Typical nonsense from Ted Wragg, the education professor, who has been sufficiently moved by the Diane Abbott furore to inflict upon us yet more of his crackpot theories about education. As usual, he says the reason so many inner city schools are so dire is because their children are poor. 'If the fundamental problems of poverty are not addressed, educational initiatives alone will not achieve much', he says.

Pinning the blame for educational underachievement on poverty is tantamount to blaming the poor for their own failure. Yet instead, he accuses those who say 'poverty is no excuse' for blaming the poor. This shows he doesn't even understand the argument. 'Poverty is no excuse' is not blaming the poor at all.

Wragg also makes another very peculiar claim. 'Middle-class parents who rejoice at their children attending school with a cross-section of humanity have to run the gauntlet of caste fellows who see them as traitors', he avers. Eh? Since 93% of the nation's children attend state schools, the overwhelming majority of middle-class parents do so. The idea therefore that the majority of the population is cowering under a hail of insults being hurled back and forth between each other is a little hard to envisage. Anyway, many of the 'caste fellows' whom I encounter totally sever all social contact with anyone from the tiny minority who send their children to independent schools. What a strange parallel universe the good professor lives in.

Posted by melanie at November 6, 2003