It's quite shocking to see how apposite they remain.
This one appears to be about the attitude of the haves to the have nots. It puts me a bit in mind of the summer riots of last year. Of course, in the late 1970s and early 1980s there were several instances of civil unrest in Britain. The Secondary Modern kids referred to were kids who'd failed an exam aged 11 and only got into the second best schools, while those who passed went to selective schools..
Fairmindedness
Well, there was this jolly decent chap, you see, George his name was,
and he said, well, he said, these Secondary Modern School kids,
They don't know what good for them,
I mean,
We're good enough to let them in on our way of life,
and what do they do?
They smash windows and steal, and do everything they can to break the rules and hurt us.
Some little perisher stole my comb the other day,
I ask you, stole my comb!
I think they should be caned every day, as a matter of course,
Bloody delinquents.
So I said, well George, old boy, I think you're far too easy on 'em.
I'd have the whole bloody lot put in a cage,
and only let them out whe it was time for them to do some honest work.
I remember that the whole punk movement was borne out of the unrest in the 70s and high unemployment. Great poem! I didn't know you wrote poetry!
ReplyDeleteval is that still the system--that kids are selected out at age 11? Seems rather harsh. And JoJo I'm thinking I'm not at all surprised that val wrote poetry.
ReplyDeleteHaven't written any for ages, and I think most of what I did write is lost. A newspaper used to have an annual children's poetry competition, and I once got a certificate for that.
ReplyDeleteVikeau, the system still exists in some counties. If this lousy government gets its way it will spread further, though they pretend otherwise. They are approaching it from a different angle. Private schools are still dominant for those above the average in earnings, and for those who can't quite afford it, money is being robbed from the poorest kids to pay for "academies", which won't even have to use qualified teachers.
Things haven't changed much really..we may not have the 11+, but schools are still divided..it may be more down to parents choices these days though, with parents who can moving to ensure their kids get places in the 'better' schools
ReplyDelete