SIXTH FORM UNIQUELY ENGLISH

It is uniquely English. Nothing quite like it exists either on the Continent or in this country. The student who enters the sixth form has finished his general education, taken a good GCE ordinary level examination and intends to enter a university and prepare for "learned" profession, or for a career in the higher echelons of the civil service or in politics. He is a bright person with a marked interest in his “special” subjects. He will devote two-thirds of his classtime and all his homework to two or three subjects upon which he will probably base his lifework and which he will continue studying at the university. He will have a pronounced talent for these subjects. Most of his fellow students will have left at the end of the fifth form. Classes will now be very small and contacts between teacher and student will be on a wholly adult level approaching a tutorial.

A tremendous amount of fine work is done under these conditions. Students will reach a level of achievement in their specialities that compares favorably to that of an American student in his college "major. This is particularly so when a student has accelerated during the first five forms in order to be able to stay in the sixth form for 3, instead of 2 years. A number of students do this.

THE GCE ADVANCED LEVEL EXAMINATION AND THE CONTINENTAL BACCA

LAUREAT EXAMINATIONS

At about 18, sixth formers take the GCE advanced level examina tion in their special subjects; in many cases they take the scholarship level examination as well. Since 80 percent of English university students are on scholarship and three quarters work for an honor's degree, what they call a "good" advanced GCE will be a tough proposition. For example, it may consist of two to three "A" and one or two "S" passes. A student intending to choose a scientific career the so-called modernside, may take "A" papers in mathematics. physics, and chemistry, and "S" papers in one or two of these same subjects. He will of course have already taken a "good" "ordinary" level GCE at 15-16, sometimes as early as 14 if his school princips gave permission. That will mean five to six "passes" in other scsdemic subjects. I doubt many American bachelor's degree holders have acquired so solid an academic achievement. Samples of "0. “A,” and “S” level GCE exams are given in the annex to this report. It may interest you how the GCE advanced level compares with the continental baccalaureat or maturity diploma which is usually acquired at about the same age or half a year later. The continents school year is longer than the English school year so that continental children will have had as much as a full year more of class instruction by 18. Naturally, the examinations they take for the baccalaurest will represent a somewhat higher scholastic achievement level. They will have been examined in eight or nine academic subjects. In my book Swiss Schools and Ours, I include numerous examination pape for the Swiss baccalaureat or maturity degree, as well as for an aca demic secondary school curriculum. I should evaluate the Swiss examination in each subject as at a level intermediate between the English ordinary and advanced GCE. The English student knows good deal more in his two or three special subjects, but is less we

educated in general than the Swiss. I am told this is pretty much the case with other continental baccalaureats.

The French degree-admittedly the most difficult on the Continent appears however to be at or close to "A" level in most of the eight required examination subjects. In his excellent comparative study called Other Schools and Ours, Edmund J. King remarks that for a French student to pass his examination in English-a foreign language to him-he will have had to "cover as many authors and to answer questions just as difficult as an English child must when presenting himself for the 'advanced level' of the General Certificate of Education*** in his own language. In fact, the French baccalaureat looks slightly more difficult." I may add that it looks more difficult than comprehensive examinations for even the best American bachelor's degree taken at about age 22.

I quote Mr. King who is an Englishman and not inclined to run down his own country's school system. Someone will surely say, Where did all this education get the French? Well, education is an intellectual matter and intellectually I think the French do stand high, France, incidentally, is one of the few modern countries having an excess of university trained people despite these tough baccalaureat standards. Her rate of industrial growth has been so high in recent years-much higher than England's and much higher than ours that even as I say this, her professionals may have all been absorbed in a booming economy. Things are happening very fast in Europe these days.

Because he starts his university studies so much better prepared, an English student working for his first degree will be doing graduate work largely. A university honor's degree taken in subjects in which the student has specialized all through the sixth form will cover roughly the work required of an American Ph. D. in the same subject but without the thesis work. Students will usually complete this by age 21 or 22. This gives us an idea what can be achieved when bright children are allowed to progress from age 11 onward at their own proper pace; when they are given teachers who are themselves intelligent, well educated, and in every sense true "professionals," and when at the end of schooling there is a definitive goal-a national diploma earned by passing a national examination which has a fixed value throughout the country. All this we deny our bright children.

