New Grammar Schools - Rotten Idea

I've been there, I won a place to a selective school when I was eleven. I think the system's crap.

Does anyone believe that the youngsters labelled less academically able at eleven will get the same money spent on them as grammar school students? The argument for secondary modern schools was that these were for young people who would leave school as soon as they were legally allowed. Some would then learn a trade and the employer would give them day release to go to college, others would go into shops, offices, banks and factories and have been shown what to do within a few hours or even minutes. There was far more routine clerical work in 'the old days' and far more factory work.

I am all for young people learning hands on skills at school provided there is watertight safety and supervision. The only subjects my boyfriend has any memory of at his 1950s secondary modern school in Somerset are Rural Studies and Carpentry. Rural Studies was mainly working the school allotment. He liked that, he had experience of helping his grandad on the family plot. After a number of job changes and a lot of saving his money to spend it hitching round the world Pete studied for two years at agricultural college. In the sixties, in order not to fade away, agricultural colleges had to diversify and now offered three additional subjects, horticulture, landscape gardening and arboriculture. He then worked as a gardener, running a successful business for the last 30 years before he retired.  Beekeeping, the other part of the Rural curriculum,  was hazardous. However after the hive exploded with swarming bees and the headmaster had driven Pete to hospital he then drove to his home and apologised to his mum. Carpentry worked as a lasting hobby for many years. He still has the small set of shelves that was his first project. The teacher showed him that he could stabilise wobbly shelves by backing them with hardboard.

These skills can be taught in a comprehensive school and could be available to any student who wants to try them. The equipment to teach hands-on skills costs MONEY. Tools, land and protective equipment have to be paid for.

There is also the issue of social integration. In a balanced society people mix together as equals. This should start young and comprehensives have the potential to promote fairness and equality.

My primary head tried to nudge me into turning down my place at South Hampstead High School for Girls and to go Kingsbury Comprehensive which had only been up and running for a year but my mother would have not allowed this choice. I ended up working away from home when I was 17 and then returning and going to Kingsbury for the 2nd year of sixth form when I was 18. It was boring.

That's the problem that all schools have to address. After the age of 16, and for many school students well before this age, going to school can be boring.