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RICHARD LITTLEJOHN: White Working Class Children have actually Been Betrayed > 자유게시판
RICHARD LITTLEJOHN: White Working Class Children have actually Been Be…
작성일작성일: 2025-07-04 23:16
Saturday night at eight o'clock found me not at the films however at the Cinema Museum, a concealed gem near the Oval cricket ground in South London, located in a previous workhouse which was quickly home to the young Charlie Chaplin after his mom fell on difficult times.
Truth be informed, I rarely venture south of the river. As Dave, from the Winchester Club, alerted Arthur Daley: 'Great deal of really wicked individuals' in Sarf Lunnon.
Coincidentally, the celebration was a one-man program by my old mate George Layton, star, director, scriptwriter, author, whose finest hour - a minimum of to my mind - was playing Des, the dodgy automobile mechanic in Minder.
George was checking out from his collection of narratives embeded in the 1950s, when he was maturing in post-war Bradford. They're beautifully composed, warm, funny, evocative, a piece of history, a working-class variation of Richmal Crompton's Just William experiences.
The stories are based on the trials and tribulations of a kid being raised by a single mom - a non-traditional household life back then, unfortunately just too typical today. The Fib And Other Stories has actually in print since 1975 and found its method on to the school curriculum, where it stays today.
I can't help wondering, though, how frequently these glorious texts are utilized in class nowadays, in between instructors stuffing their pupils' little heads with fashionable far-Left propaganda about 'white benefit', colonialism and, naturally, environment modification.
The kids in the monochrome school photo which formed the backdrop to George's reading were certainly white, however nobody might have described them as privileged. Those were the days when 'austerity' suggested living from hand to mouth, not having to choose a fundamental 50in flat screen TV, rather of a 65in OLED Ultra design, and only being able to afford an iPhone 14 rather than the current all-singing, all-dancing AI variation.
Child hardship was real, bread-and-dripping, holes-in-your-shoes stuff, not dining on Deliveroo and hesitantly wearing last season's Nike trainers.
Until the digital/social media revolution, children gained their understanding mainly from books, composes Littlejohn
In the 1950s, children experienced authentic challenge, not the hardship of ambition and creativity which blights this generation, through no fault of their own. Today, kids live by means of their cellphones, rather of roaming free and experiencing life to the full.
Until the digital/social media revolution, kids got their knowledge primarily from books. Yes, TV played a big role, as did the films, however nowhere near the supremacy of TikTok and other apps offering immediate gratification in byte-sized pieces.
And how can squinting at the most current CGI created blockbuster on a mobile phone a few inches broad ever compare to the type of old-school, cinema, Technicolor and Cinemascope, best-out-of-Hollywood experience celebrated at the Cinema Museum?
It can't. Just as the best photos are stated to be on the radio, even much better images can be discovered in the printed word.
One of the most dismaying things I have actually read recently was the author Anthony Horowitz bemoaning the truth that his 300-page books are far too long to engage the much shorter attention spans of today's kids.
No wonder kid, and indeed adult, literacy levels have actually plunged amazingly. All this has contributed to the stunning discovery that white, working class students - kids in particular - are being left behind. Even Labour's Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has actually been required to admit they have been 'betrayed' by the modern-day schools system.
They suffer from an absence of parental participation and ensuing paucity of goal. The white, working class boy in George Layton's stories certainly didn't suffer any adult disregard from his domineering mum. Nor did he lack creativity or aspiration.
Education was the method out of hardship. It produced significant wordsmiths like George, in post-war Bradford - and our own dear Keith Waterhouse, late of this parish, who grew up in poverty in nearby pre-war Leeds.
Literacy is the best gift we can bestow on any kid. My grandmothers taught me to read before I went to school, setting me on the early road to a fulfilling profession at the wordface instead of the relative drudgery of the workplace.
George Layton is thinking about taking his one-man show on the road, to little provincial theatres. I have actually got a much better idea.
If the Education Secretary wishes to reverse the betrayal of white, working class kids she could start by getting the phone and inviting George to explore schools, checking out from his brief stories.
I honestly believe that if they could be persuaded to look up from their mobiles for an hour, they 'd be enthralled and motivated by the adventures of a young kid not that various to them, despite the range in years.
You never understand, there might even be another Charlie Chaplin amongst them.
When they're not tasering one-legged 92-year-old males or nicking individuals for posting hurty words on the internet, the police are increasingly taking sidelines to supplement their earnings.
Some are working as painters and designers, others as scaffolders nand shipment motorists. More intriguingly, second jobs likewise include a DJ (PC Hammer, anybody?) and a reiki instructor, whatever that is.
My favourites are beekeeper and kickboxing coach, although the copper running a tea store has to take the biscuit.
It's likewise reported that some officers are working as supermarket checkout assistants. I don't suppose there's any danger of them nicking a couple of thiefs.
Mind how you go.
RICHARD LITTLEJOHN: Couple in their 70s who bought a baby from a complete stranger are selfish in the severe
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