Wooldridge’s “The Aristocracy of Talent: How Meritocracy Made the Modern World” argues that raw intelligence is the defining quality of the modern age, straddling East and West, and fuelled by the meritocratic belief that the brightest should get to the top. Yet this apparently reasonable system has a flaw.
The stats are dispiriting. Excluding a brief successful spell in the post-war years, universal schooling appears to have failed in its mission to foster advancement regardless of social background. Britain, which continues to cling to a dual system of free state schools and expensive public schools, is a case in point. Eton or Rugby, whose annual fees easily exceed $30,000, cater for only 7% of the country’s student population.
Some form of school testing to select the brightest is advisable. At tertiary level things have at least moved on from 1837, when the future 10th Earl of Wemyss was only asked about his father’s health at his successful interview for a place at Christ Church college, Oxford. But given the scope for financial muscle to give offspring access to schools that can make Oxbridge entry much more likely, it’s naive to think that everything has changed.
The bulk of Wooldridge’s book is about diagnosing this problem. But he makes a few useful suggestions on how to rebalance the system. British public schools, he argues, should massively hike up the number of scholarships they offer. Despite enjoying charity status, and the tax breaks that go with it, just 1% of their pupils had all their fees paid for in 2019. Half of their places should instead go to bright students who cannot afford the fees, argues the author.
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