Academia is not for the working class - Trading Places (spoilers)

Hello whoever might be out there, 

I just finished watching episode 2 of "Trading Places" on Channel 5, and in case you needed another reminder that academia favours the upper class, here it is. It follows three teenagers aged 17 and 18 who, for various reasons, have dropped out of education, and sends them to a private school in Wales for a week, hence the "Trading Places". Yet while this was clearly crafted with the intention of twisting three anti-school teens into pro-school advocates, it instead serves as a carrot to the donkeys.

This school, Christ College Brecon, costs £54,666 a year for a sixth form student to fully board. The cheapest option for sixth form students is £28,359. So instead of this being a journey to reignite a love of learning, it instead becomes showboating of what money can really buy. Extracurricular activities are plenty, alternative learning with small classes, and a chapel in the school, Chaplain included.

All three of the students left the school after a week saying they loved it. Saying if they went to that school they would've stuck with education. They would've got their qualifications. Because this is what people mean when they say there is a grade difference between state and private schools. The grades come from creating a culture of people wanting to learn, and paying the social and economic price that comes with it. When you're receiving £28,359 a year from a pupil who doesn't even use the boarding facilities, the level of opportunity is endless. That is a gap that cannot be filled by sheer will alone, sheer will that students in state school won't have, they have already lost.

The teens they picked have already all dropped out of education. This opportunity has gotten to them too late, but is instead a reflection on what they could've had from the start. If only they had money. Taunting teenagers with a future they will never have because of factors outside of their own control seems like a horrible action, both on a surface level and when looking at it deeper. The headteacher acted like he was some philanthropic saint for allowing three lowly working class teens into his precious school, gate-keeping at its very finest. That week alone would've cost the teens £1,518.50 each. Each. That number is just unfathomable, it is a world I will never have access to. Nor will the teens who had a taste of what life is like in the 1%.

This was simply cruel. Every way I think of it, it proves more and more cruel. The drastic "Trading Places" was simply having money. And yet it might be the largest culture shock of all the episodes. Molly even describes it as feeling "like a cult" due to how dramatic the cultural differences are. I can't say this episode has done a good job at trying to break down the barriers to academia, because it hasn't. The students were sent off with a Welsh flag and a wave, as well as a lasting reminder that they're lesser. Dumber. More prone to failure.

I am passionately against private education. Meritocracy is a myth but there is no reason to make no attempt towards it. Segregating students before they have even had a chance to prove themselves is not a system I want to condone, that involves giving equal access opportunities to all. Scholarships do not fulfil that role. Nor do grammar schools.

There is something deeply disturbing about listening to private school boys singing Creep by Radiohead.

Yours faithfully,

MD