Methinks the professor doth protest too much

doi:10.1136/bmj.39619.518819.3A

BMJ 2008;336:1453-1454 (28 June), doi:10.1136/bmj.39619.518819.3A

Letters

BMJ in "smug docs" storm

Methinks the professor doth protest too much

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McManus seems to be attempting to distance himself from someunwise reactionary comments in an editorial to a rather goodpiece of work from Garlick and Brown.¹ ² ³ Perhaps his supportersshould carefully look at what McManus actually said,³ as opposedto what he is saying he stated. He said "UK medical studentstend to come from higher socioeconomic classes, perhaps notsurprisingly, as social class correlates with intellectual ability."

What he and his supporters seem now to be saying is that socialclass correlates to performance at A level, which is not whatMcManus said. I agree that A level performance correlates withsocial class as higher social classes tend to be able to affordprivate education and other educational support mechanisms.The logical extension of his comments is that intellectual abilitycorrelates to financial wealth, as children from wealthier backgroundscan afford the educational advantages required to perform at. . . [Full text of this article]

Paul W Dimmock

dimmockpaul@mac.com