Real World Prejudice.

Yes technically schools are part of the real world but I argue they have to be closer to what comes after school life for the learners both as they age but also for when they leave the classroom.

Now actually schools tend to be disorganised with poor communication, quite political with science and evidence based factors taking a back seat. So just like the real world really. I suggest a better example. Professional management and reduced political interference are essential to achieving better education standards. Actually working with evidence based methods in teaching and also the running of organisations is vital to escape the bubble that education works in. The environment still needs to be safer than a business for the staff and students as befits the organisational purpose and needs of the people.

Now the real world is biased and prejudiced quite often against those that achieve lower results from education. Workplace recruitment is systematically biased of course because they want the best employee they can find. The problems is (theirs and everyone else’s) that they do not search for good candidates and even when they do they do it with prejudice included. So a standard recruitment process is an advert followed by applications (CV or form), interviews and offer. The advert will describe a model person they want to find, it will be quite specific for the type of person they are looking for. When they get the applications they need to sort to eliminate many from a pile. The strategies they employ can be trivial factors such as spelling (attention to detail) but also closeness to the advert. They are not looking for others who might offer greater potential, they are shrinking a list. Their methods are not arbitrary they are specific. They do though have biases that reflect society and the workplace. If they get to choose (buyers market) they get very specific and go for the perceived higher standards of entry. They will select the best prepared for the job (in their opinion or best guess). First of all they regularly do this task poorly, second they do what keeps them in their career.

So in areas like media, law, medicine, civil service, private business and larger companies they are much more likely to see an applicant from higher status education whether public schools or top universities who are better prepared to work with the employers who also have this same background. They rarely are going to see ‘potential’ or ‘talent’ in people from other backgrounds and are too busy to go look for it.

Organisations also reflect customer biases, so not fitting the stereotype is not good for employment chances. Any social awkwardness whether culture or disability based is not going to get through an interview. Truth and not exaggeration will not beat the plausible applicants. You have to play the game and make it easy for the recruiters to see that you are the best candidate.

Work places and customers do not have the inclination or ability to understand and accept non stereotype workers so they do not get the jobs.

An example of real world prejudice is US Army where in peace they stipulate no criminal record but when war makes the job less attractive they end up dropping the restriction. Now recently these groups have been compared they found that those with criminal records perform the same in basic training and then better with more promotion later (planet money 22/04/16). So the employer systematically is prejudiced against a group of people who are actually better for them. These prejudices are repeated through out society where stereotypes are chosen over finding the truth. People with disabilities and mental health issues don’t stand a chance even if they are the best for the position. Those without the right background will face an up hill struggle to break into the professions regardless of ability or potential. It is interesting that the lowest employed group is white male and working class. All the drive for equality has been piece meal rather than higher general standards of education and recruitment.