My view - Too Many Oxbridge Grads?
Today the Guardian had a response from the Readers Editor about the accusations that the Guardian employs too many Oxbridge graduates as reporters and therefore they have a biased view and should not be allowed to comment on politics, benefits, etc.
I posted the following comment and thought more people should see it. Please keep in mind when reading it that I am playing a little of devils advocate and also explaining an uncomfortable truth, we are all shaped from our socio-economic backgrounds and this includes where and how we were educated:
'The point is that the 'best' person for the job should be employed. The problem is that where we come from can form our views on politics and how we view other people in a situation different from our own. Oxbridge isn't really the issue, rather public education as this can form the individual's view on other people who are 'less fortunate' than themselves.
Even here there is an issue though. The school I attended was once a separate boys and girls grammar school. The two were brought together in the 1980's to form a comprehensive secondary school but many of the (then) young teachers remained. As a result the school was very strict on attendance, uniform and on getting top grades. Competition was instilled in us against the other two secondary schools in the area for grades and sporting achievements. This could sound like any public school, but it was not.
Someone from a school that could be considered 'struggling' would not have the same views on society as me, but I may not have the same views as a publically educated student. The issue for the Guardian is how to get the balance right. You will never be able to please everyone all of the time and, like politics, not everyone will feel represented all of the time. The fact that readers can leave comments after articles on line and write into the paper is positive as many people will be able to get different views across. This provokes debate, which can only be a good thing.
In short. Yes there may be many Oxbridge grads at the Guardian, but is this a totally bad thing? Let us continue the debates through the comments and readers letters, we should all be intelligent enough to do that, regardless of where we were educated.'
Basically we are all different with our own different views, this cannot be bad. Perhaps papers like the Guardian (because let's face it, many of them could be accused of the same) feel like they don't represent all views because of the education of their writers. The point is that a reasonably intelligent human being should be able to see through all the bull shit of background and agenda of the writer, look at the basic facts and come to their own conclusions. This provokes debate and individualism and maybe will turn someone else's point of view.
To finish a quote from Philip Larkin's - This be the Verse: 'They fuck you up, your mum and dad.' But perhaps this should be changed to 'Socio-economy fucks you up.'
I posted the following comment and thought more people should see it. Please keep in mind when reading it that I am playing a little of devils advocate and also explaining an uncomfortable truth, we are all shaped from our socio-economic backgrounds and this includes where and how we were educated:
'The point is that the 'best' person for the job should be employed. The problem is that where we come from can form our views on politics and how we view other people in a situation different from our own. Oxbridge isn't really the issue, rather public education as this can form the individual's view on other people who are 'less fortunate' than themselves.
Even here there is an issue though. The school I attended was once a separate boys and girls grammar school. The two were brought together in the 1980's to form a comprehensive secondary school but many of the (then) young teachers remained. As a result the school was very strict on attendance, uniform and on getting top grades. Competition was instilled in us against the other two secondary schools in the area for grades and sporting achievements. This could sound like any public school, but it was not.
Someone from a school that could be considered 'struggling' would not have the same views on society as me, but I may not have the same views as a publically educated student. The issue for the Guardian is how to get the balance right. You will never be able to please everyone all of the time and, like politics, not everyone will feel represented all of the time. The fact that readers can leave comments after articles on line and write into the paper is positive as many people will be able to get different views across. This provokes debate, which can only be a good thing.
In short. Yes there may be many Oxbridge grads at the Guardian, but is this a totally bad thing? Let us continue the debates through the comments and readers letters, we should all be intelligent enough to do that, regardless of where we were educated.'
Basically we are all different with our own different views, this cannot be bad. Perhaps papers like the Guardian (because let's face it, many of them could be accused of the same) feel like they don't represent all views because of the education of their writers. The point is that a reasonably intelligent human being should be able to see through all the bull shit of background and agenda of the writer, look at the basic facts and come to their own conclusions. This provokes debate and individualism and maybe will turn someone else's point of view.
To finish a quote from Philip Larkin's - This be the Verse: 'They fuck you up, your mum and dad.' But perhaps this should be changed to 'Socio-economy fucks you up.'
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