Indeed Emmie - Grammar Schools should not exist. If they take say 20% of the cohort via an 11-Plus test, it inevitably condemns the other 80% to thinking of themselves as "failures". Do you really think that's fair?
Diddly, to say Eton is not a good school is disingenuous. Of course it’s a good school. Likewise, grammar schools are good schools and to disband them is to deny the brightest of the poor opportunity. In any society - even the one you crave - you will never achieve equality. It doesn’t exist - and it doesn’t exist because one size does not fit all and it never will. You, dear lady, suffer from what’s known as inverted snobbery - and that, very often, is what keeps the poor... poor.
Sorry - I forgot Emmie's point. Yes I went to Grammar School because I passed the 11-Plus - there were no comprehensive schools when I was at school so that wasn't an option. Most areas don't have Grammar Schools today and the remaining ones should definitely be abolished.
Diddly, //Eton is bought with privilege and bestows privilege //
That's what money does - in any society. I know someone who lives in a communist country and has to bribe the doctor for medicine for his son. Now there's something to aspire to!
//unacceptable values//
What are these values that you so object to - and to whom are they unacceptable? You ... me ... Uncle Tom Cobley?
My husband went to a grammar school and I'm pleased he did , his parents couldn't even afford the uniform so his grandmother pawned stuff to buy it, he went on to carve out a decent career for himself which now gives us a comfortable standard of living and he came from a working class family of seven! all my nieces and nephews in Kent attended grammar schools , they should reintroduce them .