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Diversity Is Not Our Strength: How the Left and Right Broke Multiculturalism · Strictly Education

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_08: A lot of people don't understand that it's all of the ideas that are currently tearing apart places like Britain, the US, and many other Western countries.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_08: All of this is rooted in what we say to children.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_08: That'll sound crazy to some people, and that's because they don't see what I see on the ground as a teacher.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_08: And I want to show you that the ideas we now see in our political classes and our culture, they're the same ideas that the education system has been pushing for decades.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_08: So today's episode will be a little different because I want to tell you about my book.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_08: So I mentioned it in the last couple of episodes, and today I'm going to explain a little bit more about it.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_08: It's called Diversity is Not Our Strength.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_08: Now, I know we're used to hearing the opposite all over the West.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_08: Let's have a look.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_08: I have often said that our diversity is our greatest strength.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_11: Diversity is our strength.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_11: We don't tolerate it.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_11: We celebrate.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_11: We understand that Australia's diversity is a strength.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: Our strength, and what is literally unique among major countries around the world is our diversity.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: But we know that our diversity, our patchwork heritage is not a weakness.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: It is still and always will be one of our greatest strengths.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_04: And the final thing to say in relation to uh Londoners who are Muslim is look, uh, one of our strengths is our diversity.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_08: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_08: So I get it, I get it.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_08: Lots of people say diversity is our strength as a way of saying, I don't care what race someone is.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_08: And you know, that's a nice thing to think, except the problem is that's just not what diversity is our strength means.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_08: So the thing is, diversity is our strength means we believe that as a country we're better off the more different we are to each other and the less we have in common.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_08: The problem is that's just not true.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_08: Take a football team.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_08: Someone might say, look, they have players who play different positions and they're from different places.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_08: But this misses the point.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_08: If they don't have the same shirt, the same manager, the same goal, train together, have a sense of team, feel bound together, well, they're gonna be a terrible team, aren't they?
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_08: The team is the strength.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_08: In fact, without the sense of team, diversity isn't a strength at all.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_08: So, why have I written a book?
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_08: I sometimes ask myself that question too.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_08: I have a million and one things to do.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_08: As you can imagine, I run a school and my days are packed, and sometimes I just think, why on earth did you agree to do this, Catherine?
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_08: But but then I look at the news and what's happening in schools, and then I'm back on the keyboard and I'm I'm talking to people about the book, and I'm saying, oh my goodness, we have to write this book.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_08: You know, sometimes I sound crazy, but it's because the situation can kind of drive me crazy.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_08: You know, the idea for this book came from many conversations I've had over the years with an old friend of mine.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_08: He's brown and he's Muslim.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_08: And we thought we might write a book together, actually, which would basically be letters to each other, where we would write about our parents.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_08: Both his parents and mine moved to Britain around the same time.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_08: Both were of a certain generation, and both were really very traditional people.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_08: And we were writing about how my parents, who were West Indian and Christian, and his parents, who were Asian and Muslim, and they had this sense of deference towards Britain.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_08: And I found it fascinating that he and I could have such different backgrounds, you know, culturally, and yet we were raised in very similar ways.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_08: We'd been taught by our parents that we should all show respect to this country.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_08: And we were reflecting on what our parents taught us about Britain, which was, you know, you do right by the country.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_08: You put the country and its people first, above your own personal wants and desires.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_08: And that attitude was our strength.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_08: It is our strength, you know?
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_08: And somehow over time it's sort of transformed into diversity is our strength.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_08: And Britain must atone for its past, and ethnic minorities must be on the lookout for racism everywhere.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_08: That change is part of what the book is about, really, and I can feel this on a personal level.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_08: I have these two worlds that I live in.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_08: There's the world of my parents and their generation, and like all people, my parents, well, they still live in my head, and then there's my perspective on the ground, working in the inner city as a teacher, and watching culture change, particularly when it comes to multiculturalism.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_08: And so I can see the ways that the country is changing and how it talks about race, immigration, duty to the country, that sort of thing.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_08: And I've also spent a decade and a half building a school with a huge multicultural intake, but with a sense of respect for the country.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_08: My book explores the idea that being an ethnic minority shouldn't be about demanding that your identity be celebrated and be considered more important than others.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_08: Instead, we should be raising our children to put the country first.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_08: Now, what are some of the ideas I address in the book?
