In recent discussions about changes in both the curriculum and forms of examination in English secondary education, one ambition has often been named: that of increasing social mobility.
Quite why this aim remains unexamined is unfortunate. Nobody would wish any child to be refused access and support for any number of occupations. But we surely have to ask, as successive governments have not, why a focus on this aspiration obscures the much more socially radical and equitable aim of making all occupations viable, rewarded and respected.
Surely there is already sufficient cut-throat competition within the English class system without enshrining ideas which focus on diminishing the value of jobs and occupations to be “escaped” from.
Our present politics, and its politicians, so obviously reflect an increasingly narrow experience of, and perspective about, the social world. This has dire implications.
To further this by refusing to consider those very values which produce a sense of failure and exclusion in children who do not meet the demands of that worldview results in lessening both social equality and mutual social respect.
Mary Evans
Patrixbourne, Kent
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