Private School News

HALF-WIT CELEBRITIES TO BLAME FOR ILL-EDUCATED CHILDREN

The cult of celebrity, shocking parenting and appalling public values are to blame for the thousands of poorly educated children in Britain, according to a former chairman of the Boarding Schools’ Association, now head of one of the North of England’s leading independent schools.

Speaking to an audience of British and overseas parents, and dignitaries at the 165th annual prize day presentations at Rossall School, Fleetwood, Lancashire, Headmaster, Dr Stephen Winkley called for an end to the appalling public values promoted during a decade of Labour rule and slammed the Government for its constant interference in education. He also called for the media to end its incessant promotion of half-wit celebrities, which, he said, “were creating terrible role models for children.”

Commented Dr Winkley: “What’s wrong with education at present is not schools; the problem is shocking parenting and appallingly low public values. Indeed, all our public values are against getting a good education. At a time when half-wits win talent contests, half-wits appear as celebrities, and the role models offered to our children are shopaholic bimbos, footballers and drug fuelled pop stars, the antique role models of the church, the law, doctors and even MPs are not admired, but are expected to behave well.

“The anti-intellectualism in Britain is now so strong that the new role models are admired and expected to behave badly, and the people lauded most are those successful entrepreneurs who left school at the age of 14. So, what message is that sending to our young people?”

In the address Dr Winkley quoted American First Lady, Michelle Obama’s speech delivered in London on her recent visit in which she said she had never cut school, loved getting A’s and thought that being smart was the coolest thing there was. “Wow, wouldn’t it be wonderful if some one in English life said something as positive and inspirational as that, because without it how would a gifted and ambitious child from an unsupportive background learn that it was cool to be smart,” he added. He went on to say: “The media, both the mainstream, and the plethora of gossip based magazines, must shoulder much of the blame for the promotion of the cult of celebrity to the detriment of real achievement. An example of this came at another school where I taught a girl who was the Edexcel Student of the Year, with 12 ‘A’ stars at GCSE. She was a mountaineer, a trainee pilot, a grade eight horn player and a fine singer, yet the single fact that the media identified to link her to the lives of their readers was that she supported Fulham FC! It’s incredible.”

Dr Winkley, a strong advocate of boarding and independent education, also spoke out for independent schools, telling his audience that the independent education sector was responsible for a huge amount of foreign investment in the UK – over £500 million each year – yet this alone, he said, did not protect it from the eyes or the clutches of a Government hell-bent on stifling choice and lowering values. “Independent schools now have to pass a charitable status test to guarantee their existence by showing use of their facilities for the good of the community. However, I welcome opening our facilities for wider use. In fact, I encourage it in the same way that the school encourages and subsidises local children who would benefit from a Rossall education. Sadly, we haven’t enough space to offer as many as we would wish, and entry is still competitive, but we do have a proud record in this field and as a result we have some outstanding pupils who pay nothing for their education, which proves that we don’t need a Government edict to play our part in the community…we already do it.”

In summary Dr Winkley told the gathering that parents investing in such a special form of education should be proud, because British independent Schools are recognized by the Organization for Economic Development and Co-operation as the best in the world, which, he stated, was a tremendous achievement in a country with such an anti-education climate.