It never fails. Assemble a group of highly intelligent people (the more, the merrier), invite them to debate the merits of selective schools, stand well back and enjoy the fireworks.
So it was this beautiful summer’s evening at the Royal Geographical Society, as The Spectator hosted its inaugural debate, chaired by Andrew Neil – the motion before the audience being the quite straightforward proposition that “grammar schools are best”. Before the panel of speakers began their gladiatorial combat, the votes stood at: 175 for the motion, 37 against, and 48 don’t knows.
David Davis, the former Shadow Home Secretary, and long-time champion of grammar schools, kicked off proceedings with an impassioned defence of the selective system. “Every chance I had,” he said, “was created by my grammar school”. Such institutions, were, he added, “the greatest instrument for social mobility ever invented.” Now, “working class children are mainly left to fester” and the public schools rule the roost once more: including (Mr Davis chose not to add) the highest reaches of the Conservative Party.
Charles Clarke, a former Education Secretary, took umbrage at the wording of the motion, but having agreed to oppose it, declared that there was no scientific basis for the claims made by the advocates of selective education, and that it was in any case pointless to generalise about any kind of school.
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