Wednesday, 20 September 2017
How Being Open About Sec Mod Schooling is a Scary Option
I made my initial post here about my sec mod school experiences in 2014. I said then that I rarely mentioned my secondary schooling in 'company'. This is largely because now nearly all my current friends & contacts of a similar age went to grammar or public school. Many will mention school experiences. I generally opt to say very little.
Not long ago we were with some friends made in very recent years. They are a very fine couple in many respects and he was (and is still) highly respected and successful in his professional life.
He went to a grammar school and his education there was mentioned. He said how fortunate he had been to go to his school and how very lucky he had been not to attend 'that place up the road'. He would have attended school in the late 1950s-early 60s and is older than me.
I cannot remember the exact wording but he was obviously referring to the local secondary modern school. Somehow, this time, I could not keep quiet and I said, briskly, 'what terrible things did you think would happen to you there?' , followed by 'I went to one of those schools, but I never talk about it'. His very surprised response was 'why not'?
Somehow we never finished the conversation, other things took over.
I guess I was annoyed and pleased in equal amounts that the exchange ended. What I realised, though, was that the group I live within now simply assume that we all attended grammar or private schools. My work and life have caused me to belong to a particular cohort.
My husband remarked later that it was unlikely that this person would have been as successful in his career had he not attended grammar school. This is true. However, I feel I want to challenge him again about that lost conversation - but I doubt it will happen. The embarrassment and stigma are too deeply embedded.
Julia
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I was always regarded as slow at Primary school. We we put into rows according to to how bright we were. I was always in the last or last but one row. I remember how it always seemed that the posh kids were in the higher rows.
ReplyDeleteI went to a Lancashire Seconday Modern in the mid 70s. My parents put it down as first choice of school rather than a Grammar, when I asked them why, my mum simply said "that's where you are going". They had never known anyone who had gone to a Grammar. I thought that their choice was odd until I was about 14 and I told Paul (one of my best friends, who was also excellent at maths) and he said. "My parents did the same". It was just totally outside of their experience to send their children to a Grammar. They had no idea of the curriculum there, and it was probably for the best. I would have been really uncomfortable there.
I was slow in learning to read at Primary, but at he age of about 8 or 9 something clicked and I read everything I could get my hands on. In the summer holidays I would sometimes read a book a day from the library (now closed).I've long suspected that I might be slightly dyslexic, I remember a biology teacher saying "you're just one of those people who can't spell".
Another teacher explained the qualifications system from CSEs to University degrees but, he added, "none of you will get there". I could never have told anyone at the time that I would eventually want to go to university, but I felt it as a real blow.
It was a tough school, racism and homophobia was part of the accepted fabric of the place- as it was of society and the time generally. I was in the A steam and usually towards the top of it. When O levels came along I asked for extra chemistry lessons (to support the biology I was so keen on) and I managed to gather a clutch of boys interested. However I was soon later hit by a van in a traffic accident and missed most of the work coming up to exams.
I left with a CSE grade 1 (equal to an O level) in English Literature (the lessons weren't much good, but I'd read the books on the curriculum list from the school library). I also got O levels in biology and history. My favourite subjects then and now. It wasn't much in the way of qualifications, but most of my friends had just a few low grade CSEs.
I went onto various factory jobs and two years as a dustman, while I took additional O levels, A levels and some OU courses, before getting into University.
I totally agree there is definitely a stigma attached to a SM education. I was married for over 25 years and don't think I ever mentioned my experiences to my wife or children, and doubt that my wife ever knew I had even attended a SM.
ReplyDeleteMy situation was very very similar to those detailed on this and other forums. During early childhood, I missed large chunks of education , due to illness and eventually moved into the upper years of Primary School, which was streamed. C was the lowest and A was the highest stream. I recall starting in 1B then 2A, 3A and finally 4B. I was 10 in 1966 and vividly remember being told that all pupils in 4A would be going to the Grammar School and the remainder (with the exception of one pupil, who had pushy parents), would be going to the SM. There was no 11 plus, just a straight - you are going there !
At the time, we moved to a new area, and I had to attend a SM, not really knowing anybody, and the experience was very difficult. Whereas I was from an ordinary lower to middle class family, many of my contemporaries where from extremely poor backgrounds, some were clearly damaged, and were not treated well.
The school was not too bad, and I made some good friends, but looking back the standard of education was not good. The emphasis was on preparing pupils for work, and there were a number of industries locally, who took the majority, who left at 15. There was only a very limited opportunity to progress to O level standard, and only a choice of a few subjects.
Generally the teachers seemed to be split into two. The older ones took very little interest, with lessons invariably being boring and unchallenging, whilst the younger teachers did seem to take more of an interest.
Looking back, the school was not really interested in moving pupils on to any form of further education and the 5th Form virtually disbanded after Xmas, with only sporadic lessons. I am not sure why, but we had to sit both CSEs and O levels in our chosen subjects, which meant a lot of work, including projects, which we were expected to fund and research ourselves. When it came to exams, some of the questions bore absolutely no resemblance to what we had been taught. I particularly remember a Biology practical, which expected us to undertake various experiments. Never, on any occasion had we ever, during the Course undertaken a single experiment !
Like many of the people on this forum, I managed to get through, partly, by buying my own books, working from home, on areas that interested me, and achieved 5 low grade O levels or Grade 1 CSE equivalents.
At 16, in 1972, we moved again, and I applied to go to the Grammar School for A levels. This was traumatic because of the lack of my previous education. I studied Biology, Maths and Economics. I had no chance at Biology, because I had never learnt Chemistry and had to leave the Course after a term. It was just impossible to undertake experiments, and I felt years behind. The Grammar School taught a different type of Modern Maths and I failed the A level but managed to pass a solitary Economics A level.
Throughout my time there, I was frequently reminded of my past SM education, both by students and teachers. The school was hell bent on getting as many students as possible into Oxbridge and redbrick Universities, with little regard for anything else.
I managed to carve out a decent career in Banking, after 7 years of night school and was pleased to eventually qualify as an Associate of the Institute of Bankers in 1981.
The recent TV series highlighting the education systems in the 50s, 60s and 70s has brought a lot of the old memories back and has genuinely stressed me far more than I would have thought possible.
I cannot help think what the outcome would have been for me if, having been virtually written off at the age of 11, I had not taken responsibility for my own education.