Nicky Morgan, Conservative Education Minister and possible
leadership contender for when Cameron releases himself from the job of Prime
Minister, has granted permission for a grammar school to go ahead in Sevenoaks
Kent. The place is significant. Note that there is not a plan to introduce a
new grammar school in Sunderland, Middlesborough or Barnsley.
My instinct is to say no to grammar schools and a resounding
yes to comprehensive schools. It feels wrong to decide the educational future
of children aged 11. On the other hand, we hear stories about the child who
went to secondary school and did so well that he/she was transferred to a
grammar or who stayed at the secondary and got a whole host of excellent GCSEs.
That these individuals are worth a story perhaps suggests that there are so
few, in reality, who make the cut.
Granted then, there may be the odd one who succeeds after
failing the 11+ but they are few. Some, identified as bright, and offered a
transfer simply do not want to go. They have their friends, very important to
secondary age children, and most likely will be in the top set at their current
school, and are perfecty happy. Why transfer to the unknown?
Those who argue in favour of the 11+ say that it doesn’t really
matter so much about those who fail because if a child is bright, no matter
where he/she is, that intelligence will shine through. Having been a teacher
for 25+years, I am sorry to say, that that view is a complete misconception.
Many children, even those with a supportive home life, good nutrition, plenty
of money for revision aids, a quiet space in which to do homework and revise for exams, with an excellent brain, do
not succeed despite all that is laid on for them. Maybe when they are no longer
of school age, they will realize that they have wasted their chances and will
become a mature student. That might be the case for some, but not so for
others. A sad fact of life is that some people do not reach their academic
potential. I have learnt that the guy driving a truck or the woman doing a job
in a care home, may well have a higher raw intelligence than the university
professor or the writer of a column in The Times. Let’s not worry too much
about them though, as they may well be happier that way.
Grammar schools are undeniably elitist institutions. If you
go to a grammar school you are in the top 15%. Wouldn’t it be better then to
keep all the bright students together in this way, each one encouraged and
challenged by the others? Surely, that way, no one would want to add students
with low intelligence, as they would be out of their depth. The bright ones would be slowed down, then
become frustrated and lose motivation. This happens too in the fashionably and
politically correct mixed ability teaching. A mixed ability class is also one
of the most difficult tasks a teacher can face. The preparation is relentless and, in fact, a
teacher finds him or herself wishing that they were several people and not just
one.
Then again, if you stream students, are you not just
imitating the grammar/secondary system, except for the fact that the students
are all in one building as opposed to separate ones? Students are not fooled
though. They know they are in set 5 out of 6, no matter if you call it The
Robins, Daffodils or Group 6.
My difficulty with condemning grammar schools is that I
actually went to an all girls grammar school and benefited from that
experience. At the time, aged 11, I felt such pride that I had passed the 11+,
that I hardly spared a thought for those who didn’t pass, I will blame my
callousness on my age. Now, decades older, I see clearly that it was a terrible
thing to do to children, to separate them at this age and to humiliate a child
who failed. It WAS humiliation too.
Whatever the future holds, and I really hope it doesn’t hold
grammar schools, the best kind of education a young person can have is a
teacher who cares, who is concerned about their future and who can deliver
inspirational teaching so that students will WANT to do well. In the end, the
ones who succeed are those who want to and will put the work in to get there.
That said, I still do not think it is a good idea to
segregate children so young. In some cases that humiliation, or as some say,
being thrown on the scrap heap at 11 years old, may well be too hard to recover
from.
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