Much is made in the United States of the challenges facing the public-education system. But often overlooked is the reverberating impact the adoption of that model abroad has had — namely, in the U.K.
During the ’60s, British politicians began to remake the United Kingdom’s education system in the image of its counterpart in the United States. This Americanization of public schools has caused huge problems ever since.
EDUCATION
How Britain Imported the American High School
By CAMERON HILDITCH
November 17, 2020 6:30 AM
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(diane39/Getty Images)
And how it’s caused problems ever since.
Much is made in the United States of the challenges facing the public-education system. But often overlooked is the reverberating impact the adoption of that model abroad has had — namely, in the U.K.
During the ’60s, British politicians began to remake the United Kingdom’s education system in the image of its counterpart in the United States. This Americanization of public schools has caused huge problems ever since.
Until Harold Wilson’s Labour government ascended to power in 1964, British and American education policy had been very different. Children in the U.K. went to a local elementary school before sitting exams at the age of eleven. The kids who scored highly on these tests were sent to extremely demanding and rigorous institutions called “grammar schools” where they learned Latin, Greek, history, literature, the natural sciences, and, most importantly, how to think clearly according to dictates of logic and philosophy. Children who scored poorly were sent to ordinary high schools, where they learned history, literature, and science to a less rigorous standard and also received some vocational training. The grammar schools and the secondary schools were permeable: Clever 16-year-olds could transfer from high schools to grammar schools if they turned out to be late bloomers. But the two institutions had very different tasks.
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