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_08: Well, one is the way that liberal white people, particularly more affluent educated white people, have become, well, you know, they they've become ashamed of their British identity.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_08: And this isn't just Britain, I have to say, it's all across the West, I'm afraid.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_08: There's this obsession with white guilt.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_08: And this idea that if you're white, then you're somehow privileged, and if you're privileged, you're also guilty.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_08: And because of the history of racism and empire and slavery, well, everybody's guilty.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_08: And that means that to be a good white, you need to show that you're now the defender of the non-white community.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_08: So here are some examples from not long after the Black Lives Matter movement.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_10: I will use my voice in the most uplifting way possible.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_12: I will use my voice in the most uplifting way possible.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_10: And do everything in my power to educate my community.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_13: And do everything in my power to educate my community.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_09: On behalf of myself and on behalf of my country.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_08: Okay, crazy.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_08: Okay, so you get a different version of the same thing in celebrity culture too, with dramatic political declarations about white privilege.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_08: Let's take a look.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_08: I take responsibility.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_11: I take responsibility.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_06: I take responsibility.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_06: I take responsibility for every unchecked moment, for every time it was easier to ignore than to call it out for what it was.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_02: Every not-so-funny joke.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_08: Okay.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_08: I I take responsibility.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_08: I mean, what?
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_08: I wish they'd take responsibility for what they're doing right now, because they're the ones causing the problem by doing exactly that, okay?
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_08: Why is it that when a white police officer kills a black person, it's assumed that this tells us something about all white people?
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_08: But when an ethnic minority commits a crime against a white person, many will say it's racist to associate this action with other immigrants.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_08: So that there is white guilt.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_08: And I talk all about this in detail in my book.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_08: I'll give you another example.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_08: Why is it that if there are protests associated with an ethnic minority group and they look like this, liberal white politicians are very quick to tell us that they were mostly peaceful and reflect understandable anger in the community.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_08: And what follows, of course, is few convictions.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_08: But if there are protests that are critical of immigration and associated with the right, the attitude is entirely different.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_08: And the same sort of actions seem to result in prison sentences of several years.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_08: Why the difference?
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_08: Again, I'd say the answer lies in white guilt.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_08: And one of the things my Muslim friend and I discussed in our letters is that this culture of white guilt has also changed ethnic minorities.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_08: So what I've seen is that the more establishment figures push white guilt, constantly talking about white privilege, how terrible the empire was, how structurally racist Britain is, it actually changes the attitudes of ethnic minorities in Britain.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_08: You suddenly get this sense of grievance and resentment.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_08: What you get is victimhood.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_08: There's this idea you should be angry with your country, that you should demand that it changes for you, not think that it's you that needs to work around your country.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_08: Here's an example from Hamza Yousse, uh from when he was government minister in the Scottish Parliament.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_14: But why are we so surprised when the most senior positions in Scotland are filled almost exclusively by those who are white?
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_14: Take my portfolio alone.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_14: The Lord President, white.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_14: The Lord Justice Clerk, white.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_14: Every High Court judge, white.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_14: The Lord Advocate, white, the Solicitor General, white.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_14: The Chief Constable, white.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_14: Every Deputy Chief Constable, white, every assistant chief constable, white, the head of the law society, white.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_14: The head of the faculty of advocates, white.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_14: Every prison governor, white.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_14: And not just justice.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_14: The chief medical officer, white, the chief nursing officer, white, the chief veterinary officer, white, the chief social work advisor, white.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_14: Almost every trade union in this country headed by people who are white.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_14: In the Scottish Government, every director general is white.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_14: Every chair of every public body is white.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_14: That is not good enough.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_08: Okay, so you can hear it there.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_08: He's saying the country is racist because its senior positions seem to be occupied by white people.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_08: Whereas men like my friend's father or my own parents, they'd be horrified if I or anyone spoke like that.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_08: Once upon a time, most people, ethnic minorities included, would be the same way.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_08: They would think, hold on.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_08: If a country has been 99% white until relatively recently, its senior positions in government will probably be white.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_08: I mean, that makes sense.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_08: Our parents would have said, a country gives you a home.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_08: It lets you live there and build a good life.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_08: You're able to become a minister in government of that country and later literally lead that country.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_08: And then you're angry that the people around you in a white country seem to be white?
