COMPREHENSIVE EDUCATION
SIR,—Dr. Murray's letter in the Spectator of
• November 23 seems to me to raise at least two points of great importance.
First, 'learning to learn.' No schoolmaster, surely, would deny that it is his job to make
his subject interesting and to create, in his pupil, an appetite. Most of us would also agree that we owe much to the departments of universities which study the technique of education. But we shall do well not to forget that there is a considerable difference between creating an appetite and spoon feeding, and similarly, on the other side, between a pupil who is interested in his work and one who works when interested. In the later stages, of course, other incentives and pressures teach the lesson that what is difficult or disagreeable Must be mastered by application. When 61 out of 100 can mean three years at a university and £350 a year from the State, while 59 out of 100 means a humble beginning in a job. there is hound to be •interest of a kind. But incentives like this, if desirable anywhere, can- not operate in the years prior to 11+ I have no experience of teaching children at this age, and recognise that special methods are needed. But can it not be said in principle that part of their training—a part adjusted to their age and .stamina—should be' concerned with the rudiments of, application? The 11+ exam- ination presupposes that this; is so.
Second,. the suggestion that 11+ may hot:be the right age for so critical a decision. Long before there was so much talk of it, boys from 2Iementary schools competed at this age for scholarships at local grammar and secondary schools. Many thrived on it as many thrive on it now. This does not necessarily prove that the system is the best one: it may only indicate that the youthful mind is very adapt- able. The question is still an open one, and of particular interest at the moment to the Public Schools. The age of transfer to us from Preparatory School is normally 13+. It is pos- sible (I am not here concerned with the rights and wrongs of the matter) that some closer
integration between the State and the indepen- dent schools may be arranged or demanded.
At what age will the movement take place?
To the important point which Dr. Murray makes in favour of 13, I can add one rational
argument, that somewhere about 13, or soon
after, can be placed the end of one phrase and the beginning of another in physical, and consequently mental, development. Certainly in a boarding school, where even 13-year,olds seem very young, a boy of 11 might be quite out of his depth.—Yours faithfully, R. W. POWELL, Headmaster
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