Our very own Harry Brighouse — who is away from the internet at the moment — features in “the latest Times Educational Supplement”:http://www.tes.co.uk/this_weeks_edition/opinion/story.asp?id=24230 . Harry is engaged there in a debate with … his dad. But since Tim Brighouse is commissioner for London schools and Harry has written extensively on justice in education, that’s just as it should be. The subject of the debate: for and against the comprehensive ideal in Britain’s schools. (To read the whole thing, you’ll need to buy the paper version.)
{ 7 comments }
dsquared 08.27.04 at 11:27 am
Does either of them call the other a “nutter”?
Chris Bertram 08.27.04 at 11:36 am
Those perplexed by dsquared’s question, will find an explanation for it “here”:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/2372081.stm .
John Quiggin 08.27.04 at 2:00 pm
I must admit to being a bit puzzled as to what a “comprehensive” is. Is it just a single public school serving a given catchment area, as is the norm in most countries I know of ? Or is there some more specific requirement, such as no streaming of students within subjects by ability or difficulty level.
(I’m aware of relatively recent movements to relax residential requirements for enrolments, but this is a side issue I think)
Chris Bertram 08.27.04 at 3:00 pm
I must admit to being a bit puzzled as to what a “comprehensive†is. Is it just a single public school serving a given catchment area, as is the norm in most countries I know of ?
Yes, roughly, I’d say. To be genuinely comprehensive it has to contain a mix of children that reflects the mix in the neighbourhood. Which doesn’t happen if (a) the smart kids are creamed off into a separate school (old Grammar/2ndary mod divide) or (b) the rich kids are creamed off leaving the poorer ones behind. So all abilities and all classes, with streaming within being a different issue.
Dirk Jenter 08.27.04 at 5:03 pm
I would be quite interested in hearing the opinions of the Timberites on Comprehensives – should they exist, do they work, what is necessary to make them work? My own experience attending a Comprehensive for two years in Germany (“Integrierte Gesamtschule”) was an unmitigated disaster, mostly because the differences in ability (defined here as ability to do the work in school) between the top 20% and the bottom 20% of the students was so vast that teaching all students in the same room in an effective manner was impossible. The level of instruction inevitably drifted towards the bottom end, with the unsurprising result that all the high-ability pupils left for selective schools. And the rather serious behavioral issues of some of the students from the weaker end of the spectrum certainly increased my and others motivation to get out. Or, to put it more bluntly, antisocial 11-year olds with knives are very seriously scary.
will 08.30.04 at 3:32 am
So it’s safe to say that, high schools of science and such aside, US public education is dominated by comprehensives?
Ray 08.30.04 at 9:38 am
“the differences in ability between the top 20% and the bottom 20% of the students was so vast that teaching all students in the same room in an effective manner was impossible”
The idea is not necessarily that all students of all abilities be in the same class, just that they be in the same school. You can have a comprehensive school that includes different academic streams.
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