My sister failed her 11+ and went to a secondary modern school. When she was fifteen they had a careers class where they gave out questionnaires. What did they want to be? Air hostess; teacher; doctor; lawyer. The teacher took the sheets in and ripped them up in front of the class. Then she handed out the real questionnaires. What did they want to be? Street cleaner; laundry packer; cleaning lady. These were the real options. My sister did all right. She went to college and got A levels, then a degree. She travelled. she taught English in Greece. She met her husband. They raised a family there. After some years, when the kids were older, they came back to the UK. My sister trained as a primary school teacher. She’s been working for years teaching 7-year-olds. This year the management said: Don’t bother marking the children’s homework. AI can do that for you. My sister said: But I won’t get to know the children. No big deal, they said. It’ll free up time for some other bullshit stuff we want you to do (Bullshit being my word). She is quitting.
Here’s a perfect index to our social history. The class-ridden assumptions of the 70s and 80s; the brave new world of cheap travel and European opportunity; today’s cowardly bowing and scraping to tech and all the stupidity that comes with it. And a life as a perfect index to our blundering progress.
peoplearerubbish 