Gemma Worrall is
a receptionist at a beauty salon in Blackpool. This is not normally a
newsworthy occupation. But, in a less that totally focused moment, she took to
Twitter to tell “if Barraco Barner is our
president, why is he getting involved with Russia, scary”. Many laughed.
Others ridiculed her. Some were downright nasty. And one pundit blamed the
Labour Government.
(c) Doc Hackenbush 2014
Wait, what? Yes, the
loathsome Toby Young has decreed that Tone and Pa Broon done it: “How did the 'Barraco Barner' beautician get
17 GCSEs? Ask Labour and the teaching unions” he proclaimed, following up
with “Under Labour you could get a BTEC
in Hair and Beauty worth four GCSEs at grade C or above”. Did Ms Worrall
include that in her 17 passes? What the heck, it helps the lefty bashing.
“I'm not blaming Gemma
Worrall”, he cautions (could have fooled me, Tobes) before concluding “Gemma was failed by the last government”,
a remarkably stupid assertion, considering she has secured gainful employment
and has therefore become a productive member of society. She has also confirmed
that “at school we never learned about
politics and current affairs”.
So her one flaky Tweet proves nothing. Yet still be barrels
on: “it's not just beauticians who leave
school lacking basic knowledge”. And what “basic knowledge” is Ms Worrall lacking? History! “In 2009, Derek Matthews, an economics
professor at Cardiff University, was so shocked by the ignorance of British
history displayed by his first-year economics undergraduates that he
decided to set them a test”.
What happened next? “Of
his 284 students, only 11.5 per cent could name a 19th-century prime minister
and only 16.5 per cent the British general at Waterloo”. And, as Jon
Stewart might have said, two things here. One, they were economics students, not historians. Had they heard of, oh I dunno,
Alfred Marshall? And two, if they hadn’t studied 19th Century history, what do
you expect?
Tobes is falling into the trap of “I did this at school, therefore everyone else has to have done this, or
it’s wrong”, or “I know these facts
and so everyone else should too”. He fails totally to understand that a 50
year old metropolitan pundit and a 20 year old beautician may differ in their
areas of knowledge, and for very good reasons that have nothing to do with the
quality of the education system.
The thought also enters that Tobes’ rant is another exercise
in “look over there” punditry:
yesterday brought the news that IES Breckland, a Free School that has
featured on this blog previously, had been
placed in “special measures”
after an Ofsted visit concluded that its teaching was “inadequate”. Some of Michael “Oiky”
Gove’s cheerleaders ought to look to put their own houses in order first.
In the meantime, Ms
Worrall will probably think carefully before Tweeting in future.
3 comments:
It is one thing to have knowledge of facts, it is another to be able to use them properly.
I wonder how society would judge the comparative usefulness to it of a Toby Young and a Gemma Worrall?
Answers on a postcard to Michael Gove with a description of your qualifications in Latin please - just to prove something or other.
I would be intrested in weather any politicle journlist or even mp could answer and of the basic education I use for my job. maybe the country would be better if they got an education in things like "Ipv4 subnetting" or "basic DNS setup" they they might realise diffrent pepole use diffrent skills
Never mind her being failed by the education system (probably true and government of the day is irrelevant because international events have never been taught), how comes she hasn't learnt anything from newspapers since leaving school?
And before slagging her off, how many hacks and tory MPs think Germany started WW1 ?
Still, could be worse, plenty on 20 year old yanks aren't sure who Obama is!
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