Forget education, pupils just want to be famous

This from the Times of London:

Children are turning away from schoolwork because they see education as unhelpful to their ambition to become rich and famous as reality TV stars, a teaching union claims today.

Their role models include David and Victoria Beckham and WAGs – wives and girlfriends of highly paid footballers – according to the Association of Teachers and Lecturers.

It has put forward a motion for its annual conference this weekend saying that members are “appalled at the extent of the decline in this country into the cult of celebrity, which is perverting children’s aspirations and expectations”. It adds: “This compounds the subsequent sense of failure, alienation and low self-esteem when celebrity status is not achieved.”

The union asked 300 teachers about whom their pupils modelled themselves on. More than half said David Beckham. Victoria Beckham, the former Spice Girl and self-professed fashion expert, was a role model for almost a third of girls....