[BITList] Exclusive: Poor white pupils need extra help with English- Education News - Education - The Independent

[HUGH]

Mike,

I can't argue with the facts, but what has changed?  I am (if you like) white, and until was in my 20s I never had two hapennies to rub together. We lived, seven of us at that time, in a room and kitchen, sharing an outside toilet with one and a half other families (five families shared two toilets). Gas lighting, coal fires and cold running water. I recall going barefoot at one point, though in summer.  The great majority of us were poor and white, some poorer and some less poor. Getting bombed on took our minds off it a bit.  God knows how we survived without phones, let alone smartphones.  We got no extra help with English -  we didn't need help, never mind extra help. The dumbest of us were less good at spelling and grammar, but no way did they display anything remotely like the ignorance described in the article.  So what has changed? Education? Environment? On a bus today I watched a family group on the bus - Mum, Dad and baby in a pram.  Mum and Dad on phones, fore fingers going like billy-o.  Baby crying.  Now and again Mum or Dad (they shared the responsibility) would reach forward and stick the bottle in the child's mouth.  They were good at stopping it crying. I wonder if it will need extra help when it grows up.

Hugh.
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