Cliques...or Groups (117)

They're gone again, jus not me to put a pic up like that, but I did try Vinny, Phoenix is gonna have to find another way to liberate me lol

Well I suppose some of us had 10 minutes of pure happiness
Too nice a day here to be stuck in so off out for a short or long walk depending on the thirst

T'was a joke,, by the way what year were you born in mr1983 , oops another joke, I know they're not brilliant, they're old style, but I'm an old lady lol.

On a serious note, I'm all for laissez faire politics when the blatant inequalities in society have been addressed on all levels to a degree that equality of opportunity has been secured for all. Boundaries of law alone wont secure that.

Make sure you use wooden pegs, those plastic pegs are hopeless lol

I'm not here to make friends, I have no desire to feel accepted,

I'm cliqueless

Ah yes Marietta but that requires having some (metaphoric) nuts! Not everyone has those.

How would you suggest getting to a point that equality of opportunity can be secured for all? Is it even possible?

Off course it's possible, you get solution focussed, you identify the obstacles to equality of opportunity, and you address them.

There are many obstacles.

First you identify what is likely to guarantee a successful future for a person. Immediate answer is education. There's always the Bill Cullens etc. who succeed through social intelligence, but for the most academic education is the key to success (material based)

Choose any family from a disadvantaged background, identify the barriers to the children not achieving their optimum in education. So you could be talking, difficult relationships with school due to disruptive behaviors, children not having proper school equipment, early school leaving, non attendance at third level, no value on education in the home, so homework not done, all building blocks to child being set up to fail in school.

They also grapple with a curriculum that doesn't relate to their culture, so they read from an early age about "Daddy washing the car on Sunday" etc. the reality is Daddy's probably doing time for stealing a car on Sunday. Basil Bernstein, American Sociologist wrote about children from the bottom of the social scale not relating to the middle class curriculum because in effect they don't have the language tools to deal with it.

To put it bluntly a disadvantaged family in crisis will probably say to a child, 'get to bed you, or I'll effing slap ya'

A middle class parent is likely to say to the child 'time for bed Johnny, Daddy will be up shortly to read you a story, do your teeth etc.'

The point Bernstein makes is that the 'lower class' child learns the restricted code of language at home, very basic, no articulation, whilst the middle class child learns the elaborate code of language, they are interacted with, and communicated with more.

The latter is the language needed to assimilate the curriculum, the former puts children from the 'lower class' at a disadvantage because the language they learn at home does not include language needed to grasp the curriculum, added to this their alienation from their 'class' being excluded in the curriculum, add again the aforementioned obstacles. In effect they have to leave their culture outside the classroom door.

I am oversimplifying because it's too long and complex to get in to this little box lol, but if we take the above as obstacles, the solutions are clear.

An acknowledgement of how the middle class curriculum alienates working class children, and an effort to address that. Whether that's Roddy Doyle style writings incorporated into it or not, I don't know but it can be addressed.

Highly skilled home school liaison officers in disadvantaged areas whose role it would be to support disadvantaged children struggling in school, whose aim is to keep children in school as long as possible.

Breakfast clubs, and after school clubs in designated disadvantaged areas for children for the many who don't get a decent meal a day........because we all know Ted, ya don't get your omega three you don't understand pie, and I'm not talking bout steak and kidney lol.

This is only one aspect, there's the family support work aspect, where the worker would work with the family to mutually identify problems that keep the family in a dead end, and mutually identify solutions, couple this with the education solutions and other solutions.

It's a slow process perhaps the benefits may only be seen partially in this generation, but more so in the next generation of the affected family, it's a slow process, if you want me to elaborate into all the other areas fine but aw you know what the point is, yes, equality of opportunity is possible, jus takes a bit of effort.

Now get out you and take that washing in, this is Ireland I think it's gonna rain