The height of stupidity has now been reached, and it's embarrassing to admit that it's in The Guardian. Send them your suggestions now:
Send us your ideas for capping the leak. We'll publish your suggestions online and present them to BP too
Yes, they want YOUR suggestions to save the Louisiana coast!
Meanwhile, the most expensively educated men in the land prove yet again how dumb they really are:
Edu minister Nick Gibb says he'd be happier with grads from Oxbridge than from "rubbish" uni. Good to see elitism's alive and well in Govt!
Gibb went to Durham, so clearly feels inadequate. His comment was actually that he'd rather children were taught by Oxbridge graduates with no teaching qualifications than by qualified teachers from 'rubbish' universities.
Clearly some problems with this. Firstly, what constitutes a 'rubbish' university? One that doesn't have gowns and castellated buildings? What if said university is very good at some subjects and 'rubbish' at others? What if its teaching qualifications are highly respected and attract students who graduated from Oxford, Cambridge and Durham?
The major problem is this: I've been taught by people with high intellectual honours from Oxford and Cambridge. I've been taught by people with qualifications from 'rubbish' universities. Some of the Oxbridge graduates have been world experts and useless teachers, some of the others have been brilliant teachers rather than great researchers. Some, from both camps, have been brilliant at both. There's also plenty of evidence that non-Oxbridge universities are more innovative as well. New courses always start in 'other' universities.
There's no way you can write off the vast majority of teachers because they went to the 'wrong' university. This is the politics of snobbery. Teaching is hard work, and an art. You can know an awful lot and not be able to communicate it, to inspire, to hold the attention and gain the respect of a bunch of people, especially at school age, who are essentially prisoners. I'd prefer Oxbridge types to go into teaching rather than banking - they'll cause less damage, but there's no way an elected Minister of State should be shooting his mouth of in such a mindless, kneejerk manner.
By the way - famous Cambridge graduates include one Nicholas Griffin, criminal and leader of the neo-Nazi British National Party. So it's not all gravy down in the Fens, is it?
Still, it could be worse: poor, poor, Texas.
1 comment:
A simply horrifying comment that leads to the inclination that he is willing to forget his past as easily as he is to mouth off. I presume he'd find our University to be 'rubbish' (what an awful word to be used by someone with his intelligence) and this could be damaging for those in my shoes who wish to teach.
It's almost as if the societal changes over the years have not surfaced in this particular field- education. Has it really moved on from the time of Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure? Jude had all the intelligence, deep rooted thinking required of a scholar yet those in Christminster wouldn't accept him. I feel the same, almost as though even with a Masters (if gained following a PGCE) I'll be one of few teachers capable of educating the deaf especially considering my complex style, own deafness and huge ambition- I'll still on the outside looking in. And it's due to those like Gibb who don't deserve recongization as a sane person let alone an important job.
It’s almost laughable how in the 21st Century we have a black president, females in high powered positions and the disability acts- we still have this prejudice of the lower classes and those who attended supposedly inferior Universities.
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