When I was a child, a Grammar School place was the aspiration for very many parents of under 11s. Today, such an attainment is not even a possibility as successive governments first did away with the vast majority of these bastions of learning and then actually outlawed the creation of any new ones.
Now, Theresa May's government is attempting to breathe life into the corpse, but with so many caveats and provisos that any rapid expansion seems highly unlikely. Additionally, it seems that the Department of Education has carried out some highly dubious research that has demonstrated that the few remaining Grammar Schools attract children from only the more affluent families while the most 'disadvantaged' are left behind. Perhaps the goons at the DoE who conducted this research should, themselves, have gone to Grammar School, where they would have learnt how to carry out proper research.
Given that there are very few Grammar Schools remaining and that those that do exist are primarily located in affluent areas, the research findings are hardly a surprise. Add in the fact that educated parents are far more likely to want to have educated children and the findings become simply a 'statement of the bleedin' obvious'. Sadly, the DoE's proposed solution to this perceived problem is to hedge Grammar Schools around with all manner of ludicrous rules and restrictions rather than to properly understand and accept the underlying issue.
It is a simple fact that we are all different and that what is right for some is not necessarily right for others. When I went to Grammar School in the 1960s, it was under the 11 plus system and even then there was a vast difference between the best and worst in the school. Some at the top went on to achieve great things while I have no doubt that some at the bottom ended up on the wrong side of the criminal justice system. However, what all had access to was excellent education, whether they took advantage of it, or not, was another matter.
Of course there are barriers to education which may be more of a problem for some than for others. Having uneducated, disinterested and unambitious parents must be the biggest hurdle for many to jump, much more so than the DoE's manufactured financial measures of disadvantage, which are largely illusory, secondary and irrelevant. What is most important is the nature and quality of the teaching delivered at Primary School level and the degree to which children are stretched and their parents involved. Children need to be encouraged to do the best that they can and those who are not academically inclined should be supported to follow avenues which best suit their abilities; none should be seen to be failures simply because they aren't brilliant mathematicians, linguists or whatever, but those that are academically superior should, and must, be allowed to flourish in an environment which develops them to their full potential.
The problem with the old '11 plus' system was that those who didn't pass were seen to be failures, not that Grammar Schools were elitist. Whatever the whining voices of the socially inclusive Left say, dumbing down is no answer to anything; the lowest common denominator is just that - the lowest - and it serves no one well. Bringing back Grammar Schools is the right thing to do, allied with a proper system which ensures that those who do not gain a place are not forgotten nor seen as failures, but they must be free to attract the brightest and best, not hamstrung by reams of red tape dreamt up by those who are scared of accepting that some really are academically cleverer than others.
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