[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] Snt,—Dr. Terry Thomas in
his recent letter to you has well expressed the point of view of many headmasters. The Report, with all its provisoes and qualifications—which may be forgotten or ignored when the time comes to put " reforms " into operation—involves a very complete revolution for grammar schools of the older type, those which have the greatest prestige and which have done the most for education m England. They are to be levelled down to the standards
of other and inferior schools. If it is possible—and it will take some doing even in the present age—they are to be brought down in status to the position of the schools of mushroom growth. Lady Simon thinks parents who can afford to do so send their children to the more famous and historic amongst the grammar schools for the wrong reasons. But perhaps they have good reasons, if it is true that a student " who is put to school to one of the great cultural traditions acquires something of the ethical as well as the other characteristics that individualise it "—I quote from the Spens Report—a parent may rightly decide to send his children to that school which by its traditions, its history, and the men who form its staff, is best likely to foster high moral qualities and sound, or even high, standards of learning.
The Report deals with a multitude of topics, de omnibus rebus et quibusdam aliis, and its range extends from Kyphosis to Endocrine Secretions, from Hobbies to the Cognitive Aspects of Transfer of Training. In its 470 pages of sug- gestions and obiter dicta the fearful Head of a School will find many possibilities of infringement upon his present freedom. Secondary Education, like Primary Education, is to have a Code, ominous word, the fetters are to be clamped upon the Grammar School, Bureaucracy is to win another triumph. 0 Democracy ! what crimes are committed in thy Hereford.
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