Inverted snobbery on education

I couldn’t help but groan when I heard of the petition against Damian Lewis attending the 50th anniversary of Acland Burghley comprehensive school in London. I believe that it should be about where someone is going in life, not where they’ve come from. By trying to take a stance against Lewis’ Eton-educated background, the signers of this petition have become snobs.

I hate to play the ‘I went to a comprehensive’ card, as Owen Jones often does. I’m very proud of my schooling, and I consider it a badge of honour because of the quality of teaching that I had there, not because I think it gives me a pass to talk about social justice or inequality. I’m not better qualified to talk about abstract concepts like ‘fairness’ and ‘opportunity’ just because I went to a comprehensive, otherwise I’m no different from the “reproduction of privilege and inequality in the UK” that the petition attacks Lewis for.

Personally, I’d be chuffed if an actor of Damian Lewis’ calibre came to my old school to give a talk. I think some people use the educational background of an individual very elastically indeed to suit their own arguments. David Cameron would be an easy target; “of course he hates the poor, he’s from a privileged background”, yet the same people who make that argument would never say “Clement Attlee did so much for this country; it’s just a shame that he went to a private school”. Arguments could be made about having less empathy due to a privileged background, but I believe that it is a separate debate (and one that can be unfairly skewed).

Kudos must go to Headmaster Nicholas John for refusing to bow to pressure. The assertion in the petition that Damian Lewis is a “wholly inappropriate choice” is lamentable. I think the argument is lost twofold; if you take an absolutist position that anyone from a private school background would be ‘wholly inappropriate’ for these kind of events, then in theory should David Cameron not visit any secondary schools (and therefore just open himself up further to any accusations that he doesn’t care)? If you take an elastic position on the subject, then you’re open to the double standards that I’ve listed above.

I’m as uncomfortable as anyone with the tendency for private schools to dominate in the social mobility and employment stakes. That doesn’t mean that we should succumb to snobbery, the very vice that this petition criticises Eton for. There are solutions to tackling inequality and to levelling the playing field. Refusing people the right to speak at events because of their background is not one of them.