Whilst many say that those who don't pay attention in school are destined to flunk out, those who have experienced the “bad kid” curse may argue otherwise. The idea of being fated to act a certain way is a trope from the world of the ancients, and nowadays we realise that people are far more complex and we cannot confine them to one path. Children cannot be put into boxes of intelligence and behaviour at such young ages, or even at university level.
Moving into higher education, students from a lower-class background are at an inherent disadvantage. In an environment where richer students are essentially trained for this new step in their ivy-strewn private education, how can an everyday, working-class kid be expected to meet them at their level immediately?
They not only have to catch up academically, but these students must then also navigate social landscapes with a rulebook that they never got to read and get around the inevitable alienation of not behaving the same way as their peers, just to get them through the first week. Being at this disadvantage means that these students are bound not to meet the standards set in the hallowed halls of prestigious universities which still cater specifically to upper-class students.
As someone who has been on both ends of the behavioural yardstick, falling to the dregs of people's perception has shattered my glass façade in ways my pieced-together ego could not have imagined. When your mental energy goes towards trying to stay afloat in a sea of unattainable money and you have just enough left to get through the lectures – never mind the readings – you start to feel utterly hopeless.
Going from being the teacher's pet and top of the year in high school to not being able to grasp a single concept in tutorials messes with your head and makes you believe that there is no point in even trying any more. When you sit in a class genuinely believing that you don't deserve to breathe the same air as those around you, you can't be bothered to put in any effort – you feel compelled to act out so you can at least say that you got something out of the class.
The fact that these behaviours even appear in a class shows the inherent flaws in the modern education system. The argument that schools are stuck in the past is not a modern conception. But, when so many students are falling through the cracks and don't get the support they need – to the point where UK government findings before COVID show that 480,000 high school children a year don't have their needs met at school – these students internalise the belief that they don't belong in education and can't get around this obstruction.
When students feel undervalued, they can't help but live up to these labels; a “bad” kid will start acting the part. After all, if the education system is so flawed that you know you'll never be seen, what does it matter if you behave well in a place that's bound to fail you?
Credit: Louise Millar.
Even within high ranking and “intelligent” universities such as St Andrews this doesn't get any better. If anything, it's even more serious. The gap between classes and the state/private school upbringing creates a dichotomy that sparks a one-sided war of intelligence, attacking those who the powerful judge as unworthy. This conflict separates the two groups even further and creates extremes that wouldn't exist outside of this environment; in such a prestigious environment even the smartest kid from a good school can be made to feel like an idiot.
There is such an expectation on students in these institutions to behave in a certain way or know certain facts already that when these prerequisites aren't met it's made to seem catastrophic. For someone already behind the curve everybody knows this is entirely unattainable – especially when students aren't having their basic needs met – and yet no concessions are made.
Children and young people now are unfairly ranked by their intelligence and the path they choose in life; those who don't dedicate themselves to school and pursuing higher education are seen as lost causes. By resigning themselves as hopeless, they fall through the cracks and lose any chance they may have had to redeem themselves.
The education system has failed them; the very thing that was supposed to give them the best possible start in life has trapped their reputation in a snare they didn't even walk into in the first place. Those deemed “less intelligent” shouldn't be relegated to the ranks of a Medieval peasant; the divide between classes (in every sense of the word) needs to be narrowed, and it needs to be narrowed now.
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