Representation of class in "Love on the dole"

Abstract or Introduction

Class is a “general word for a group or division” and “acquires a special association with education” (Raymond Williams 1985, 60). The privately run public schools are the main institutions to maintain the ethos of the upper class and marking off the assimilated from the unassimilated. Students of lower social origin can only attend these upper universities through scholarships, but “state-sponsored free education did not in general extend beyond a rather crude elementary education to the age of fourteen” (Arthur Marwick 1990, 26). By many the “divisiveness of the education system was taken to be both a cause and a symbol of the divisions in society” (David Cannadine 1998, 133/134). It can be stated that with a better education there are more chances in life. One can reach a better paid job and with more money there are more possibilities. In so far, if class is still defined by birth (later in this section) and one has not got the chance to get a higher education you will stay in your class. This can be seen in the film “To Sir, with love”. A black man can escape from his birth defined class by improving his education. He tries to convey to his students that with education it is possible to change ones life.