THE ENGLISH SECONDARY MODERN SCHOOL

Now to get to the Secondary Modern School which is attended by the majority of English children. These schools are often dismissed by visiting American educators as so inferior that their products are fit only to be "hewers of wood and carriers of water. Yet all of them are as single-mindedly concerned with basic education as are the selective grammar and technical schools. Their curriculums are overwhelmingly given over to the "solids," the less able children being exposed to more of these basic or solid subjects rather than to fewer of them. There is none of that premature shifting of nonacademic children into vocational and life-adjustment training so prevalent in our high schools. Since many nonacademic children are clever with their hands and will be earning their living by manual skill, Secondary Modern schools make room for craftwork in their otherwise academic

curriculum. But it is never allowed to take the place of the basic subjects. Rather it is used to help interest the pupils in these basic subjects by demonstrating to them the value of English, mathematics. or science in the particular crafts they like and for which they show aptitude.

As with English education in general, it is easy to point to Secondary Modern schools that are not very good. They are a new type of school that is still in process of being developed and improved. What they will be like in a few years when all Local Education Authorities wi have finally met their obligations under the 1944 Act can be judged by schools in areas where this has already been accomplished Throughout England, efforts are being made to raise the standards in Secondary Modern schools. Teacher qualifications have just been raised. Fifth forms are being set up wherever and whenever the talents and desires of children warrant adding an extra year beyond the compulsory 10-year period which ends with the fourth form. Abler children are increasingly being grouped in "A" streams that approach Grammar School level in a few subjects so that in these the children will have a chance to get a GCE ordinary pass. Each yea the number of Secondary Modern children grows who continue through the fifth form and obtain up to three such passes. Their numbers may perhaps still not be significant, but as living proof that placemen in a Secondary Modern School does not close the doors to educational advancement, these Secondary Modern children with GCE passes are important.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GRAMMAR SCHOOL AND THE SECONDARY MODER

SCHOOL

The difference between a grammar education and a secondary modern education is less one of kind than one of breadth and dep of programed subject mastery-a difference that is dictated solely by the difference in mental capacity of students in these two schools. There is just so much that can be done for children whose intelligence ranges from IQ 110 down to 80. A considerable number of the cannot progress beyond what abroad are termed "elementary" subjects-reading, writing, arithmetic, geometry, and the elements of history, geography, nature study, plus art and music. These subjects are taught intensively and skillfully. Even children at the bottom of the Secondary Modern school intelligence range are brought to a modest literacy and numeracy.

The aptitude range of English Secondary Modern schoolchildre corresponds roughly to that of the 60 percent of American high school students for whom progressive educationists devised life-adjustmen training, on the grounds that these children simply could not tak academic subjects. I think the curricula of English Secondary Moder schools show conclusively that the American educationists have underrated our children.

THE ENGLISH SECONDARY AND OUR SECONDARY SCHOOLS

There isn't time here to describe in detail what children achieve in Secondary Modern schools but I can tell you how much time is allotted to academic subjects. I have tried to translate these time allotments into Carnegie units so one can compare the effort put into basic

education by the Secondary Modern school and by our high school. Since he has a longer school day and year, the English pupil gets more class instruction per year of schooling, so that 4 years in Secondary Modern school is equivalent to almost 5 years of American schooling. The Secondary Modern schools follow the Grammar School pattern of starting children off with a program leaving little or no choice of subjects. This is thought of as a sort of testing period to give children a chance to try a broad range of subjects before settling down to what they consider their preferential subjects. By the third year, children's programs will be weighted somewhat in favor of their specialties. In Secondary Modern this specialty will normally be a practical course in housecraft, commercial subjects, or shop. Over the whole of the Secondary Modern program, these practical subjects will average out to about one afternoon a week; the rest of the time is given to the "solids."

