ABSTRACT
English children are the most tested in the Western world, and the testing exerts an enormous power over how children see themselves and each other. Vocational education has always been second-class in England – academic education equals bright and vocational equals not bright. Education is becoming increasingly instrumentalised in the English education system. All children are motivated to learn when they come to school, and it is the responsibility of the school to keep them engaged and to interest them – to nurture that motivation. Working class children are in state schools as well, but they are outsiders on the inside. Middle class parents tend to be extremely motivated on behalf of their children. People are anxious about white working class boys because they are no longer going to university. Sociologists address the growing inequality between the rich and the poor in the society as a whole.
