A noted playwright claims it isn’t Christian to allow some children to receive a better education than others.
One of England's leading dramatists, Alan Bennett used a sermon to blast private education during a speech to Cambridge University.
“Private education is not fair. Those who provide it know it,” The Independent reports. “Those who pay for it know it. Those who have to sacrifice in order to purchase it know it. And those who receive it know it, or should. And if their education ends without it dawning on them then that education has been wasted. I would also suggest – hesitantly, as I am not adept enough to follow the ethical arguments involved – that if it is not fair, then maybe it's not Christian either.”
Bennett delivered the lecture that sounded more like a sermon at King’s College Chapel earlier this month.
The 80-year-old playwright born in Leeds and attended Oxford University blames his revelation on the Margaret Thatcher era of leadership. He also contends he resisted embracing “right-wing” ideologies in his older age as some of his colleagues have done.
“Without ever having been particularly left-wing I am happy never to have trod that dreary safari from left to right which generally comes with age, a trip writers in particular seem drawn to, Amis, Osborne, Larkin, Iris Murdoch all ending up at the spectrum’s crusty and clichéd end,” said Bennett.
Publication date: June 19, 2014
