Grammar schools - why?

I went to Grammar school , all my friends were from various classes of families . We were all allocated different school houses to be part off mainly for games. I can remember getting caned once for not wearing my cap and another time for having only one arm in my satchel. This did not make me a better person , as I started to resent the whole school system. In the second year we merged with the technical school over the road and it became a lot less formal. Still did not like school though........

 

As I remember, in my day, if you passed the 11 plus you went to either Grammar or Technical school, not sure how they decided which, but it had no bearing on what job your Dad did, it was purely based on intelligence.
Cant remember anyone asking what my Dad did, as a job, before I took the test.

I even knew a few that were moved from secondary modern to technical school after a year, basically because it was thought they were ahead of all the others.

 

Actually Townley Grammar was called. Bexley Technical College in the late 1950's when my wife attended there, so it's gone through a few changes.

As you mention, discipline used to exist. My general take on education now is, far too much HM Gov. interferance.

 

The son of a friend was in class one day, when the teacher asked them what their fathers did for a living. There were the usual replies, Fireman, Postman, Office worker, Policeman, Paramedic, etc., when it was the boy's turn, he replied, "My dad's a lap dancer in a gay bar."
The class was stunned to silence and the teacher changed the subject. After the lesson the teacher stopped the boy as he was about to leave her class and asked.

"Is your father really a lap dancer in a gay bar?"

"No miss, he isn't, he works for Manchester United, but I was too embarrassed to say."

 

They're now called 'man bags'

 

Until we were in the sixth form, we had to wear our school cap to and from school. A cap on sixteen and seventeen year-old boys, looked ridiculous, even for the late fifties.
However, most of us still had the battered cap we had as first years. The way we wore them was to fold the back of the cap under and rest it on the back of our heads. You could then comb your hair back over the peak, (we had more then!) so the cap was pretty much invisible from the front.
Once, three of us were on our way out of the school at lunchtime, engaged in conversation. A prefect coming in through the school gates saw us and shouted "Caps!" We ignored him, continued our conversation and as he we passed him, his hands on his hips about to ball us out, he saw that we were wearing caps. So he just walked off in a huff.

Our sister school had a similar rule about their berets. Sixteen and seventeen year olds often used to fold theirs in half and pin it to the back of their heads. Others pinned theirs to the side of their heads, like a a contemporary French film actress. This combined on an amply proportioned teenager in a white blouse, with the blazer they'd had since their first year which now resembled more a bolero jacket, together with a skirt with the waist band rolled over a couple of times to shorten it, had quite a devastating effect on we mere mortals and they knew it!

Digressing a bit, the most popular form of outerwear was a duffle coat. Most of us got ours from Army surplus stores. The rich kids' parents bought theirs elsewhere, some had bone instead of wooden toggles and leather edging to the pockets and cuffs.

 

I went to a comp school innit. It never done I no arm...

 

I went to a Grammar school in north London as I passed the 11+ but I think mainly because my parents and older brother also went there. The most enjoyable day I had there in five years was the day I left!!!

 

That's a good question - in this context it means those who make more of difference. Pupils who are able and want to learn - will learn - IMHO teaching input has limited impact in such cases.

Pupils who are not interested in learning or are is some other way disadvantaged - those are the students where the teachers input can make a real difference.

It's not the better teachers who work in Grammar schools - they know that there is a good chance that the pupils will do well - that's why they are there, dare I say it, for an easier life.