There must have been a collective sigh of relief in the halls of Ireland’s well-heeled, fee-paying schools yesterday, when the case brought by Mary Stokes against the practice of schools reserving places for the sons and daughters of past pupils was kicked out of the Supreme Court.
Had she won, it would have caused mayhem in many schools.
Certain schools like to see themselves as maintaining societal traditions and as tradition implies something that is passed down, it’s not hard to see why they equate families with continuity. In fact, it may sound not very politically correct, but given that the admittance policies to schools is the educational equivalent of the school’s HR department, maybe getting the family to do your hard work for you isn’t that stupid on the part of the school. And, at least in the eyes of the school, it minimizes the risk that the tradition of the school will wither.
It isn’t just wealthy schools that adopt this approach. Most schools in the country use the family and family connections as the first filter when it comes to assessing who gets in and who doesn’t.
This may not be right, but it’s a fact. Therefore, we should deal with it. But what does continuity do to the dexterity of the society in the face of challenges?
Before we answer that, let’s go back to the foundation of many schools in Ireland.
In Ireland, and particularly in Dublin, the fee-paying, rugby-playing, hockey-playing secondary schools were largely set up to manage the transfer of power from the British to the Irish in the last part of the 19th century. The big Catholic schools were established to make sure there was a Catholic professional and managerial class ready for Home Rule when it came. They were set up precisely to make sure that the professional middle class was not exclusively Protestant when the time came.
The Christian Brothers schools, beneath the more swanky Catholic schools run by orders such as the Jesuits, were established to create a clerical class that could be deployed in the service of the new State and would feed into the elite Catholic class.
In fact, an interesting way to look at the 1916 Rising is not that it was a revolution of the Irish against the British, but that it was a rising of Christian Brothers’ boys against Jesuits and was all about who was going to run the place when the British legged it.
The Christian Brothers won and went on to control the civil service. Even though the fee-paying schools were set up to run the country, you won’t find many members of the fee-paying schools in the Irish public administration. After the Christian Brothers’ victory in 1916-1922, the fee-paying brigade went into the private sector rather than the civil service. They went into the professions.
I know: I went to one of the fee paying schools, had a great experience and made deep, life-long friendships. But I was aware at a young age that these schools were self-perpetuating institutions whose aim was to reproduce and bed down the next Irish officer class.
In this regard they are very successful and are not too different in their objective to the old-fashioned military schools such as Sandhurst in Britain or West Point in the US.
The key objective is to create stability and a class buy-in to the state.
But the problem with stability is that it rewards the stable man. He is the man who is respectable and who won’t rock the boat. The professional man is trained in a certain way of thinking, creating consensus and conventional thinking.
The economist JK Galbraith, in ‘The Affluent Society’, his study of 1950s America, described “conventional wisdom” as a way of looking at the world that has become so ingrained that challenging the convention becomes an affront to reasonable people rather than what it is – a practical attempt to question whether we are doing the right thing.
Conventional wisdom is an idea that has broad acceptance.
When ideas become accepted, these values and ideas can become so entrenched that they are rarely challenged.
It is at this point that they have achieved that unassailable state of grace. They morph into conventional wisdom. And even when facts are presented in opposition to the conventional wisdom, the facts are discounted.
For an idea to be accepted, it must be familiar. So it needs to be articulated over and over, by serious people like academics, members of the commentariat, senior civil servants, lobbyists, lawyers and powerful politicians.
Once an idea is familiar and accepted, it seeps into the ether and becomes a simple “truth”.
If we create a schooling system that is geared towards stability and rewards conventional thinking and a certain way of looking at the world, why would you expect the society to create dissenters? The tradition that we try to pass on is a form of societal ballast. It stops the boat from rocking at a much more profound level.
The Leaving Cert system reinforces convention by rewarding a certain type of brain and penalizing another. This is how you manufacture consent.
Whether she knew it or not, Mrs Stokes touched on something far, far deeper than prejudice against Travellers in the Supreme Court yesterday.
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All I can speak from is personal experience regarding this article. I went to a Christian Brother’s school, no interest in the place, couldn’t wait to get out of it. Didn’t care about their value and ideas, I don’t even know what they were or are to this day. Regarding religion, I frequently told them I didn’t believe their fairy stories but what could they do? – I was reasonably well-behaved and did alright in exams as some of the subjects were interesting. “Networks, self-perpetuating institutions and deep, life-long friendships”? – I wouldn’t recognize most of the people I went… Read more »
This case was a Christian Brothers school in Tipperary though, so David took that ball and ran very far with it.
