When I went through the 11+ at my fair-sized junior school in a fairly rough part of town I was one of only a handful to pass and be offered a council funded place at a private grammar school. I fitted in well and had a ‘successful’ secondary education which I only came to question in later years: another story. It dawned on me in later years how arbitrary the 11+ had been, especially as my older brother, cleverer and with a better memory than me, but rubbish at sport, had ‘failed’ the test and gone to a local comprehensive where he was desperately unhappy, leaving with no qualifications at all.
What we did to get through the 11+ in the 1950’s and 60's is pretty much the same as kids do now for SATs, except the 11+ was supposed to be a test of IQ, a fixed amount of intelligence that had something to do with your educability, whatever that is/was/might be. We practised answering 11+ type questions for most of the penultimate year at school – a practice no doubt designed to ensure that we improved our IQs. The point was to sort, separate, segregate, to find the magic 10% fit for an academic education.
By the mid-60’s everyone in education knew how flawed the 11+ was, but even more importantly sociology was highlighting how divisive separate schools were: segregation by money, by postcode, by religion, by some artificial notion of ‘academic ability’ all were being revealed as damaging to individuals and society. Only those with a vested interest in maintaining their own positions of power or privilege wanted these discredited structures to survive, although naturally enough they were the kind of people who had the power actually to do so: the church, the moneyed, the irretrievably middle-class. Even Special Education was eventually drawn into the reforming circle.
Where are we now? the eradication of grammar schools was never completed, private schools enjoy the same tax privileges via charity status they have always enjoyed, the sector is growing, city technology colleges, beacon schools, specialist schools, religious schools all on sale to any screwball with enough money and desire to buy access to a few hundred young minds. The government has been prattling on about choice in education when all people really want is a decent school down the road, realising that, as with health, the noise and fury surrounding ‘choice’ is just that. The altruism of those putting their money into PFI schemes should be tested: under no circumstance should control of the curriculum or entry be vested in the school, it should lie with the local authority, let's see how many benefactors want to 'give something back' under those circumstances.
While most parents will put up with what their local primary school has to offer, they will move house, lie, cheat and steal, even commit heresy, to get their children into a ‘good’ secondary, because they are desperate to avoid their offspring being ‘contaminated’ – yes, I have heard the word used. Parents want the best for their children, that’s natural isn't it? Certainly. Good for us as a society? hmmm, it’s natural to drive at whatever speed and on whichever side of the road you feel comfortable with at the time, it’s natural to urinate and defecate wherever you happen to be, whenever you feel the need….. The concept of choice is an illusion and not much of an idea to begin with, selection even more so.
