It was ages ago, but I wrote once about Blair’s failed education reforms. Obviously, the Education Bill is in the news at the moment, but this isn’t about that.
“Sheena” has commented on that post and I thought I would bring the debate to the front of the blog so that it can be continued. Read her comment.
And then my reply:
If we fail to stream we waste the advanced learners (as is happening now) and we fail those who cannot keep up.
It is simply cruel to try and suit all the children all of the time — it won’t/doesn’t work.
In the example you gave, Bart should have been dealt with differently (if we’re really going to use the Simpsons here!). Children who are in the bottom set absolutely should not be expected to “catch up”. They’re only going to be at school for a limited period of time so there’s no point in teaching them complex algebra and calculus — far better that they have the skills necessary to carry out their day-to-day life.
Consider, for example, an imaginary person who’s only experience of homework is being eternally frustrated. It is unimaginable, I would suggest, for anyone who has never struggled with mental tasks. But if you can, imagine that no matter what you do there is a fog between the realisation you see others having and the realisation which is eternally beyond your grasp. If you have enough self-control not to stamp your feet, you’ll still have a rage at your own stupidity (no matter whether that’s how we’d describe it).
And then, whenever in the future, mathematics comes into every day living, that frustration will come back. A lot of the time this will be because vast amounts of time were wasted learning about long-shore drift, Newton’s laws, what a mole is, who was assassinated before the First World War and who Macbeth is (answers to these in the comments receive a brownie point which can be exchanged for nothing).
To be honest, I shake my head at this sort of irresponsible education.
On another subject (sort of), there’s little made of the absolute and concrete fact that Grammar/Comprehensive education did not discriminate along class-lines. For some reason, quite beyond me, socialists claim that selection by ability is somehow separating people of different classes. The comments to the last post not only show at least one example that disproves that, but it is also counter-intuitive. Think politicians, don’t rely on the soundbite!
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