British-Conservatism

Bringing back Grammar schools won’t work unless you bring back too what made them great.
Corporal punishment, rampant nationalism and school cadet forces.

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http://conservativedemocraticalliance.blogspot.com/

chikrodah

None of which were available at my Grammar school.

All these years I've been wondering what was wrong and now I know...

Geoffrey Collier

Millennium 3: We are a consumer society and the economic system must be acceptable to the citizens. After the War, we were a producer society, low wages to make us competitive, but compensations; like full-employment, the NHS, a cheap food policy and better housing than previously, with an economic rent. Not perfect, but a reasonable package given the totality of the circumstances. We also had an Empire which had to be protected, while the economic advantages were in decline. We were in our worst economic
since the 17c.

We need a modern economic version, for the modern age. In 1945, poverty was the main problem, top-day it is debt. I feel that even that can be solved,
but it isn't going to be easy. This must be the area for our policy-studies group. Flat rate income tax, and other fatuous solutions are absurd.

Raymond Finch: The post-wat education system had its origins in the 1944 Education Act, as you will already know. The major defect in that Act, was the maldistribution of grammmar schools, geographically. No bogeymen, just the result of historical factors. In some places, pupils had a one in two chance of going to a grammar school. In other places their chances were one in twelve, and even higher. What can be criticised, was the determination of the war-time HoC, not to remedy the geographical maldistribution of grammar schools. Some MP's believed that it would, 'dilute' education, others voted against expansion for reasons which lacked any sound argument. It was the 1944 E.A. which ensured that grammar schools would be of short duration in the post-war world. You cannot fail to remedy undoubted major injustices within the education system, while expecting it to succeed.

The Conservatives were on the horns of a bull. They provided the Parliamentary majority which created this situation: now it was all change. The first purpose-built Comprehensive school in London was not in a Labour borough, but the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea. Holland Park Comprehensive, became the model for the rest of the country. Macmillan didn't complain, he was proud of what he had done. As it was, it may have come just in time. Sir Cyril Burt, was increasingly seen as an unreliable educationalist and subsequently proven to be a fraud. As a contemporary philosopher said; 'History appears to carry on it's back, the vestiiges of paradise'. He is absolutely right.

Very complicated subject; very inadequate treatment of the same by me, but hope that it is of some interest.

Raymond Finch

Geoffrey Collier.
Very interesting!
Thank you.

Every child should have the right to get an education which is suitable to them.
Opening up the schooling system to private foundations to compete on a level playing field with LEA and faith schools would go some way to remedying this as long as the pupils are allowed in solely on their suitability for the type of school they will attend.

Geoffrey Collier

Raymond Finch: You have got it at first shot. Teaching mixed-ability is no problem; teaching mixed-behaviour classes is virtually impossible. Even in grammar schools, intelligent children were of mixed-ability in most subjects.
The climate for teaching, or indeed any other activity, must be condusive to the common good. The principle of the, 'common good' being ignored, has destroyed many schools, housing estates, recreational activities, city centres and public houses, to mention just a few.

The education which a child receives, by virtue of their age, should be influenced by vague; 'aptitudes', predilections and interests. Rough-and- ready, yes, but more honest than some bogus nonsense about 'scientific assessment of a childs I.Q. How do you separate innate intelligence, from social intelligence and tuition? Impossible.

One of the frequent criticisms of faith schools is the cost. It is claimed that they receive better funding than non-faith schools. In some instances yes;
but in every instance, the most expensive education is in a failing school.
Schools in Special Measures cost a mint; so 'cost' must be viewed with some circumspection.

I understand the theory of private/mixed foundation schooling. The real problem, I believe, is the nature of a school's culture. It is composite and consists of the home-culture, community-culture and the school itself. Collectively, they will dictate the 'hidden curriculum' of what is taught. Not a wicked plot, but a pragmatic response to reality. We can name schools what we like, but their culture and success will depend on location; parental occupation, family attainment, role models and expectations. Domestic reference sources; books generally, books specific, dictionaries, encyclopaedias, concordances, newspapers, human reference sources and
encouragement. I don't know, all very sad, but when you look at some peoples circumstances, statistically they are born to fail. As Max Weber said, we are all born with an equal chance, but the equality is only relative to the class/group into which we are born. That is why the middle-class, should be less opinionated and judgemental than they frequently are.

Anyway, I have been threatened with death if I don't clean the windows,
cheers.

Stephen Booth

The 'Times' claiming that UKIP has imploded seems to me to be their way of trying to make UKIP people despair over the London elections, and for the voters to not bother to vote for UKIP. One one level this might help the BNP gain some of the protest vote, but perhaps their wider aim is just to try to divert potential UKIP votes towards the mainstream parties.

It seems to me the answer to this is more organisation and a stronger focus on practical campaigning in London for the elections. It ssounds like Hampshire is well organised and trying to put forward candidates for elections and build up its membership. One idea might be to take areas like Hampshire which are successful and apply those methods to other areas and constituencies.

Election leaflets, websites and other stuff really needs to be out there over a long period, not specifically for the election but as a constant drip drip drip, where the 'EU is stupid', the 'EU costs you money' etc etc message, reduced down to its fundamentals, is continually before people, so that it becomes subliminal, like a company logo.

I don't think the voters are bothered about Nigel Farage and the internal party stuff. The big hurdle to get over is that UKIP needs personalities, people the electors can identify with. We can disagree with the politics of people like Ken Livingstone, Boris Johnson, Margaret Thatcher, Gwynneth Dunwoody, Tony Benn, Dennis Skinner etc etc but at least we know/knew who they are...

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Britain Out of Europe Now !