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_08: I mean, that's a good example of how the country has changed.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_08: This idea that minorities need to have this victimhood.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_08: My parents were very against victimhood.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_08: They were very against entitlement.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_08: My Muslim friend, same thing.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_08: His father and my father were copies of each other.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_08: My father was a lecturer in post-colonial literature.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_08: He most certainly was happy criticizing empire, let me tell you.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_08: I mean, I heard a lot about criticizing empire.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_08: But back then, post-colonial literature wasn't about grievance politics.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_08: It was about everyone being allowed to stand on their own two feet, expecting nothing but respect.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_08: I often say to people, I owe everything to my parents.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_08: One of the reasons is that I didn't really realize it, but when I was a child, they gave me values that were a real gift.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_08: And I think this move away from those values, values that I call small c conservative, towards guilt and victimhood, haven't helped the country at all.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_08: In fact, I think these changes have left us in a very angry place.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_08: Because the thing is, it isn't crazy to be concerned about migration to the country, legal or illegal.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_08: Most ethnic minorities are also concerned about mice migration.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_08: Numbers matter.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_08: And it also doesn't make you a racist to see some things and think, hmm, that doesn't really feel right, for example.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_11: This is the Islamic Republic of New Yorkistan! Islam you'll be in every household inshallah, your land is Muslim.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_11: Welcome to my daddy's New York! You see the city, you see how it looks?
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_11: In Shallah, your city looks just like this too.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_07: It had started on Saturday when a group of mainly Hindu men marched two and a half miles to the east of the city, which is predominantly Muslim.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_12: Man's got a weapon and you're allowing it! Rushdie!
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_08: Rushdie's novel and the fatwa that followed were described at the time as a damn breaking.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_08: It's obviously not the case that diversity is automatically good.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_08: The point is that it depends.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_08: What kind of numbers of people are we talking?
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_08: Is there a sense of respect for the country or the creation of separate communities instead?
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_08: The point is that multiculturalism of any sort is hard.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_08: Now it's definitely possible and a great thing to have a country where different people from different backgrounds can get along.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_08: But it's like the football team point again.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_08: You need something uniting them.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_08: That's what I do in my school.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_08: I'm not interested in separating children according to race and religion or obsessing over their identities.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_08: There's one flag that matters at Michaela, and that's the British flag.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_08: But that isn't where most of the country is at.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_08: In fact, our current approach to make multiculturalism work seems to be to just call as many things as we can racist.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_08: Is the countryside racist?
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_08: Is the curriculum racist?
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_08: Is the Church of England racist?
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_08: Is Brexit racist?
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_08: As for migration, is it racist to care about that too?
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_08: Well, plenty of people would say yes.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_01: So if you find yourself talking about immigration and being accused of racism, do you know why that is?
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_01: It's because you are racist.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_08: Okay, so if you're accused of racism, it's because you're racist.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_08: So the problem is that this creates a group of people, mostly on the left, who feel like the way to build a good country is to just call everything and everyone racist.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_08: You shame away the bad things, and then we're left with a happy country.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_08: That's the idea, right?
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_08: It's not even shame away the bad things, it's shame away anything you don't like, you know?
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_08: And the more sections of the left do this, the angrier some on the right feel.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_08: Now, most reasonable people just feel privately resentful and, you know, just a bit confused.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_08: I totally get that.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_08: But you do have some extremes on the right who become so enraged that they then conclude that maybe we can't have any multicultural communities here at all.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_08: Maybe you can't have different races and religions living alongside one another.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_08: You know, you get this sort of thing.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_13: Are you a racist?
