10 October 2013
Big Issue founder John Bird has criticised state schools for no longer taking the time to introduce children to the joys of art, theatre and high culture. “You’re not allowed to have aspiration in certain parts of the working class,” said Bird, who was discussing social mobility with Brian Sewell, this paper’s esteemed art critic, at Foyles bookshop last night.
“If you talk about high culture you’re called a snob. It’s absolutely grim,” said Bird, who attended Chelsea School of Art after years of homelessness. Sewell agreed with Bird that education was the key to rescuing people from generational cycles of poverty. “It’s only when you have an educated class spreading both up and down that you can end up with a classless society,” he said.
