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A Revolution Betrayed
- How Egalitarians Wrecked the British Education System
- Narrated by: Peter Hitchens
- Length: 4 hrs and 7 mins
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A Revolution Betrayed
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Summary
There are few subjects these days that cause parents more stress than the education of their children.
In his book, Peter Hitchens describes the misjudgements made by politicians over the years that have led to the increase of class distinction and privilege in our education system. This is of course the opposite of what was intended, especially by former Minister of Education Shirley Williams and Margaret Thatcher, her successor in that role, who closed down many more Grammar Schools than Williams.
Given that the cost of private secondary education is now in the region of £200,000 and the cream of Comprehensive Schools are now oversubscribed (William Ellis, Camden School for Girls, The Oratory, Cardinal Vaughan), parents are spending thousands on private tutoring and fee-paying prep schools in order to get their children into these academically excellent schools. Meanwhile hypocritical Labour politicians like Diane Abbott send their children to expensive private day schools. So, what alternatives – if any – are there?
Peter Hitchens argues that in trying to bring about an educational system which is egalitarian, the politicians have created a system which is the exact opposite. And what’s more, it is a system riddled with anomalies - Sixth Form Colleges select pupils on ability at the age of 15, which rules out any child who does not have major educational backing from home (heavy involvement by working parents or private tutors, for example) and academies also are selective, though they pretend not to be.
This is an in-depth look at the British education system and what will happen if things don’t change radically.
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What listeners say about A Revolution Betrayed
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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- Jerome Bentley
- 31-03-23
Excellently researched and presented
Well thought-out history of educational decline in England.
Mr Hitchens performs the audio book, which is always excellent.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Freeman
- 28-12-22
Excellent argument, which persuaded me
Hitchens makes his point relentlessly & persuasively that the left’s ideological hatred of academic selection at 11+ by merit (justified) has been replaced with selection by wealth (unjustified).
The wrecking of grammar schools & an excellent education system was socialism in action, which Tories went along with.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Dr Fiona M Foster
- 13-03-23
Every teacher must read this
Brilliant analysis of the dire situation Britain now finds itself in. Political correctness has ruined so much, and very few are prepared to stand up to all that nonsense. On your own heads be it. No pun intended
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- OatWood
- 01-01-23
At last, the truth.
A very well-researched and level-headed indictment of the way egalitarian ideologues destroyed the Grammar school system.
Thomas Sowell calls this the “vision of the anointed” whereby an often perfectly functioning system is viewed, ideologically, as an issue that requires ‘fixing’.
The supposed fix then makes things much worse than they otherwise would have been if left alone.
But at no cost whatsoever to the anointed who have often based entire careers on turning ideology into reality and who then claim that things would have been much worse if they had not acted.
Hitchens is a lone voice on this and many other subjects, and he knows it. Yet he put this work out anyway. I for one applaud him for that.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Mr A Bowater
- 21-03-24
Interesting and thought provoking
For anyone interested in education, this is well worth a listen. What becomes apparent from his history of grammar schools and secondary modern schools is that they did an overall excellent job for the various stakeholder in society. Those with academic potential had opportunities to excel even if their parents weren’t wealthy; wealthy parents could still send their children to private schools; less gifted children had schools more suited to their needs; and universities were better able to identify the most talented individuals most suited to higher academic study. I’m happy to recommend this book.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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- B. A. Cass
- 21-08-23
Well reasoned and thoroughly researched.
A convincing argument detailing how the Secondary Modern and Grammar schools introduced in England by the 1944 Act were sacrificed on the altar of misguided social engineering, to the detriment of working and middle class families. Fascinating.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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- Andrew
- 14-04-23
Really good book, poor audio quality
The content of the book was really good, but the audiobook was let down by poor audio, recording and editing quality.
This isn’t Peter Hitchens’ fault as the narrator, I’ve listened to audiobooks of his with perfect recording quality and I usually like it when the audiobook is in the voice of the author.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Martin
- 31-12-22
Unfortunately Hitchens' worst book
This book doesn't really go anywhere and struggles to back up it's assertions. Peter's pessimism cripples him, preventing him from taking his analysis to real conclusions. Instead, the book spends much it's pages recording MP's hypocritical actions, as if pointing them out was still an impactful thing to do.
Read only if you have a very strong interest in both Peter Hitchens and British education.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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- Mike
- 26-11-22
A project started
An intriguing question is raised but never really answered, quite a superficial look at the issue through the lense of how difficult exams are. Where was the analysis of the long term impacts to the individuals. IE if the purpose of a school is to educate people to prepare them for later life, why not look into where these students ended up? a comparison of the school background of people at the top of every field before, during and after grammars would have been a more complete view. focussed too much on the academic aspects such as exam quality and university admissions and not enough on life outcomes.
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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- Amazon Customer
- 29-11-22
How different things could have been.
Excellent, just wish it was fleshed out more. There was no need for it to be so short, or so scattered jumping from time to time. I wish this had more stats and facts with maybe an actual conclusion as to WHY any of this happened.he is completely correct though, every person I know in education, either sends their child to private school or lives somewhere based on the catchment area.
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