Stop school meddling and leave grammars in the past
I want, yet again, to convince readers that grammar schools belong to the past, and therefore present advocates are misguided in their thinking as I doubt if there is a university department in this country that would want to produce a philosophy to defend such an archaic sound modes of thought.
Indeed, I did one of my finals papers on the philosophy of education: no way did I expect a question on the topic as it was not even a consideration.
Rather the issues were more likely to revolve around equality for all within the context of egalitarianism; status achieved rather than ascribed and so on.
The system in the past, encompassing grammar schools, was a construct with a political motive in mind. There was to be a privileged class that would move into the professions and there would be those, from the secondary school, that would do the tasks of a more manual nature. Little thought other than this went into it so that some 50 years ago the 11-plus was proved to be a most unsatisfactory system of selection. Why? Because the acceptance of a few meant the rejection of the majority and thus was accompanied by a ridiculous waste of talent. Moreover it was shown, time and time again, that so many 11-plus failures on being allowed access to GCE exams, not only caught up with counterparts that had passed the 11-plus but in some cases had outperformed them. In my own case two boys from Westfield Boys’ High school went on to produce possibly the best results among their contemporaries on transfer under The Mason plan. Indeed one went on to become a lecturer at a prestigious American university albeit sadly dying relatively young.
The comprehensive system of education in Leicestershire has led the country in terms of both its initial introduction and success, therefore such a winner should be left alone. Politicians have done enough damage to education with ill-thought out policies: that’s why we are paying the price for so much of it today. Would they please stop meddling; instead leave the decisions to the education departments in the universities.
I need no lectures on education having taught at secondary level for 25 years. In fact I’ve eulogized about the merits of setting within the comprehensive school to ensure the very best results are achieved. I had two classes over a period of four years that took O level religious studies a year early, a number achieving grade A. Indeed, perhaps my pick of the lot in terms of writing essay type answers, has been something of a columnist writer with one of the more mature daily newspapers aimed at the professional classes. Further, there has been no 11 plus in Lichfield for at least 40 years and the comprehensives have managed supremely well, frequently producing good numbers that have gone on to Oxbridge.
David Abbott Stoke Golding