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February 14th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda
By
Laura Clark
Last updated at 12:15 AM on 14th February 2012
Controversial advice: Teacher Jonny Griffiths advised a student not to apply to Cambridge
A state college teacher provoked fury last night after admitting he tried to deter an ‘aggravating’ bright pupil from applying to Cambridge.
Jonny Griffiths, 51, wrote an article for a teachers’ journal describing how he told the boy to ‘enjoy being 17’ and target Bangor University instead.
The remarks, by a senior maths teacher at a sixth-form college in Norfolk, drew widespread condemnation last night, with Tory MPs accusing him of perpetuating a ‘culture of low expectations’.
Elizabeth Truss, MP for South West Norfolk, said: ‘Teachers should be doing all they can to help keen students get ahead.
‘I am horrified to hear of an enthusiastic student being discouraged from aiming for the top.’ Mr Griffiths, who teaches at Paston College, in North Walsham, last night claimed he intended to give the boy a ‘jolt’ and ‘a better chance of realising his potential’.
But he went on to criticise the practice of ‘parading’ bright students who win places at Cambridge.
‘Sometimes a weaker student will work really hard to win a place at a “less good” university, while a bright student will hardly break sweat to get a place at Cambridge,’ he said.
‘It is the bright student who is paraded before the local papers. I’m not sure that’s right.’ In his article, Mr Griffiths told how a boy named Michael came to his office at 4pm to discuss his A-level grades. The pupil had been clocking up A grades in maths papers but had recently made ‘silly mistakes’.
Mr Griffiths wrote that ‘driven’ and ‘obsessed’ pupils could be just as ‘draining’ and ‘aggravating’ as their demotivated classmates.
The boy then revealed he had his ‘heart set on’ getting an A in maths but was concerned his performance was slipping.
Mr Griffiths admitted to telling him: ‘Apart from you, Michael, who cares what you get in your A-level?’
The article continued: ‘His Bambi eyes look at me in a bewildered way, as if he has just seen me kick a puppy. “I mean I care, of course,” I add, swiftly. “But what is better: to go to Cambridge with three As and hate it or to go to Bangor with three Cs and love it?”’
He then told a ‘stunned’ Michael he was ‘gold dust’ to be fought over by university maths departments and employers and to ‘enjoy being 17’.
The student who attends Paston College said that students obsessed with bettering themselves are often as detrimental in a class as disruptive pupils
The pupil subsequently got an answer wrong in class but seemed unconcerned, Mr Griffiths noted.
Last night he told the Daily Mail he was using a specific approach to help a ‘very anxious’ boy.
‘People seem to think I would treat every bright student this way. It is not true at all,’ he said.
‘If Cambridge is where you want to go, then I will do everything I can to help you get there.’
He added that the incident he was referring to happened in 2004 and the boy went on to get As in maths and further maths before progressing to Warwick University.
Mr Griffiths said his remarks had been coloured by his own experience studying maths at Cambridge in the 1970s, which he found ‘as dry as dust’.
But critics said he risked trampling on the boy’s ambitions and misleading him over his choices.
Mrs Truss warned: ‘This is a symptom of the disgraceful culture of low expectations that holds many back.’
Political commentator Iain Martin accused Mr Griffiths of ‘smug shamelessness’, adding: ‘Surely there is a way of calming the young man down without upending his ideas about attainment and aspiration?’
Are you the pupil referred to by Mr Griffiths? If so, please call the Daily Mail on 020 7938 6372.
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Our son thought about applying to Cambridge to do Maths but decided to take the slightly easier route and went to Nottingham. And loves it! He did not want intensive 8 weeks of study and then home when no-one else was around. If the boy in question went to Warwick he did amazingly well, their Maths dept. is pretty intense from all I’ve heard
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Give me Bangor any day! As a mature student I was turned down by 6 universities but accepted by Bangor.
I had the time of my life, Bangor, North Wales and the coast is stunning and ! made some life long friends.
Bangor is well renowned for taking mature students and in my year we scored so highly that Bangor leapt into 10th placein the Universities league – up there with all the red brick ‘senior’ Universities.
Go to Bangor young man, founded on the pennies of the quarrymen who wanted to give their children a good education and not based on class bias. You’ll emjoy every minute of it
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But he went on to criticise the practice of ‘parading’ bright students who win places at Cambridge. ‘Sometimes a weaker student will work really hard to win a place at a “less good” university, while a bright student will hardly break sweat to get a place at Cambridge,’ he said.
I look forward to seeing the England captain parading the European Championship Trophy in June even though we won’t win the tournament because there is something not right about Spain winning it without even breaking sweat.
If I was a businessman looking at the possibility of setting up in the UK and reading this complete sh.t thinking No, why should I waste my time and risk my money.
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I can’t see anything wrong with the teacher’s advice. How did he try to lower the boy’s expectations by suggesting a different university? He was merely saying that he would not be a complete failure if he did not get into Cambridge….
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Yep, the teacher is right. No-one has ever asked me what my A level results were. Although I now rely on my German for my job, I only got a B in A level German and a 2i in my degree. It is not the end of the world if you don’t get straight As. All that means is you can pass exams. I have experience in this as I do a lot of Open University courses. Passing exams is one thing, applying what you have learnt is something else.
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The lecturer is right, the students who are gifted and don’t even break sweat to pass exams are paraded like football stars by the schools they once studied at. I don’t shy away from the fact I had to work very hard to get my degree and at a time when a personal PC was a virtually useless tool with no internet, I lived in the library’s. I never sought praise or recognition, it was a means to achieve a goal. Excelling beyond your average talent is almost embarrassing to write on here let alone admit to it when I was doing it. Yet too many academics are like the tedious bores who drink only fine wine. Any other wine, no matter how well made and delicious it tastes, is just considered vulgar and of no value!!!
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My daughter is studying at Bangor, the uni, the area and the locals have made her feel so at home she has said she she wants to stay there. As for the teacher, it makes a nice change to read about a teacher who obviously cares about his students welfare
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University education is about more than just getting a degree, or it should be. It’s about maturing, accepting responsibility and becoming a balanced person. I work with undergraduates and spend a considerable amount of time talking to prospective students, my advice to them? Look at the courses you are interested in, research the university’s that provide them then make a choice based on where YOU think you will gain the most not on what the press say is the “best” place.
It seems to me very sensible to point out that there are other options to a student who was making themselves unhappy by putting pressure on themselves to get to Cambridge, success got on the back of misery is not success. Life is about more than exam grades and which uni you went too.
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I spent a year studying at Cambridge University and ‘overated’ doesn’t start to describe the place. Having strained so hard at the leash to get in the place, the braying undergrads spend the next 3 years convincing each other the sun shines out of their backsides, knowing if they keep their noses clean they’ll waltz into all the best jobs. When you wonder why the LibLabCon politicians are quite so awful, keep Oxbridge in mind. These two institutions are poisoning the nation from the top down.
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