When did it become cool to not care about school? // Rant

So if you live in England, you'll know that GCSE results came out last week and of students deciding to post themselves laughing about failing their GCSEs with their parents.

Now I can understand giggling while you process what you've just done, but going on to post it as if it's one big joke and defending yourself while saying "GCSEs don't matter anyways!" is not okay. It's glorifying being uneducated. No, you're not a diva for failing your GCSEs. There's a difference between trying to cope with your results and promoting being uneducated online.

And then half the comments will be saying that this is not okay or normal, and the other half of the comments will be bringing up anecdotal evidence that education doesn't matter because you might be able to get a job without them. Because as we all know, the only reason that education matters is so you can get a job. It's not like you need basic literacy, numeracy, or critical thinking skills for anything else, right?

Is it any wonder we're seeing so much support for parties like Reform UK, when this is the mentality that is being taught to our youth?

Let me remind you guys that the job market is rough for people who are educated. How much rougher do you think it's going to be if you have no GCSEs, can't do basic maths, and have nothing to show that you might be a good candidate?

Oh, and don't think I'm letting the parents off easily either. I have more criticism for them than I do the people who failed their GCSEs!

If you as a parent are sitting there next to your child giggling about the fact that they've failed their GCSEs, you are genuinely a failure of a parent. I'm not advocating for parent to scream at their kids for failing, but as a parent you should be having stern words with your child and sitting down with them to figure out why they failed and decide on what the next steps are. Have them revise over the summer, give them a reward if they pass their GCSEs when they resit, actually get involved and make sure you know what they're getting in mocks.

Schools typically let parents know if their child isn't doing well academically, so intervention should've happened far earlier than results day to be honest. This kind of parenting is borderline neglect. How do you go to years worth of parents' evenings, see years worth of mock results, see your child struggling with homework, and not decide to take action?

A lot of these parents seem to think it's fine because they failed their GCSEs as well and turned out okay, but they don't realise that a lot has changed in the years since they did theirs. It doesn't help that successful people will often affirm this belief that you can fail everything and turn out okay, when most of them come from well off families and had far more connections and support than the average person.

I also believe that as a poor person, you should be investing in your education if you want to escape the cycle of poverty. For the working class, education is your most reliable way to gain social mobility. Obviously it's not guaranteed, but wouldn't you rather try and fail than never try and end up wondering "what if?" for the rest of your life?

I actually have people I personally know who preach this rhetoric, who tell me that I shouldn't bother studying microbiology because jobs in biosciences are so competitive, but even if I fail to get my dream job, there are so many different fields I could pivot into. Hell, I'd be happy to work at Gregg's because at least I tried and got to have so many incredible experiences studying what I'm passionate about (also, I love a Gregg's cheese and onion pasty lol.) Education is the one thing nobody can ever take from you and those skills are extremely transferable.

I think this mentality comes from a fear of failing even after trying. It's easier to have a joke and laugh about how you didn't even try than put hours of effort in and still fail.

In summary, we need to stop normalising neglecting education. If education was so useless, the rich wouldn't be making sure their kids go to the top private schools.

I was going to put a joke 'terms and conditions' for commenting, like "By commenting you acknowledge that this is not about people with extenuating circumstances." but I've decided to have faith that the good people of SpaceHey will understand that this is a nuanced conversation and that I can't cover every hyperspecific scenario in a blog I wrote in 20 minutes. Don't disappoint me please.