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_13: That makes me racist, so be it.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_13: I wear it proudly.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_13: I've had enough.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_13: I want everyone gone.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_13: So someone's gonna come knock on my door.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_13: It's not personal, it's necessary.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_13: That will not work.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_13: To find out who would have to be removed.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_13: The easiest way to do this is medical records.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_13: This is mental.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_13: I don't believe you're European.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_13: I think you're Jewish.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_13: But I'm not going to Israel.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_13: Yeah, if I had power, mate, you would be.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_13: I can envision millions of people being thrown onto planes and deported from my country.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_08: I mean, you can hear the rage there.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_08: And of course, the more you have extremes on the right who talk about mass deportations, the more some people on the left conclude that maybe we need more anti-racism.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_08: It's like you have these two groups who feed off of each other.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_08: And so it gets angrier and angrier on both sides.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_08: And that's why there's this sense of crisis around multiculturalism with stories like this.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_05: At some point during this 21st century, will Britain do something it's avoided since the 17th and descend into civil war?
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_13: Are we witnessing the start of Britain's civil war?
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I think we're witnessing the birth pungs of civil conflict.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_02: We, I think, as a country, we are we are on the edge of a civil war.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_02: And I don't say that lightly.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_02: You have got groups of young men now getting together together and saying, I've had enough.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_03: There is a gigantic wall of political energy that is building up.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_03: Spark is just intrinsically unpredictable.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_03: If we had to list uh factors in order, multiculturalism would be at the top.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_03: And if we were to put some kind of ranking on them, it's like 90%.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_08: You hear that?
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_08: There's this big ball of political energy, and I think he's right.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_08: Now, if you're someone who looks at the culture of anti-racism and white guilt, constantly accusing everyone and everything of racism, and you think this isn't helping, we've lost the plot here, but you also hear people talk about mass deportations of people, some of whom would probably be your friends, maybe even family, who have lived here their entire lives, and you think, well, I don't really want that either.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_08: Right.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_08: So if that's where you're at, then my book is for you.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_08: It is definitely the case that diversity is not our strength.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_08: See, I think most people don't like the way we're calling everything racist all of the time.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_08: I also think most people don't want to burn down every temple or synagogue or mosque.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_08: They don't want to deport their neighbor of 40 years based on skin color.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_08: So a lot of people are looking for a way through this mess.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_08: And that's part of what the book uh is trying to offer.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_08: You know, it's offering another way.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_08: Um, but I also want to offer something else, because a lot of people don't understand that it's all of the ideas that are currently tearing apart places like Britain, the US, and many other Western countries.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_08: All of this is rooted in what we say to children.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_08: That'll sound crazy to some people, and that's because they don't see what I see on the ground as a teacher.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_08: And I want to show you that the ideas we now see in our political classes and our culture, they're the same ideas that the education system has been pushing for decades.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_08: And I explore all of this stuff in my book.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_08: Why do we have educated elites and most of our younger generation who can only understand the world through a certain lens?
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_08: Oppressor versus oppressed, the West being the oppressor, diversity always being a moral good, and any criticism of diversity ends up being seen as racism.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_08: I know why.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_08: Because I'm seeing what's being taught in schools.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_08: Why do young people seem so obsessed with identity?
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_08: Again, I know why.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_08: And that's because I've seen the culture in our schools.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_08: I also know what children see in the online world.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_08: What has happened to the idea of sacrifice and duty to something bigger than yourself?
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_08: Why is everything about the individual and about what you want for yourself?
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_08: People used to cherish having a family.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_08: Now we hear things like this.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_06: I think it's not a need for women anymore.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_06: We don't need to have children.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_06: We we find that our own happiness is more important, our own mental health is more important.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_08: Our own happiness is more important, our own mental health is more important.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_08: Why is it that previously people felt an obligation to serve their country or serve their community or work hard for their colleagues?
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_08: But now we have this.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_08: Half of 16 to 29-year-olds say that they wouldn't fight for their country under any circumstances.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_08: So what's going on?
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_08: And why is patriotism dying amongst Gen Z?