If they are going to take public money to help pay for their teachers, it would seem that everyone should have an equal crack at getting in. Stokes was fighting the good fight.
I wonder where the judge went to school?
Ha ha, I went to a fee paying school back in the day, it may have once upon a time been a gate way to jobs, but by the time I finished 20 years ago it was points in the leaving cert and on to college. Having gone to that school hasn’t come up much since then except when former class mates are playing rugby for Ireland. Interestingly, last year was our 20th anniversary of the leaving cert and thus leaving school. One guy from my year intrepidly tracked down about 80% of our year through email to organise a… Read more »
I think the deeper issue that David may be alluding to is that for large pockets of our population our education system is not fit for purpose. The Jesuit networks or the CBS networks still largely educate our next generation of Citizens through rote learning. These networks may have helped their pupils get a slice of the pie in a small Island economy but they are woefully inadequate for equipping our children with the tools they need to prosper in a global economy . I don’t think senior cup medals or developing a rindabite/Dort accent cuts much ice with Google,… Read more »
Off topic. Just viewed the video of David’s appearance at the banking enquiry – very powerful stuff David – well presented. I do hope they listen!
Peter
Actually, I think that the article is way off the mark in relation to 1916-1922. A lot of public “analysis” in Ireland’s media, is based on a confusion of “cause and effect”. Soemtimes this is deliberate. And sometimes this is based on confusion. Most of the time it is based on intellectual laziness. I don’t think that 1916 was one school type versus another. It was somewhat class based. And that is reflected in the schools that were attended. But if we wsh to see the actual cause, we need to see the background and rate of success under the… Read more »
There is a problem with regard to the private sector in Ireland. It is opposed to any form of meritocracy. In the middle part of the last century the state was more driven by meritocracy than the private sector. That lack of meritocracy (also visible in much of British commerce at the same time) was at the root of serious underperformance in the Irish private sector for decades. The managerial elite were underperformers. They had a culture that reinforced ineptitude, and emphasized standing, and pecking order. This also occurred in Britain. It bankrupted Britian, and the IMF moved in in… Read more »
I suppose no old school network discussion would be complete without a mention of the phenomenon of the various suave, well connected, investment scheme investment “experts” who circulated Dublin one decade ago. Many of them relied on old school networks, to find their victims. People who regarded most of the working class (both urban or rural), as not to be trusted, or to be allowed into their lives, handed over their entire net worth (plus borrowings) to well accented posh boys, who were prominent on the charity event circuit. [ it seems to be the done thing for an Irish… Read more »
CBS/Vocational school boys don’t network. They compete. That same ethos is not necessarily an institutional thing. If we look at the Irish in America, we can see that it can exist outside of CBS/Vocational schools. It is boarding school boys that network, and avoid competing. In fact they have an ethos of “circling the wagon”. Do they behave within an old school British ethos ? I think that it is deeper than the schools. I think it is more a case of being in a privileged position, and knowing how to protect that privileged position. Ireland, we need to smash… Read more »
my experience of schooling was that 75% was a waste of time. All instruction received could be delivered and absorbed in a 3 year period rather than 12. i spent my first weeks in school reading books under the desk top as I could already do what was instructed in the first months and was bored out of my tree. Reading anything that comes my way, that is of interest to me, has remained a lifetime habit. Bullying was a major part of my school life. Being the victim of and responding to the abuse. The first two years at… Read more »
Thoughts and opinion from a free thinker
http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?ca=d02f392b-3cdb-4cf0-b39d-357b460ce78e&c=877a32b0-427b-11e3-ad08-d4ae52a45a09&ch=8905dbc0-427b-11e3-ad3c-d4ae52a45a09
Central banking challenge to Bitcoin
http://www.thedailybell.com/news-analysis/36113/Bank-of-England-Bitcoin-Revolution–Who-Benefits/?uuid=6F800609-5056-9627-3C5071902B060BF2
http://tidbits.com/article/15443
Golden Apple. A watch that appreciates with time.
