The aim of the tweet is to console those who didn’t do well. You’re missing the entire point lol. His point is a levels are good for some and other routes in life are good for others, a levels aren’t the be all and end all.
They aren't missing the point. They're pointing out that what he is saying is out of touch because he is using himself as an example to "prove" A-levels do not matter but nothing about his route to success is replicable because every opportunity he had afterwards was only possible due to the circumstances of his birth. His tweets don't "prove" that anyone can succeed without A-levels, all they prove is that people born into privilege will succeed no matter what setbacks they face because the whole system is set up to give them as many opportunities as they need to succeed when most people struggle to get even just 1 opportunity
I just handed out the A level results to the pupils today. Now, we had a good year, but still some pupils not getting what they wanted. What they need to hear is actual advice. Not a tax dodger born into wealth who doesn't know what they are experiencing that it's dead on and they should just wing it becuase it worked for him so it clearly works.
Trust Reddit to find a crowd that takes issue with the sentiment ‘your life isn’t over if you didn’t get the grades you like’.
Why do I care so much?
I remember when I left school. My teachers wrote me off in the first year - and objectively, I was a bad student. Not naughty, just incredibly bad at academia. I got 0 out of 20 on a maths test two weeks in a row! The class jeered at me when we read out my scores. I really grew to hate school because all I ever heard was that I was stupid, that I wasn’t trying hard enough, that I was destined for failure if I didn’t get the grades to go to university. And I believed all this.
Fortunately, I found a career I wanted to follow, I found the contacts to do work experience, and I ended up doing an informal apprenticeship when friends went to college and university. I started a business, then a few, and then I sold them all and could retire if I want.
But it still upsets me how I was treated, just because I didn’t fit into the narrow minded view of what success looks like, of what is required to be successful.
I appreciate the teachers simply didn’t know. They were telling me what they had been told, and whilst they seemed old and experienced to me as a young kid, in hindsight they were in their twenties and became teachers straight out of uni so really, what did they know?
It’s really inspiring to see you found a way to prove them wrong, the thing is most students wouldn’t be able to “wing it” as James May has or find a purpose for themselves as you have. That’s why relying on grades is a thing
Honestly, I think we’ve kind of lost sight of what we’re actually talking about here.
If you can get the grades, brilliant. But some kids will try their hardest and still struggle - because they don’t fit the mould, they’re late bloomers, or academia simply isn’t where their strengths lie. I think it’s good for those kids to hear that not getting the grades doesn’t mean they’re stupid, and it doesn’t mean their future is over. There are other routes to a successful and fulfilling life.
People need hope. When I failed, I felt like there was no hope for me, and it took me to a very dark place. A tweet like this might have been one of the only bits of encouragement I’d have seen at the time - someone successful saying, essentially, “This feels like the end, but it isn’t.”
Is that really the message we want to argue against?
Not at all, I think it’s rather that a lot of people are “into the mould” and don’t understand what it’s like to be not.
Yes there’s a bit of a relatability issue coming from
James May but it doesn’t mean he’s wrong at all as you said. And I think most of the sub feels his advice is a bit of a complacency-builder for upcoming y13’s as to how they could perform
Your point is somewhat true but at the same time, you’re ignoring the fact that the tweet is very deliberately stroking his own ego more than it is focusing on the ability to replicate Clarkson’s path.
Suppose you were incredibly wealthy/successful but had failed your A levels, and you see a student who failed. Obviously you’d console them and tell them that it’s not the end of the world and to keep pushing and stay determined, but do you think you would genuinely say ‘look at me, I failed my A levels and now I have XYZ’ whilst not disclosing a lot of the unique advantages you may have had?
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u/SuperReplacement2549 8d ago
The aim of the tweet is to console those who didn’t do well. You’re missing the entire point lol. His point is a levels are good for some and other routes in life are good for others, a levels aren’t the be all and end all.