Last week, a government advisor landed the Conservative Party in hot water by suggesting that working class children must be taught to behave like the middle classes if they want to get positions in the top jobs and universities.
This will surely have raised some eyebrows in Hackney. High-speed gentrification has led to a clash of cultures with rising house prices, changing demographics and gastropubs a plenty. So many living in the East End will not appreciate being told to assimilate with high earners.
Of course, large parts of Hackney remain thoroughly deprived, making the best-paid jobs and top universities a distant dream for many young people. According to End Child Poverty, almost 70% of children in the borough are raised in low-income families and nearly half live below the poverty line.
But for the tiny minority of former Hackney school pupils that have gone on to study at prestigious universities, the advisor’s remarks made for interesting reading.
Nearly 50 percent of Hackney children live below the poverty line
Saoirse Purtill-Coaxall of Boleyn Road, Dalston is currently studying at Oxford having attended The Petchey Academy, where the number of children on free school meals is well beyond the national average. The first in her family to embark on higher education, Saoirse freely admits that within her community, there was little hope of her being offered a place.
“From the outset of making my application there were still a lot of people at home that thought that it just doesn’t happen to ‘people like us.’
“Although they felt I deserved a place, it was clear that ‘I shouldn’t get my hopes up’ because I was up against kids who had had three times the amount of resources.”
Oxford and Cambridge have faced constant headlines in the past accusing them of elitism in their application process. A popular complaint, and one that the outspoken advisor Peter Brant sought to address, is that the formal setting and middle-class surroundings deter potential applicants.
But Saoirse adamantly refutes that the notoriously rigorous interviews favour the middle classes. “In my experience this is a complete myth.
“The decision is entirely based on academic skills, and whether the tutors in the interview get the sense that you’re enthusiastic enough about your subject to cope with the style and intensity of an Oxford degree.”
Nevertheless, official statistics lay bare the huge divide and Oxbridge students still overwhelmingly come from more privileged backgrounds. Despite private schools catering for just 7% of UK children, they make up over 43% of Oxford undergraduates. Mr Brant clearly thinks this is a deterrent for working class people, and that embracing ‘middle class’ pastimes might solve the problem.
Current Oxford undergraduate and former Hackney resident Mahmoud Ally, 19, is unconvinced.
“I still think class matters psychologically when it comes to fitting in.
“I don’t see how seeking an education at a prestigious institution is synonymous with ‘middle class lifestyles’. It is a bit patronising – surviving is not all that working class people do.
“That said, I think the cultural split between the working and middle class is not as strong anymore. These labels exist more economically and ideologically.”
Guisepena Coniglione, 44, is a parent from Hackney with young children, but originally comes from Italy. She said: “There is something about class in the UK, more than in Italy. The system seems to be democratic but it isn’t. I would like to give my children access to those sorts of things, like opera for example.
“If they see more, they want more and want to do better.”
Generating Genius specialises in helping young people from deprived areas like Hackney achieve social mobility. Founder and CEO Dr Tony Sewell, told Hackney Post:
“While part of what we do is improve their subject knowledge, inspire them and raise their aspirations, we also put a lot of stress on ‘soft’ skills – confidence building, public speaking and presentation skills.
“These tend to come naturally to children from wealthier homes, especially those who attend fee-paying schools.
“I certainly agree with Peter Brant when he says policy makers, who are invariably middle class, tend not to appreciate how alienating it is for young people from the inner city who have never even visited a university to find themselves catapulted on to an Oxbridge quadrangle.”
For Saoirse, making friends at Oxford has been no problem, but she accepts that the stark contrast in backgrounds can bring tension. “In conversations regarding holidays or education it can be easy to feel like the odd one out and take it to heart that I haven’t been able to go to places like America or Dubai.
“However, I am happy with the way I was raised by my parents and the environment I was brought up in. I would never want to swap the experience of growing up in Hackney for that a more ‘middle-class’ lifestyle.”
Hackney Councillor Dawood Akhoon said:
“I think the advisors views are microscopically narrow minded. What is so wonderful about Hackney is the rich diversity of its cultures and people. Education in the main is about life and is about embracing a wide variety of experiences, cultures and points of view.
We should be instilling in all of our children that there is a broader life out there. Britain has always been at its best when it has looked outwards and learned from others. Globalisation will only increase the need for this approach. It’s a shame some politicians haven’t experienced this, and still propound their insular colonial view.”
Something was lost in translation between what was actually said and the media reporting of it.
The original piece did not make any recommendations or say anywhere that working class kids need to “act posh” or “learn to be middle class” as was suggested by the reporting.
The blog itself is available https://smcpcommission.blog.gov.uk/2014/02/26/whos-frightened-of-being-middle-class/
The barriers identified were based on those talked about in a blog someone else wrote about their experiences of going to Cambridge University from a less advantaged background http://quantumplations.org/2014/02/05/what-the-hell-am-i-doing-here/
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