“Daily Bell: The schools are certainly less tolerant these days, and you’ve written a good deal on that as well as the more general authoritarian state. Why, in particular, does the school issue concern you so much? – See more at: http://www.thedailybell.com/exclusive-interviews/36103/Anthony-Wile-John-Whitehead-Combat-Federal-Authoritarianism-With-Human-Action-and-Local-Activism/?uuid=6F800609-5056-9627-3C5071902B060BF2#sthash.eVPeBBCR.dpuf
We will have stability alright when all the dissidents are lock up without trial and then disposed of in the night.
http://www.thedailybell.com/news-analysis/36102/Does-New-Canadian-Terrorism-Bill-Have-Public-Support/?uuid=6F800609-5056-9627-3C5071902B060BF2
European stability is in the small print. There is no legal way a state can be expelled from the EU or EURO “In summary, Athanassiou says in his 2009 paper: – that before the Lisbon Treaty of 2007, there was no legal way for a member country to exit from the European Union (EU), and even though there is now (Article 50), it would be still legally problematic; – that a member country of EMU (in the Euro) could not exit the Euro without exiting the EU; – that “no right of withdrawal from EMU was ever intended to exist“;… Read more »
http://www.thedailybell.com/news-analysis/36098/Does-the-Russian-Bear-Smell-Gold/?uuid=6F800609-5056-9627-3C5071902B060BF2
Will the introduction of a gold back currency provide the stability needed to end the currency wars
Daivd was so powerful speaking yesterday. Reminded me of the reasons why I admire him and his ability so much. He is at his best in front of an audience. Confident, and full of theatrical delivery, even while telling something as boring as the truth. As for family first in schools? It is the one thing that keeps this country going. If I couldnt send my kids to the local school because someone who doesnt embrace a settled way of life gets priority, I then have to send my kid further down the road to a school to whom he… Read more »
Is the Euro stable enough to stand Greece rocking the boat??
http://www.goldmoney.com/research/analysis/the-euro-may-be-riskier-than-you-think?gmrefcode=gata
Central bankers are up to their old tricks. Nothing really changes. King World News puts out interviews that inform the public that is in direct confrontation with the information peddled by MSM and their sycophants. They cannot handle the truth reaching the light of day. ————————————————————————– King World News site disabled after GATA interview Submitted by cpowell on 09:12AM ET Friday, February 27, 2015. Section: Daily Dispatches 12:14p ET Friday, February 27, 2015 Dear Friend of GATA and Gold: The Internet site of King World News appears to have come under disabling attack shortly after posting an interview last night… Read more »
Even though the headline number of the total commercial net short position [in silver in last Friday’s COT Report] has declined by nearly 14,000 contracts since January 27, the concentrated net short position of the eight largest shorts has hardly budged—and remains over 65,000 contracts. This is still a manipulative position on its face since it represents more than 325 million ounces and 40% of world annual production, an amount unequalled among all commodities. Reviewing the dismal earnings reports by those companies that mine silver, I have uncovered not a one holding any of the 325 million oz. held short… Read more »
This is an interesting article and it deals with one of David’s favourite themes, albeit in a somewhat different way. I agree with some of it but not all. David champions the lads having a laugh at the back of the class, those who kick against the system and unwilling to conform, who I think he sees as a pool of innovative, entrepreneurial talent. I counter this with my own favourite theme and describe it as typical extrovert behaviour. The thing is, in my observation extroverts are highly conformist and indeed enforce the consensus. I think it might be clearer… Read more »
hi,
good article. The education system is not fit for purpose. People are over qualified, under skilled and loaded with debt when they come out of third lrvrl.
Michael.
Stability induced here with oerganized chaos. do not believe anyone about anything.
The only constant is corruption
http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13931204001534
No stability allowed
http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13931204001534
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-02-25/biggest-problem-greece-isnt-debt-its
I went to a vincentian school, can’t say I can empathize with the above at all.
There seemed to be many currents in school, rugby, academic study, science, debating and charity. Obviously rugby was massive. 6 years was too long for me and I drifted a bit after a good junior cert.
I still keep in touch with some of the guys, (a lot of whom are very nice) but have never used any school contacts to get a job.
So , I am a person that does not fit into David’s analysis.
@adam byrne.
Hi adam. I want to start on the journey finding out more about bitcoin. I had a wallet one time about 2 or 3 years ago and had bought 1 bitcoin from the bitcoin 24 exchange just before it went down. They stole my 100 euro and i couldn’t get back the tiny fraction of a bitcoin either i had left over.
I want to embrace the technology though and see if I can incorporate it into something I am getting involved in.
Michael.
“People don’t believe in this kind of science, nor do they believe in the academic system and university degrees that produce it. Over time this skepticism must deepen and lead to further sociopolitical and economic dysfunction.”
– See more at: http://www.thedailybell.com/news-analysis/36120/Monsanto-Laments-Dwindling-Faith-in-Science/?uuid=6F800609-5056-9627-3C5071902B060BF2#sthash.l8yzVoR9.dpuf
Another lovely sunny day in Victoria. The only place in Canada with a half decent climate!!
I can recommend:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivory_Tower_%282014_film%29