Xref: utzoo sci.lang:3621 comp.ai:2917
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From: jeff@aipna.ed.ac.uk (Jeff Dalton)
Newsgroups: sci.lang,comp.ai
Subject: Re: Education, language and class
Message-ID: <400@aipna.ed.ac.uk>
Date: 15 Dec 88 20:18:48 GMT
References: <484@soleil.UUCP> <1654@hp-sdd.HP.COM> <1908@crete.cs.glasgow.ac.uk> <1791@cadre.dsl.PITTSBURGH.EDU> <819@novavax.UUCP> <1976@crete.cs.glasgow.ac.uk> <821@novavax.UUCP> <1821@cadre.dsl.PITTSBURGH.EDU> <1992@crete.cs.glasgow.ac.uk>
Reply-To: jeff@uk.ac.ed.aipna.UUCP (Jeff Dalton)
Organization: Dept. of AI, Edinburgh, UK
Lines: 25

In article <1992@crete.cs.glasgow.ac.uk> gilbert@cs.glasgow.ac.uk (Gilbert
Cockton) writes:
>When I did my education degree, all education systems in the West (and
>the Eastern block for that matter), did a very good job of replicating
>the social order.  I do not think things have changed, nor that the US
>system is significantly better than European systems at giving everyone
>an equal chance at Educational achievement, especially when you look at
>the fortunes of the largely hispanic and black working class.

>There are hard statistics on this sort of thing, so look before you
>boast of meritocratic superiority.  I don't think US college profiles
>will be any less socially skewed than European ones, especially not
>Ivy League.

Why don't *you* look.  As far as I can tell from admittedly unsystematic
observation, most people leave school at age 16 or so in the UK and only
a very few go on to University.  In the US, most stay in school 'till 18,
and a far greater proportion go to University.  There are a fair number
of "minority" students even in the Ivy League.  The US isn't so different
as to make everyone happy, and is, of course, not better in every way,
but there certainly seem to be significant differences.

I would also like to know how you determined that the working class
is largely hispanic and black.  I am perfectly willing to be convinced
by hard statistics, but not by seemingly automatic assumptions.