The Blairite government of 1997-2010 made education, education and education the top three priorities for a country leaping into the new millennium. To become a teacher in the late 90’s had a certain rock star status to it. The fact that our rock stars at the time were Damon Albarn, Brett Anderson and Jarvis Cocker might cause us to miss the point, that teachers, for a time, became people to admire. Bernard Shaws famous quote “Those who can, do. Those who can’t teach” was manipulated into a clever marketing strategy which simply declared, “Those who can, teach”. As a result, many young graduates who would not previously have considered teaching, flocked into education.
I struggle to think of any time in my post Vatican II life when Catholic priests held such status.