I'm finding myself half amused, half horrified by the Conservative proposals to limit teaching opportunities to those who have 'good' degrees. I checked the date but April 1st is still some-way off, I'm therefore assuming that they are serious!!
..... and the young Tories asked the leader, "what then is a good teacher?"
"Verily," he replied, "consider these two applicants"
"The first comes from a secure background where their parents have been able to bestow foreign holidays on them as regular breaks from violin lessons, debating society and riding, sending them to a good school from which not much change out of £10k a year is forthcoming. Their rise to a solid university is inevitable, where helped by their investment fund they are able to study well, unhindered by financial concerns. Leaving university with a jolly good degree they decide that teaching looks like a safe option, endowing, as it does under the conservatives: much prestige, a good salary and a more than healthy pension!"
"Meanwhile the child of a one parent family from a 'sink' estate, inspired by a great teacher, beats the odds to make it to one of the newer universities. Under constant pressure from juggling two part time jobs and trying to study, they emerge with a degree but at a low grade. There is only one thing they want to do. Having seen what education can achieve they are passionately determined to go into teaching to inspire and create opportunity for young people who otherwise would have none!"
"And so now, can you tell me which would make the good teacher?"
"oh oh .... that's easy," replied the keenest of the young Tories, "It's the second!"
And the leader gnashed his teeth loudly before making him write out party policy three hundred times on his Blackberry!
