My grandfather was one of the most intelligent people I ever met, he was eloquent and very well read. He did well enough in his O-levels that his school strongly recommended he proceed to higher education. Unfortunately for him, he lived on a farm in rural Wales with seven siblings, and was forced by his parents to drop out of school at sixteen.
He spent the rest of his life as a agricultural worker, which, don't get me wrong, is an important and perfectly fine career, but it always struck me as a waste of potential.
The decision here to effectively deny education to certain children is criminal.
The world is full of intelligent and skilled people that capitalism grinds down to nubs to serve the Market Gods. You are right to mourne this wasted potential. It's quite tragic, really.
Kind of like my mother in law. She grew up in a poor rural working class family and did well at school. She could have gone to high school and beyond but she didn't as her family told her that doing so meant that she could become a cashier at the local bank, that was the extent of what they imagined someone from their social class was able to do.
My grandfather was one of the most intelligent people I ever met, he was eloquent and very well read. He did well enough in his O-levels that his school strongly recommended he proceed to higher education. Unfortunately for him, he lived on a farm in rural Wales with seven siblings, and was forced by his parents to drop out of school at sixteen.
He spent the rest of his life as a agricultural worker, which, don't get me wrong, is an important and perfectly fine career, but it always struck me as a waste of potential.
The decision here to effectively deny education to certain children is criminal.
The world is full of intelligent and skilled people that capitalism grinds down to nubs to serve the Market Gods. You are right to mourne this wasted potential. It's quite tragic, really.
Kind of like my mother in law. She grew up in a poor rural working class family and did well at school. She could have gone to high school and beyond but she didn't as her family told her that doing so meant that she could become a cashier at the local bank, that was the extent of what they imagined someone from their social class was able to do.