A Response to Papers on "Education and Changing Cultural Ideals in Europe"

Abstract

THERE IS AN unmistakable air of authenticity in Halls' paper and some of his arguments are buttressed by empirical evidence. For the most part, however, I find it largely a discursive, somewhat perplexing discussion of certain situations in English education as Halls sees them. It is the sort of discussion that might take place in a Senior Common room at teatime. Charming, urbane, and interesting enough, Halls' essay nevertheless contains, I am afraid, too many vulnerabilities and unsupported generalizations. Halls accepts a definition of an elite as a single group holding power and prestige, and knit by a cultural solidarity. He then describes an elite consisting first of two and then of many groups, including television personalities, sportsmen, and the like. He says these elites have nurtured different cultural types, which is fine, since they could hardly do anything else; but since these types seem to include just about everybody who has been, shall we say, successful in life, the word elite, in my view, loses the special meaning Halls himself ascribes to it.