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_08: Right.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_08: So all of us are confused by changes like that.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_08: Just like we're confused by the younger generation embracing white guilt and victimhood, the whole thing doesn't seem to make any sense.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_08: Well, it doesn't make any sense until you understand what is happening in our schools.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_08: And I want to show you what I know.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_08: And that's why I've written this book.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_08: My hope is that it's an optimistic book because I also want to show you that things for the whole country can be so very different to what they are right now.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_08: There are a thousand things that ordinary parents, ordinary families, ordinary teachers can do to give children very, very different values to what they have right now.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_08: If you raise children to be grateful, they don't become entitled.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_08: If you raise children to put the country first, they don't endlessly prioritize their own little group or their own little tribe.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_08: If you don't tell children that the whole world is divided into oppressors and oppressed, they won't see the world that way.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_08: And if you don't divide children at school age into their different racial and religious groups, you don't get white guilt or victimhood.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_08: You get a sense of national belonging for all of us who actually live in the country.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_08: So, the release date for Diversity is not our strength is November the 12th.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_08: You can pre-order it now on Amazon or wherever you buy books at the link in the description down below.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_08: And I'm told it's an easy read, actually, by several people, including Amol Rajan.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_08: You know Amol Rajan.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_08: He was on the BBC for an eternity, and he's now recently launched his own project called the Amol Rajan Connection, and I wished the very best to him.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_08: I mention him because he gave me a quote for the cover of the book, and I'd like to read some of it to you because I think it captures what you get from the book if you decide to read it.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_08: So Amal talks about me in the first half of the quote, and then he continues to say: the trouble for her critics on the left is that she has transformed the lives of countless kids from poor families.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_08: The trouble for her critics on the right is that she lays into them with relish.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_08: I read this book in one sitting because it was fun and cogent.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_08: I recommend it strongly, especially to those minded to consider its author guilty until proven innocent, precisely because it will surprise them.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_08: Wherever you stand on the culture wars, what we used to just call politics.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_08: Birbel Singh is a thinker and practitioner you have to reckon with who has put her worldview to noble use.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_08: I suggest all those who think they know her read this book, visit her school, and think again.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_08: Oh, Amal, that's really nice of you to say, and thank you.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_08: Now, look, I mean, you could take his advice or not.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_08: Um, I do attack, you know, it does say how left and right broke multiculturalism.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_08: I'm not just attacking one side.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_08: Um, I am very critical of everybody, and in fact, maybe everybody will hate me at the end of this, but um, I'm trying to be as honest as I can about what I see going on on the ground.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_08: And um uh that's why I've written the book um to tell you what I can see.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_08: Um and I really can't wait to hear what you think of it, and maybe we can do a few strictly episodes in response to any questions that you might have after reading it.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_08: Now I get to answer some questions from all of you.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_08: So if you have a question that you want answered, put it in the comments below.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_08: Subscribe to the channel while you're here, and you can also find me on X at miss underscore Snuffy.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_08: Okay, so Marie Mullens asks, as the parent of a six-year-old girl, I wonder what your thoughts are on educating children from a young age.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_08: My daughter started reception at four and a half.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_08: Do you think that's too young?
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_08: My understanding is that other countries start children later and see more benefits.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_08: Okay, so it really isn't about how early you put your children in school.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_08: What's important is what your children are learning, really.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_08: So they could stay with you until 18, frankly, and you could homeschool them.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_08: Or they could stay with you till four or five or six or seven.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_08: If you're not doing anything with them at home, then that's a problem.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_08: I would say that's the case for very young children, for two-year-olds, frankly.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_08: Now, the state sort of steps in and says, send them to school and we will teach them for you, and that's fine.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_08: You know, that that's good.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_08: If you find a good nursery, a good kindergarten, a good reception.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_08: You know, you you you need to find a good place for your child where they're gonna learn lots.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_08: And there's some schools that are really terrible, and there's some schools that are good.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_08: So if the schools aren't very good, they'd be better off with you at home.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_08: But you can't just do nothing with them, and whatever you mustn't do is make sure you don't hand them an iPad or a smartphone.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_08: But if you can, if you can spend time with them teaching them counting, reading, and so on, then brilliant, do that.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_08: Otherwise, do send them to school, but be very wary.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_08: Be very careful.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_08: You want to find out what books they're reading and be really interested in what the school is doing with them.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_08: Johannes asks, my mother told me she grew up with values like discipline, hard work, sex is a sin, girls don't need education, etc.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_08: How do you know which values to keep or abandon and why?
