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One might as well "blame" the U.S educational system for the
sea-change in
British education.
Once upon a time (clear through the fifties at any rate), there was a
clear cut selection system:
select the best performing children on an IQ test at age eleven,
after six years of primary education. This represented about 10% of
the school child population.
To these fortunates, add those whose parents could afford private
schooling.
That was several percent more. Expose these kids to selective high
schools
(there called "Grammar Schools", with some preparatory, technical and
vocational
schools thrown in)
Abandon the remainder to "Secondary Modern" schools where they were
warehoused until age 15, at which time, they were released to
employment.
Not only the American life style as portrayed in movies but also
some insights into Americans' behavior led the British to suppose that
another 30 or 40% of the population could usefully be exposed to some
higher education, so the war medal for clearing the first educational
hurdle was changed from the "GCE" General Certificate of Education
O for Ordinary level to a somewhat watered down GCSE, S = Secondary.
More extraordinary, the British started a tertiary external avenue
named
The Open University - which allowed the great unwashed to work on
college level material while gainfully employed - who lacked any of
the
requisite war-medals.
The material was closely examined for intelligibility - and where
lab
experience was needed, lab materials were produced on a scale
heretofor unknown. These materials are (or were when I looked them
over)
a joy. This was the educational experiment over which Prime Minister
Thatcher presided, or perhaps one could call it, the experiment that
she failed to suppress.
This leavening effect will be shown to have had exactly the desired
effect
on that formerly class-riddled society - so that now one sees MIT
and the Ivy Leagues throwing open their course materials too....