Class war hits coronation street
antrim |
miscellaneous |
opinion/analysis 
Sunday October 03, 2004 23:10
by never trust the rich
Class politics storyline hits coronation street as working class scholarship pupil Katy webster is bullied by rich snobs at her snooty new grammar school.'apparently toffs can smell poverty a mile off'', and have realised Katy's humble background.
Katy eventually makes friends with another charity case, Pippa papadoupolos, who anxious to fit in with the other well to do pupils, is ashamed of her working class kebab shop worker parents, and takes every opportunity to look down on them and slag them off to fellow pupils.
One local school here in Northern Ireland has taken a novel approach to dealing with social class inequities which scholarship charity case 11+ pass pupils may face, Lagan college routinely demotes any poor/working class pupils who pass the 11+ out of their exclusive elite grammar stream school, in order to avoid social class inequities which may arise through working class poverty stricken 11+ passers coming into contact with the privileged offspring of the coached 11+ rich.
Comments (7 of 7)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7Apart of the irrelevance of this story the fact is that there is no Katy Webster in Coronation Street. The Websters have two daughters - Rosie and Sophie. Sophie is the one going to the snob school.
The only Katy on Corrie is the teenager living with 30-something Martin Platt - her name is Katy Harris!
Anyone remember whether Alf Roberts was a Labour or Tory Councillor? He was a dry old bastard and I always assumed he was a Tory but he might well have been prematurely Blairite!!
Not since young arnold drummond befriended the poor neighbourhood kid "spider" has class warfare so gripped the nation.It would seem that phillip drummond had no problem with "spider" "hanging out" with Willis and Arnold but it was a different story altogether when spider wanted to date young kimberly.Oooh and there was the time that Will Banks's buddy Ice Tray came up from "philly" for the week all was going well between Uncle Phil Aunt Vivienne and the young roustabout until he and young Hillary Banks fell in love. Really though it makes you wonder why any of this would be considered news
Class struggle is still relevant to many.
Rosie websters Class struggle is very relevant to many working class/poor scholarship pupils.
We have the recent suicide and bullying of a child at a top grammar school in Ballymena and other grammar schools.
Many working class children are bullied by children and teachers at schools because their parents can't afford to buy the proper school uniforms.
Predominantly middle class teachers with middle class values/sensibilities still academically judge and label children according to their social class/background.
I remember a working class kid who got a Jesuit scholarship to Gonzaga. He got on fine there but was ostracised by his peers back home. No issue is ever as simple as presented above.
He was an independent, I assume they didn't want to be too political.
why Gonzaga, Clongowes and Belevedere were fee paying, wouldn't you have thought that the SJ in the fulfillment of their mission would have used their not meagre resources to assist the education of all regardless of background?
I see that a fair whallop of 3rd level kids in the "leaving cert" state are going to fee paid "sixth form college" style institutions. Doesn't that just prove that the point system is devaluing the right to education? But I must admit I mostly see academia as a very self-serving lobby with nice buildings, big libraries, and socially divisive end function.
Doctors can clean toilets too you know. So can lawyers, and we'd have less problems in a world where more people appreciated what is really meant by "merit". = Free education to Free all, or education for none.
Doctors and Lawyers have problematic kids too you know.
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