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_08: It might be obvious for you, but please spell it out.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_08: You know, it's amazing.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_08: So many people ask about values, and we I obviously need to do a few episodes on values.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_08: It's such a massive topic, really.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_08: And look, what I would say is my parents brought me up in such a way to have values that meant that I would find meaning in my life.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_08: And sometimes people look to their religion to be able to give them that meaning.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_08: Look, the values, their small C conservative values.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_08: Uh, I'm hoping that over time you'll come to see that, Johannes, in what we're talking about.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_08: But also, like I say, I will do a number of episodes where I can refer explicitly to the values, and hopefully that'll help explain where I'm coming from.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_08: Lee Dolling asks, I'm doing a teacher training in Scotland.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_08: Please could you say something about what has gone wrong with education here?
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_08: There's a lot in the news right now about how the SNP has failed Scotland's education system.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_08: I can tell you that in one of the lectures I had to listen to this week, it was said that of the various roles schools should play in Scotland, education is probably the least important.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_08: Oh my goodness.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_08: Lee, my heart goes out to you.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_08: Um, that's just crazy.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_08: Um oh, my heart does go out to people in Scotland and Wales because things are bad for you guys.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_08: Bad, bad, bad.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_08: I mean, and it goes out to so many of the states in America.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_08: You know, my heart goes out to so many people everywhere, to schools everywhere, to teachers, to parents, their kids.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_08: I mean, it's crazy because we've got crazy politicians saying stuff like that.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_08: Um, to all the people who are training to be teachers, listen, I've got some advice for you.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_08: Okay, you always have to go to bed before 9:30.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_08: I would go to bed before 8:30 if possible.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_08: You are going to be exhausted and you need to put everything into it, and you just need to tell your friends, guess what?
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_08: You know, you're not going to see me for six weeks.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_08: Um, you need to use your weekends wisely to prepare and practice and really know your content of your lessons.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_08: And then you need to go in there and mean business.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_08: Mean what you say, say what you mean.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_08: That is 101 in teaching, right?
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_08: Mean what you say, say what you mean.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_08: If you set a detention, you need to follow through with that detention.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_08: Go and find them in their forum room at the end of the day and make sure that you get them because otherwise they're gonna know you don't mean what you say.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_08: Uh always leave, I'd say about an hour after school every day, so you can ring parents.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_08: Ring them for good things and bad things so the parents are gonna trust you when you ring for bad things because you've rung them for good things.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_08: Have little good postcards you can send home for them.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_08: Um, use stampers on their work, right?
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_08: Don't use stickers, they take too long.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_08: Just go around and stamp their work when you really like their stuff.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_08: Now, you gotta use praise and punishment.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_08: All the old-fashioned stuff that your grandmothers know, right?
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_08: That is what you need to use in the classroom.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_08: Do not listen to anything they tell you in teacher training.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_08: Now, not just in Scotland.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_08: I would just say that everywhere, right?
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_08: Don't listen to what they tell you.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_08: Listen to the teachers in the schools who are more old-fashioned and more traditional.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_08: The ones with the boots on the ground in the classroom who are doing a good job.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_08: And you'll know who's doing a good job because in their classrooms, the kids are listening.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_08: They're listening to what their teachers are saying, right?
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_08: So go to them, find those older teachers and copy them and ask for their advice.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_08: Um, yeah, the SNP, you're right.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_08: They have failed your schools.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_08: The PISA results show that, right?
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_08: It's it's absolutely scandalous what's going on in Scotland.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_08: And um all I can hope for is that they wake up and smell the coffee now, having seen the most recent PISA results, and that they copy what we've done here in England.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_08: Okay, well, that's all we've got time for today.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_08: I've got a school to run, you've got things to do.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_08: Until next time with Strictly Education, hold the line, strength and honor.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_08: Thanks for dropping by.