“The true test of fairness is the distribution of opportunities. That is why improving social mobility is the principal goal of the Coalition Government’s social policy..”
opening-doors-breaking-barriers.pdf
opening-doors-breaking-barriers.pdf
Spot says:
Is it a stereotype? Is it a myth? – Me ‘n’ Ms Mythbuster both fought for this one but as she’s got a busy week ahead busting the “Power to the GPs….er… People” myth, she’s letting me have a gnaw at the old social mobility bone. Mind you - she didn’t let on it’d involve an 89 page Government document as bedtime reading!
I tell you, when I started hearing all this stuff about social mobility I nearly lost me temperature! – I mean where are they wanting us to mobilise ourselves from --- and where to? If you’re saying we should be moving ourselves from down here to up there – you’re saying down here is inferior and up there is superior.
I can see the working class stereotype forming in front of my eyes...culturally deprived, poor, living in substandard housing, uneducated, bad health, unambitious, lazy, dependant...
Hang on a minute! You cut our social infrastructure – the Arts, benefits, social housing, educational support, the NHS and then tell us the reason we are deprived is because of a lack of social mobility!
So we’re all supposed to be vying and competing for that wonderful, superior lifestyle in the sky where we can live on a street that’s the same size as my street but 8 houses on it instead of 80, where you don’t have to worry about the state of the NHS because you can afford private healthcare, where you can buy your own personal library and art collection instead of mixing with us lot in the public facilities and you don’t have to engage with state schools because you can pay for your children to be privately educated, and where, if you are really lucky – er sorry – if you are really well-educated, ambitious, hard-working, intelligent and culturally enriched, you can earn huge amounts of money and status by doing a job that provides no service to humanity whatsoever........?
It’s enough to tempt any self-respecting working class person.........isn’t it?
Well me ducks, I have a confession to make. I haven’t always been so on the ball as I am now and for a while I was estranged from Grandma – to my cost! I once traded in 1,000 green shield stamps to get our youngest a place in a private school – I know – it were a lot of stamps – I forfeited that car in the green shields catalogue!......and what did she learn there that she couldn’t have learned in a state school? I’ll tell you what she learned...
that regional and community accents are
comical,
comical,
that some jobs are embarrassing (and I’m
not talking about being a banker),
not talking about being a banker),
that the individual is more important than
the community,
the community,
that being comfortable is more important
than being principled,
than being principled,
that it’s better to be polite than honest,
not to raise her voice – or laugh too loud....
I tell you, when we realised what was going on, we took her out of there like a flash -before she got completely educated! Grandma, a self-educated Marxist herself, never let me forget it.
Not for me the low expectations of social mobility, we working class people are much more ambitious than that: - Working class communities all over the world have histories and cultures which have been persistently attacked, belittled, manipulated and exploited and still we keep fighting to hang onto all that is good; a culture of co-operation instead of competition, commonality and camaraderie instead of individuality, fighting together for social justice for all, decent pay for decent jobs, appreciating work - paid and unpaid, appreciating and creating art, mucking in and getting on with it, being connected with (but not owning) nature....
Hey I’ve changed my mind! Up with social mobility – you’re all welcome to join us - all classes, all people – it won’t get you special privileges but the company’s great! (Woof woof)
Yours Spot
Keeping the Spotlight on the stereotypes.