Taking only the compulsory period of 4 years in Secondary Modern school, I find that the time allotted to English over the 4-year course is about equivalent to the time needed to acquire 41⁄2 Carnegie units in the United States; for mathematics it is likewise 41⁄2, for history and geography 3, for science 1 to 11⁄2; a total of 13 to 13%. Those who take a foreign language will add another 3 units and get 16 to 16%1⁄2 units. In most American high school college preparatory courses 16 units of academic subjects are all that is required for a diploma. Obviously, English Secondary Modern schoolchildren do not get as far in these subjects as the brighter American high school students, but then these should be compared with their intellectual counterparts who are in the English Grammar School. I seriously doubt American children in the ability range IQ 80-110 get as good a basic education as similar English children in fully developed Secondary Modern schools. How can they, when in most of our schools they are not held to a program weighted as heavily on the "solids" as it is in England?

ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE SECONDARY MODERN SCHOOL

It must not be thought that the Secondary Modern School is one continuous grind. There are no semiprofessional athletic spectacles, but every child is required to participate in games and exercise. There are no courses in how to set a table, or order a meal in a restaurant, or place a long-distance telephone call, or "how to be likable, lovable, and datable," but teachers make a deliberate effort to improve children's speech. There is none of the nonsense about every kind of speech being "equally" good or about letting children make up their own rules of grammar that is to be found in some of our schools. Teachers try to get children into the habit of speaking what they sometimes call "the Queen's English;" not the Oxford accent but a good, clear, pleasant way of speaking. When you visit England you notice how rarely young Londoners talk with a Cockney accent. A general improvement in speech is taking place for which Secondary Modern teachers deserve the full credit.

They also try tactfully to improve children's manners. Again, they do not give a "course" in deportment. What is commonly done is to use the lunch hour to introduce children to the idea that meals should be properly served, properly eaten, and accompanied by pleasant conversation. A teacher may have a group of 12 or so who sit

at a table "family style"; the children take turns fetching the food: large serving dishes and unobtrusively they are taught, witho knowing it, how to behave at table. Secondary Modern schools ai have many clubs and other extracurricular activities but these do no intrude on class time--they are after hours.

Of course the tone varies from school to school since in England much depends upon the head of the school and the faculty. What Secondary Modern School with an outstanding headmaster and a g faculty is able to achieve may be seen by a school I heard about whi did particularly well in mathematics and science. Pupils in the to or "A" stream of this school did some calculus, conic sections, a various forms of mechanics with surprising facility. In all the mat: matics classes of this school pupils calculated with accuracy and use mathematical forms of expression with understanding and discr nation. Their ability to see the wider significance of situations havi a mathematical implication was not a result of higher mentality; the were students reaching down into IQ 85 and up no higher than abo IQ 110. This school had good mathematics teaching and it had caug the students' imagination. Two-thirds of them continued some for of education after graduating; a few became engineers, many beca technicians and skilled craftsmen. Such schools are not yet the ru but they are what the English hope for.

What interests me is the work done in good Secondary Mode: schools. Because of the English tradition of "streaming" pupils all schools, there is much we can learn from England as to what attainable scholastically by children in different intelligence rang I am very much concerned at the plight of the million or so of o children who drop out of high school in the 10th or 11th grade. W seem unable to find any kind of rewarding work for them. If strongly they have been badly served by being given life-adjustm training rather than basic education. I think the English scho are on the right track when they give more English and mathema": to their less able children; it takes these children longer to achie mere literacy and numeracy. Elementary literacy and numerat are minimum skills everyone must have to live successfully in mode urban communities. We haven't really made an effort to discov how much basic education our least able children can absorb.

I tried to get some information on what the Secondary Mod: schools are able to achieve in English and mathematics with the least able children. The Manchester education authorities king supplied me with a number of samples of classroom work and t papers done during the fourth form. The majority of these childr have not yet reached age 15; a few have had their birthday but hat stayed on to complete the trimester. I asked for work done: children in the lower ability streams, as well as by those who a average for the Secondary Modern school. The abler children's att ments can be judged by the fact that they try out for a few G ordinary passes. May I request permission, Mr. Chairman, to: clude a few samples in the record? And for comparison also so writing done by nonacademic American children taken from a m zine article. We recently took a talent survey of half a mil American high school children which showed disturbingly poor w in spelling and composition. May I also include in the records! samples of such test work that have been widely reported in the pr