school and got a job as a maid in a girls' boarding school.
She couldn't refer to the pupils by their names, but had to call them "madam".
There are probably a few layers of irony in all this, but, being a badly educated fuckwit who also has a poor command of the English language, I can't be bothered to investigate them further.
With thanks to Spinsterella, whose post was ripped off by ... um ... I mean *inspired* this one.
When my mother was about ten, her parents had a discussion with her headmaster.
"She's a very bright girl is ****. I would recommend that she goes to grammar school because she has the potential to go to university."
My mother's parents had six other children and my grandfather was a coal miner. They couldn't afford to let her carry on living on their income for any length of time or to help support her through any sort of further education.
So she went to a Secondary Modern School (otherwise known as a You Will Amount To Nothing In Life, You Are Of The Scum And Will Belong With The Scum Forever, So We Won't Even Give You The Chance To Have Anything But The Most Rudimentary Education School).
In her mid teens she left school and got a job as a maid in a girls' boarding school.
She couldn't refer to the pupils by their names, but had to call them "madam".
There are probably a few layers of irony in all this, but, being a badly educated fuckwit who also has a poor command of the English language, I can't be bothered to investigate them further.
With thanks to Spinsterella, whose post was ripped off by ... um ... I mean *inspired* this one.
Labels: chips on shoulders, egalitarianism, secondary modern schools, social mobility
