Re: 11+ How was it decided?


"greebs" <greebs@xxxxxx> wrote in message news:2ePXDsLwImSEFwdR@xxxxxxxxxx

Thank you for taking the time to reply. I do appreciate it and I do take on
board what you say.
I have heard many of these statements before , especially relating to being
in a brainy cohort. I did accept that once. But that brainy cohort would
have to have some brains defying the normal distribution if I were not good
enough with an IQ of 147 - top two per cent of the population. So they were
all above that? I know they were not. In fact I have discovered that in my
area we had comparatively large numbers of grammar school places in terms
of the number of children.

An IQ test is a clumsy tool for selecting children for grammar school. I
would imagine that the other tests you mention were testing aptitude to
see whether pupils would benefit from being at a grammar school. It
would appear that they thought you would not benefit.

Yes, I have had this said before too which is why I was so interested in how
"middle class" was defined when another poster mentioned it.
I have done some reading and I seen such stuff said in books.
My issue is that I most definately did not benefit from being sent to an SM
because I did not fit in.
All my friends and neighbours went off to the grammar school and I was left
with a bunch of people I didnt know. I didnt speak like them. I didnt have
their attitudes and I didnt have their interests.
I saw a programme which said that the 11+ was supposed to sort people out to
find them a school which best suited their abilities and you only failed the
11+ if it did not put you in a school which best suited your abilities.
No one could fail the 11+ itself in that respect. As long as the test placed
you in the school for your abilities. The tests placed me in the wrong
school but the 11+ itself placed me in the right school. It was people who
put me in the wrong school wasnt it?

Some readers may
feel that the fact that you ignored the teacher who told you about your
IQ rather than ask him what he meant could perhaps be taken as possible
evidence of this.

But look at it this way . The fact that I am able to tell you what he said
some 30+ years later means I did take notice doesnt it? I remebered it. I
only ignored him in as much as I couldnt be seen by my school peers to
acknowledge what he said. It was in the middle of class. he asked who I was
so that he could remember me. I was embarrassed at being signalled out,
thats why I ignored him and said I thought he was stupid.

I don't mean that unkindly >

I know you don't.

- some children have a
greater inclination towards academic learning than others , and it has
nothing to do with IQ. You might have gone to grammar school and had a
thoroughly miserable time and come out with fewer qualifications than
you did at SM. You will probably never know why you were not selected.
It is not worth feeling bitter about it so many years later.

I may indeed have not been academic but suffered for being seen as such in
an SM.
We can never know can we?

As for feeling bitter. I know people say get over it, but you know, I am the
one who is living with it, thats the problem. Its not that easy to get over.
Thats why I want a few answers. I hope the answers might make it easier for
me to understand. Then I might get over it.


.

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