DOWN THE 'C' STREAM
Sta,—Mr. Kane goes too far in his anarchic attitude to 'streaming' and exams. It is not an indication of intolerance or illiberality to 'stream' children; nor to set them an internal examination.
Streaming is necessary for progress to be made in some subjects, where the pace needs to be reasonably uniform. My complaint was that we im- plicitly regard 'low-stream' children as low-stream beings. An external examination, because it would draw attention to 'results,' would make this situation worse. A truly liberal system of education would reduce the opprobrium of being a 'C' or 'D' stream child. It is certainly possible to mix children of all kinds in Arts classes, because children painting pic- tures or writing poetry are doing the same thing, seeking a meaning in experience by symbol and metaphor. I think more 'mixing' of 'streams' could be done in schools, for the humanities, if the time- table could be made subtle enough. And the more liberal the school and the less the secondary modern school apes the grammar school, the less does streaming do harm.
But internal examinations are not only to be judged in relation to streaming. They provide an opportunity for the child to test his own powers against standards. and they can make a child feel satisfied and secure. Of course, with a low stream one tends to give them all good marks, and one cannot pretend that there is any objective way of measuring by an examination the qualities one hopes to develop in them. Yet there are standards, and children like to feel they are there--so long as the examination is not directed, as the external examination inevitably is, at fitting children into categories of employment and social grade
Val HOI.ItRUOK
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