Don Fitch

Comment Threads

• Greg. Tingey commented on Monarchy versus the Panopticon
  Brett Dunbar @ 227 Not arguing with that. You did notice my proviso that: IF Comprehensive schools have proper internal streaming THEN They produce good educational results ELSE They produce shit results - especially for the brighter/more able pupils. ?? This is what has gorn worng, in fact ... the mad obsession with "mixed-ability" teaching ... a total educational nightmare....
• Antonia T Tiger commented on Monarchy versus the Panopticon
  I went to a Grammar school. It was "better" than the Secondary Modern, but that didn't make it a good school. It underperformed compared to other Grammar Schools. Comprehensives, I suspect, managed to combine the bad features from the previous generation. Even if they did have some advantages....
• guthrie commented on Monarchy versus the Panopticon
  Greg- what brett is arguing is not totally relevant to what you are, insofar as better overall outcomes with a comprehensive system, even if not streamed (I though they'd stopped streaming decades ago myself), especially with regards to social outcomes and the not throwing non-grammar pupils on the scrapheap thing. Plus it's been what, 40 odd years since grammar schools were abolished, you'd think there would be actual negative things clearly visible now, whereas by contrast we're currently led in both politics and the finance industry by people who went to the right schools and universities and still manage to...
• Greg. Tingey commented on Monarchy versus the Panopticon
  guthrie Again, I don't disagree with you. An awful lot of talent was wasted under the old system. But, it is pathetically obvious that mixed-ability teaching is a disaster, but is only "now" (i.e. the past 10-15 years or so) being slowly dismantled. And negative things are visible, as they always were ... there seems to be something worng with "British" management - as the current atate of the Brit motor industry shows, now it is not Brit-managed. Scotland, of course always did do education differently....
• Brett Dunbar commented on Monarchy versus the Panopticon
  In fact it is possible to do a fairly direct comparison between the four different systems, as different LEAs switched at various points they co-existed for decades. The conclusions of studies into this issue are as follows: First place Comprehensive Schools with streaming. Second place Comprehensive Schools with per subject setting. Third place Comprehensive schools with mixed ability classes. Last place Grammar schools and Secondary moderns. Comprehensives with mixed ability classes do worse than comprehensives where there is internal sorting by ability, but still do better than the grammar/secondary modern system. Switching to a comprehensive mixed ability is an improvement,...