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You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jan/19/choice-education-afford-parent-child-failing-school-middle-class
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| Version 1 | Version 2 |
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| Choice in education is only for those who can afford it | Choice in education is only for those who can afford it |
| (7 months later) | |
| Choice, we have been told, is empowering. Rather than one utility provider we can now select from an apparently obliging array. The only thing though is that the process of selection feels a little like delving into the bargain basement bucket: nothing is quite right and all of it feels like a bit of a con. | Choice, we have been told, is empowering. Rather than one utility provider we can now select from an apparently obliging array. The only thing though is that the process of selection feels a little like delving into the bargain basement bucket: nothing is quite right and all of it feels like a bit of a con. |
| When you add such choice into the British state education system, the customary listlessness that accompanies too many options can give way to pure panic. Choice here can feel more like foolhardy gambling. Should I send my child to school A where nearly all parents are [insert achingly middle-class job title] or school B, a little rough round the edges but nurturing and diverse in terms of socio-economic and cultural intake? | When you add such choice into the British state education system, the customary listlessness that accompanies too many options can give way to pure panic. Choice here can feel more like foolhardy gambling. Should I send my child to school A where nearly all parents are [insert achingly middle-class job title] or school B, a little rough round the edges but nurturing and diverse in terms of socio-economic and cultural intake? |
| For many parents who, like me, submitted their child’s primary school application last week, empowered was the last thing we felt. A creeping tightness slinking across the chest and gut is an approximation of the actual sensation. | For many parents who, like me, submitted their child’s primary school application last week, empowered was the last thing we felt. A creeping tightness slinking across the chest and gut is an approximation of the actual sensation. |
| I have been at enough school open days now to know that irrespective of social class and race, most parents care deeply about where their child will be educated. In fact, they agonise over the choices before them. The only difference is that some in the middle class are able to exercise their choice by elbowing their way through the dilemma, short-circuiting it by any and all means available in their arsenal. | I have been at enough school open days now to know that irrespective of social class and race, most parents care deeply about where their child will be educated. In fact, they agonise over the choices before them. The only difference is that some in the middle class are able to exercise their choice by elbowing their way through the dilemma, short-circuiting it by any and all means available in their arsenal. |
| Before I had children, I found parents saying, “We’re so worried we might not get Emily into the outstanding school further away than the good school round the corner” disheartening. It was usually expressed by people whose children, by virtue of being middle class, would go on to do better at school and eventually the world of work than their working-class counterparts. Besides, in 2014 Ofsted judged 81% of the nation’s schools good or outstanding and yet parents talk as though finding the right one is like swimming in shark-infested waters. How could parents reconcile securing the absolute best for their child with the implicit understanding that it meant someone else’s would lose out? The notion of choice suggests that what we want matters above all else. | Before I had children, I found parents saying, “We’re so worried we might not get Emily into the outstanding school further away than the good school round the corner” disheartening. It was usually expressed by people whose children, by virtue of being middle class, would go on to do better at school and eventually the world of work than their working-class counterparts. Besides, in 2014 Ofsted judged 81% of the nation’s schools good or outstanding and yet parents talk as though finding the right one is like swimming in shark-infested waters. How could parents reconcile securing the absolute best for their child with the implicit understanding that it meant someone else’s would lose out? The notion of choice suggests that what we want matters above all else. |
| All of this I had considered pathetically bourgeois. Still, as a black mother, I knew I couldn’t afford to be blasé about where I sent my children to school. Thus I found the process of submitting my son’s primary application especially fraught. Growing up poor and now finding myself defined as middle class (a label I sit very uncomfortably within), does nothing to ease the knowledge that it is far easier for my children to fall down, rather than climb up, the social ladder in spite of their class privileges. | All of this I had considered pathetically bourgeois. Still, as a black mother, I knew I couldn’t afford to be blasé about where I sent my children to school. Thus I found the process of submitting my son’s primary application especially fraught. Growing up poor and now finding myself defined as middle class (a label I sit very uncomfortably within), does nothing to ease the knowledge that it is far easier for my children to fall down, rather than climb up, the social ladder in spite of their class privileges. |
| The persuasive stealth of choice is difficult to resist. Of the five schools we have placed on our list, we know that our son will probably be offered a place at the school that is our last “choice”. It is a good school yet its appeal has been diminished by the various options we have had to compare it against – schools that we never had a chance of getting into. To a certain extent, choice weakens the appeal of what parents actually have on offer, serving to underscore an assumption that education as a whole is failing. The illusion of choice will be further eroded over the next five years as there is an expected shortage of 200,000 primary school places. | The persuasive stealth of choice is difficult to resist. Of the five schools we have placed on our list, we know that our son will probably be offered a place at the school that is our last “choice”. It is a good school yet its appeal has been diminished by the various options we have had to compare it against – schools that we never had a chance of getting into. To a certain extent, choice weakens the appeal of what parents actually have on offer, serving to underscore an assumption that education as a whole is failing. The illusion of choice will be further eroded over the next five years as there is an expected shortage of 200,000 primary school places. |
| In this context, nudging your child up a list by stretching the limits of the truth has appeared less like entitlement and more like a sensible manoeuvre. A voice in my head whispers: “No one will give you a prize for making your children pay for your politics.” This is why the language of choice is so powerful and persuasive. All of us want to get it right for our children, it’s pretty much the job description of being a parent. | In this context, nudging your child up a list by stretching the limits of the truth has appeared less like entitlement and more like a sensible manoeuvre. A voice in my head whispers: “No one will give you a prize for making your children pay for your politics.” This is why the language of choice is so powerful and persuasive. All of us want to get it right for our children, it’s pretty much the job description of being a parent. |
| I say all of the above as a secondary school teacher who knows that the market model, which promotes “choice” as an educational panacea, has no basis for its overblown confidence. Council-run schools judged as failing that then become sponsored academies (beloved by choice educationalists) are more likely to remain inadequate than if they had been under local authority control. Indeed, giving parents more choice has meant it is more likely that teachers without professional qualifications will teach our children. | I say all of the above as a secondary school teacher who knows that the market model, which promotes “choice” as an educational panacea, has no basis for its overblown confidence. Council-run schools judged as failing that then become sponsored academies (beloved by choice educationalists) are more likely to remain inadequate than if they had been under local authority control. Indeed, giving parents more choice has meant it is more likely that teachers without professional qualifications will teach our children. |
| The real danger is not how this process damages perceptions of schools and teachers but how it will entrench inequality. Preoccupied with our freedom to choose, attention is focused on ensuring our own child doesn’t end up somewhere unsatisfactory and inhibits us from asking who the children attending these failing schools are. We already know that, in the main, they are poor and that failing schools are a symptom of poverty and inequality. | The real danger is not how this process damages perceptions of schools and teachers but how it will entrench inequality. Preoccupied with our freedom to choose, attention is focused on ensuring our own child doesn’t end up somewhere unsatisfactory and inhibits us from asking who the children attending these failing schools are. We already know that, in the main, they are poor and that failing schools are a symptom of poverty and inequality. |
| No one would willingly choose to send their child to an “inadequate school”. Choice, then, is for those who can afford it. | No one would willingly choose to send their child to an “inadequate school”. Choice, then, is for those who can afford it. |