My formal education has been minimal. Anyone acquainted with the schooling system of the 40s and 50s will remember the two tier system of Secondary Modern Schools and the parallel, Grammar School education. Parallel rather I should say divergent.
At 11 all children were tested in what was called the Eleven Plus Exam and flowing from the results of that exam ones very future was cast.
If you passed the exam you went to Grammar School where you were educated with a view to University and a role in society. If you failed, then the Secondary Modern beckoned and you were destined to become flotsam and jetsam, an also ran, in the work environment and therefore, in the wider avenues of life.
All tests are as much subjective as objective and rely on a substrata of knowledge. Without that foundation one is like the mariner without a compass since the exam questions have a narrow base to draw their conclusions on. Is it right or is it wrong !!
The Junior School was critical in providing the child with the comprehension and the skill to express themselves, on paper over a limited time scale. General knowledge was not what was needed, specific knowledge - with a date, was the order of the day. My village school, a tiny Church School was not geared for the task and only one pupil, a girl (fore telling a trend) managed to pass.
Without the rote learning of spelling and grammar, the introduction into the structure of our language through Latin, the route to the root of logic and comprehension, through Greek philosophy, we were poorly equipped to find our way outside the factory wall.
So when you pick me up on a miss spelt word or the incorrect use of the past participle
I can truly plead ignorance !!!
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