VERSION|0.5.1|NAME|Dinah|DATE|1376582748|CONTENT|The Shaikh, aka Timothy, got this all so wrong.  Young people, particularly females, are judged far more by their looks than their academic success.  Popular culture values looks above everything, and body fascism is cruel, causing far more misery than ‘A’ level failure.  There is absolutely nothing reprehensible about striving for academic success, or wanting to get into the best Universities, such as the one the Sheikh works in.  Yes, it is stressful.  I went through it many years ago and can vouch for that.  But so is being out of work, suffering a major illness, being rejected by a lover, being thrown out of your home because you can’t pay the mortgage.  Life is tough.  Young people can’t be protected from everything, and have to learn how to cope with stress and disappointment.  Far better to suffer a bit of stress and get on in life than settle for a dead-end job or no job at all.

More deplorable is the anti-intellectualism that has stained the education system in the UK ever since Shirley Williams succeeded in abolishing most of the grammar schools back in the 1960s.  In the name of ‘equality of opportunity’, instead of valuing intellectual achievement, politicians argue endlessly about abolishing ‘privilege’.  Now that living in the right catchment area has become as important as passing the 11 plus used to be, all sorts of devices have to be dreamed up to try to ensure children living in poorer areas are not disadvantaged.  Despite all the good intentions, educational apartheid is flourishing, and abolishing it only leads to imposing mediocrity on everybody.  Despite eleven or more years of education, thousands of children are still being failed by the system, and leave school unable to write a coherent sentence or do simple maths.

The lunacy of it all is exemplified by it being considered OK for children to be selected for places in particular schools on the basis of the religion their parents practise, but not because of their academic ability.  
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