In the Guardian newpaper on 30 April, the MP for Tottenham, David Lammy and Cambridge classics don, Mary Beard, discuss access to Britain's top universities.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/apr/30/conversation-oxbridge-admissions
The exchange was triggered by the MP gaining stats. about UK black students' poor access to some Oxbridge colleges, though for anyone checking out University Challenge, that can hardly be a surprise.
The 'race' element became lost in the discussion. David Lammy highlighted geography and class. Mary Beard told an anecdote about speaking in Harrow about twice in her 25-year in Cambridge, inspiring one of two comprehensive students to successfully apply to Cambridge. She seemed to view this as a success.
However, Mary Beard also talked about a joined up thinking in education between age 5 and 25. I would argue that the education starts earlier than that - from birth onwards. We are not just talking literacy and numeracy, but the 'extra' education that makes children of black and minority ethnic background believe they can achieve when so many subtle messages tell them they can't.
It is discomfiting to believe that young children judge skin colour from an early age, absorbing the values of the society they live in. But more than 50 years of research shows that they do. We are doing children a disservice to expect them to be selectively colour blind. We should be encouraging children's natural curiosity about the world, nurturing their sense of social justice and preparing ourselves to answer their awkward questions.
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