A letter to the Reading Chronicle which was published on 4th July 1969.

In attacking my defence of the grammar schools’ role in the past, Mr Mander deceives himself and your readers if he imagines that many of the more vocal opponents of the eleven-plus examination are solely concerned with the quality of secondary education.  Many of the remarks made can be construed to mean oppostion to any examinations in education, and by extension, opposition to any objective assessment of ability.

Thus, if Mr Mander re-reads my letter he will see that I was, in fact, criticising remarks made by Mr Lee MP, when, referring to competitive examinations, he made it quite clear that he was opposed to the fostering of academic excellent on the grounds that it would lead to a new class system based on intelligence.

Now, in fact, discussions about all levels of education have been bedevilled by a snivelling complaint about the advantages supposedly unfairly gained by the middle class from this or that system of education.  One rather gathers that when educational resources are limited it is better that none benefit if otherwise some will benefit and some will not.

In fact if Mr Mander really is concerned about the full development of every child, he should recognise that resources will of necessity be deployed unevenly; the rarer talents will demand rarer, and therefore more expensive, resources for fulfilment and maturity.  This applies not only to academic ability, but to artistic, musical and athletic ability as well.

This will only bother people like Mr Lee who by ceaseless harping about class and equality foster an envious society more concerned to divide up existing wealth than to create new wealth.  The same carping criticism of the spirit of competition is apparent in much allegedly informed commentary on education.  In my view it is a serious educational and sociological point that the competitive spirit in this country has been seriously undermined by the continual jealous bickering about equality, as the view from North America or any Continental country will confirm.

A letter to the Reading Chronicle which was published on 20th June 1969.

In his attack on the grammar schools and the 11-plus examination reported in last Friday’s issue, Mr John Lee stands revealed in his true colours as an opponent of academic excellence of any kind.  In saying that grammar schools perpetuate the feeling that technological studies are of less importance than others, Mr Lee merely shows that on this subject, as on so many others, he does not know what he is talking about.

In attacking the 11-plus in the terms he did, he demonstrated his belief that every educational standard should be subordinated to a dull levelling egalitarianism; if there is an examination which some people cannot pass, away with it; if there is an institution demonstrably better than some others, abolish it.

Mr Lee and others like him should realise that every attempt they make to salve the pride of the lazy and mediocre, helps to destroy the spirit of ambition to excel which exists in all classes of people and without which this country simply will not survive.

The grammar schools have in fact rendered an immense service to our country by fostering the highest academic standards among millions of children whose homes rarely saw a book.  It must now be apparent to many readers that as a country we can only go on importing raw materials, performing a service on them, and selling the finished articles abroad, if we are considerably cleverer in many fields than our competitors.

Painful as it is to Socialist ideology, and valuable as everybody’s contribution is, this essential extra cleverness can be provided only by a minority of gifted children educated to the limit of their capacity.  Whether comprehensive schools can provide this education has yet to be demonstrated; that our present selective educational system has done this in the past and continues to do so now can be seen by reference, for example, to the number and quality of scientific papers produced, which like the number of Nobel prizes gained are out of all proportion to the population of the country.

I am entirely convinced that there is a need for experiment in the education of children of all classes of ability.  But it should be motivated by a quest for the highest standards of excellence, not by a desire to impose egalitarianism for its own sake and at all costs.