By: Dangoorland « Squares of Wheat

Dangoorland « Squares of Wheat — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 18:39:24 +0000

[...] The school’s curriculum and ethos is oriented around some kind of idea of global business. On one level, it seems like a totally appropriate vision for a school in which English is not the first language of 89% of the students. Transparent windows are overlaid with iconised skylines of other ‘global cities’; the back wall of the cafeteria shouts the names of a global menu, from ackee & saltfish to sushi. It’s slightly more sinister that the central atrium is known as ‘the marketplace’, and another set of windows carries a bizarre alphabetical list of financial trading terms like ‘hedge fund’ and ‘vulture capital’, as if to be uncritically learned by rote. Merits and gold stars have been replaced by Vivo Miles, a smart card identity and rewards system (the keen student guides were getting fifty apiece for their extracurricular participation). The equation of the world with world markets seems like a particularly pernicious bit of Blatcherite ideology, though Susan assures us that the kids learn the normal curriculum. I refrain from asking whether with their concentration on the global economy the kids have been upset by the credit crunch. [...]

By: dannybirchall

dannybirchall — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 14:06:03 +0000

Luckily, the Malteser index is still rising...

Comments on: in the credit crunchie

By: Dangoorland « Squares of Wheat

By: dannybirchall