INCREASING ALARM is being expressed by both government and educationalists over the failure of so many boys at school to match the standards of girl pupils. Now one of the latter has come out with an admission that has alarmed the educational establishment and sent the legions of the politically correct into a fury. Tony Sewell, a lecturer in education, has said that the influence of black culture on many young people in Britain is having a positively retarding influence on their educational development, affecting both sexes but boys more than girls.

And the thing that has got under the skin of the establishment - most of all is the fact that Mr Sewell himself is black!

No interest

Speaking to the Daily Telegraph last month, Sewell said that large sections of his community were not interested in intellectual activity and that fashionable youth culture, with its interest in money and consumer goods, was much more damaging to black pupils' chances than racism. He said that black peer grouping and culture was propping up the sale of trainers and rap music.

But that was not all. Sewell warned that all this was crossing over to white teenagers, who admired it. "Black culture has become the dominant culture," he said, "and now it affects everyone." According to the black cultural norm, he said, "to be good at school is seen as nerdy and white while it's cool to be black."

Being "cool"

On the theme of "coolness", Telegraph reporter Nicole Martin, in a study of Sewell's findings, spoke of the influence of rap music on both black and white teenagers, mentioning such performers as Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs and Tupac Shakur, saying:-

‘Their obscene lyrics, glorifying tales of casual rape and murder, have made them cult figures among disaffected black teenagers who aspire to the wealth, fame and glamour their rap idols appear to have achieved with little or no effort.’

Miss Martin went on to say that:-

‘Educationalists have warned that the wealth and glamour of the rap scene have become so infectious that many white (our emphasis) teenagers also share the aspirations of their black contemporaries.’