The Tories are finally abandoning their symbolic commitment to grammar schools, of which there are only 164 left in England anyway, with a ban on any new ones. Sure, the change is designed to allow them to appear to be ‘Blairites’ in supporting city academies more forcefully than Gordon Brown, but it does lead to the semi-amusing and semi-frustrating situation of waking up to hear David Willetts on Radio 4 ‘explaining’ what we’ve known for decades.
So for hopefully the final time, why are grammar schools – and the associated academic selection at age 11 – such Bad Things again?
- One Size Fits All? – it’s somewhat strange that this charge is levelled at comprehensive schools by those who think you can judge a child through a single entrance test at eleven years old. Those who develop later don’t stand a chance.
- Tutoring – the richer parents simply pay their way into grammar schools, as well as strategic house-buying.
- Unnecessary – can’t bright kids do well in mixed ability education? Of course they can. If you have some kind of mental block at the idea of going to school alongside less academically able students, get a grip. If the teaching isn’t good enough, or the discipline isn’t strong enough, then challenge it.
- Divisive and Demoralising – who wants siblings to be divided into the haves and the have-nots on the basis of a test at age 11? Don’t bother claiming that they’ll get the education ‘best suited’ to them – you ‘pass’ or ‘fail’ an entrance exam for a reason. In the meantime, grammar schools drain the best teachers away from the others, leading to a worse education for those who need it most.
- Inflexible – schools can’t magically grow bigger and smaller each year. Select at age 11, and children who don’t quite pass the test but could have done equally as well as those who do are locked out.
- Unimaginative – don’t cream the most academically able kids away – allow them to contribute to a genuinely comprehensive school and see what exciting things can happen. It’s not very impressive that a pre-selected cohort of clever students get good exam results. Deliver value added and make a difference to children’s lives, rather than just taking them along a set path.
It’s Eurovision tonight, and on the BBC News website readers were debating the tricky problem posed by: “Will you be watching Eurovision?”. One response from a ‘Frank Balkus’ (Detroit, Michigan, United States) raised a confused smile from me:
“I’ll watch it if it has 24 hour a day news WITHOUT entertainment, with out American Hollywood, or Indian Bollywood, no American Idol, no rubbish, we are living in trying times, some would say biblical. I find media to be too feminist, and too morally disturbing. If Eurovision is clean and informative, without entertainment, I’ll watch it.”
There isn’t much you can say to that! Similarly, there isn’t much you can say to the latest comment to my long-running Hillsong debate started back in, ooh, March 2005. I’d say it was a special case of the you’re-wrong-but-even-if-you-were-right-you’d-still-be-wrong class of arguments: the you’re-wrong-on-so-many-levels-that-perhaps-we-better-just-leave-it.
On the upside, for ICT the other day Katie (Year 7) had to produce a questionnaire that could be used by a dating agency. To see ‘straight’, ‘gay’ and ‘bi’ proudly listed as orientation options gives me hope that – at least in this house – the liberal brainwashing has worked wonders 
I thought I’d sum up my thought process over the last hour, as I’ve sat around not doing very much at all…
“Argh, so much work to do, and I don’t really have the motivation to do any of it”
this leads to
“I really should write about this disenchantment on my blog…”
but is rebutted by
“Don’t be silly! Firstly, it’s blisteringly unoriginal and teenagery. Secondly, you’ll depress anyone reading it. And most importantly, you’ll feel really silly reading this back later”
(as a side thought:
“In comic books, you have speech bubbles and thought bubbles. Why don’t we have thought marks as well as quote marks?”)
The most important outcome, really, is that time has moved on so any expectations of getting work done have shifted rather lower down the expectation scale.
Dominic’s Top Tip #69: these sorts of problems are cured by one thing and one thing only: sleep!
Note to Editors – Sometimes one must bait Andy Kings for comments 
Just showing off now and blogging from a train which I literally sprinted down the platform to get, as whistles blew furiously. Who is cool? Me, that’s who. Much love! Xx
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Blair and his hair
As you can’t have failed to notice, today’s big ‘news’ is Blair’s tenth anniversary as our Glorious Leader Prime Minister, along with ten years of a Labour government. I was in Year 2 on 1st May 1997, but being a slightly freakish child I do remember the occasion, as well as being woken up with an exuberant “We have a new Prime Minister!” from my dad. Remember, this was after 18 years of Tory rule – imagine almost twice as long as Labour has now been in power – so it was certainly a Very Good Day.
You can hardly be surprised that we’re all more cynical about the bloke now, after ten years in the stifling bubble that is power. Many people, of course, will immediately write off Blair thanks to Iraq. They have other complaints, of course, but Iraq is the big one, and it’s hard to find anyone today who doesn’t believe the war was a terrible mistake. Underneath it all, Blair probably knows that too. He’ll never admit it, naturally, and Blair may be arrogant but he isn’t stupid. Nevertheless, I do believe that judging Blair purely on Iraq is a mistake. It was the Bush administration’s war, not his, and you can’t imagine anyone over there was paying attention to a lowly British PM at all. My nostalgia for the days of Bill Clinton is overwhelming.
Whilst it’s very unfashionable to list Labour’s successes, let’s be contrary and do it anyway: a minimum wage, massive investment in schools and hospitals, a fall in crime rates, Bank of England independence, civil partnerships, low inflation and unemployment… etc. No doubt people could try and dispute every item on that list, but that’s just the nature of politics. I’d like to say a special thank you for restoring proper democracy in London, accidentally leading to Ken Livingstone’s election and hence free bus travel for me 
But hey, all I have to do is wait for the inevitable Tory victory at some point in the future – put up with it by clenching my eyes shut very tightly – and then celebrating another fresh-faced Labour victory!
Incidentally, I was reading The Telegraph for views on Blair’s leadership and found some frankly hilarious articles I wanted to share. Firstly, from the obligitory young person:
“The fees for university frustrate me. I don’t want to start my adult life in debt. Why can’t they take away the fees, put up grade levels and cap the amount of people who go to university?”
Reply: Good luck planning an education system around ‘capping’ the number of people you deem worthy to “really deserve to go” – especially based on the ‘grade levels’ you wouldn’t have if you got rid of all the “pointless exams” you complain about. Grr.. you irritate me. The child wonder also declares that “I used to go shopping all the time, but there comes a point when Maidstone gets a bit boring”. Yes, I can see why.
A ‘working mother‘ is also concerned about education:
“I take education very seriously, so my daughters went to a private Montessori nursery which was expensive but wonderful. Jessie went on to the local state school because Lucy had arrived by then and I could not afford to pay fees for both girls. I got Jessie into the best local school I could find.
But I was hugely shocked when she started. One day the teacher said the children had spent the day drawing shapes in the sand. I thought: ‘Yes, but my child is already speaking French.’ There had been a French teacher at the Montessori and Jessie could count in French.
She was five by then. I felt the school was failing her.”
Reply: 
she was five and still playing in sand?! Dear god! Forget about French, it’s high time for a dose of Latin.
And oh, the headteacher pains me with:
“In my experience texting, MSN, YouTube, and MySpace are wholly negative developments”
Reply: Ooh dear. Oooh dear indeed. I don’t know what to suggest apart from that he forgot telephones and violent video games.
Linda Moffitt on Colombia: “Such a sweet memory of the four of you meeting up in Colombia!” Dec 2, 07:42
