Book Review |
Vince Mills |
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"A Tribute to Caroline Benn: Education and Democracy" published 30th September 2004 by Continuum Price: £14.99. Melissa Benn and Clyde Chitty, with a foreword by Tony Benn There are surely few books whose publication should be so appropriately timed. Mounting a stout defence of the comprehensive ideal, this book provides vital support for Labour's traditional support for comprehensive education, which is now under serious attack. The book comprises a collection of essays by various authors celebrating the life and work of Caroline Benn, wife of Tony Benn. Caroline died in November 2002. There may have been some naïve enough in Scotland to believe that schemes for increased business funding of secondary education and a return (or in some local authorities in England) a continuation of, selection were exclusively a problem for England and Wales. New Labour's city academies in England offer business interests influence over the curriculum and the pay and conditions of teachers for a comparatively small investment. Further they have reintroduced competition for places on the spurious notion of 'aptitude' as opposed to 'ability'. The recent announcement by Scottish Education Minister Peter Peacock has dismissed such naivety. Scottish schools will now be allowed to diversify and to increase their use of private funding. In a key contribution to the book by Sally Tomlinson - Comprehensive Success: Bog Standard Government - New Labour's ideas are thoroughly trounced. She points out that comprehensive schools have never been 'bog standard', each school often developing its own ethos and character. Further comprehensive schools have been largely successful despite persistent right wing attempts to undermine them. New Labour, she contends, have continued that attack. By supporting overt selection, the flourishing private school sector and the remaining 164 Grammar schools in England, affecting the intake of some 500 comprehensive schools, New Labour has refused to end elitist approaches to education. Further and perhaps worse, new Labour has introduced forms of covert selection. In England up to 10% of pupils can be selected on the basis of 'aptitude', despite the fact that the House of Commons Education and Skills Committee could find no meaningful distinction between 'aptitude' and 'ability'. Add to this the effect of faith schools, selection by mortgage - buying a house in a good school catchment area and the government encouragement of the use of setting (grouping school students on the basis of ability within a particular school) and New Labour's attack on equality of outcome becomes only too clear. In another sparkling contribution, Clyde Chitty, a long time collaborator of Caroline Benn, exposes the theoretical basis of much of this approach. It leans heavily on the ideas inherent in eugenics. That is to say the belief that intelligence is best understood as something almost entirely inborn; a notion heavily promoted by psychologist Cyril Burt. This of course provides a very convenient explanation of how the offspring of ruling elites effortlessly retain the position inherited form their forbears. Chitty traces the attack on this notion led by the Marxist, Brian Simons and the revelations that Burt faked some of the data he used to support his thesis. There are many other fascinating and moving contributions in the collection, not least that by Tony Benn himself, but it is the vision of Caroline herself which runs like a spine through all of the varied essays and it is with her words, quoted by Chitty that I would like to conclude this review: "We give up our commitment to looking for gifts, talents and abilities
in the vast majority of children once we have accepted the argument that
the search for 'giftedness' is limited to the hunt for a few…The
way we can support 'giftedness' (whatever it may mean) is by encouraging
a flexible, alert, high standard, stimulating and supportive comprehensive
education service for everyone at every stage of their lives….A comprehensive
system is the only way we can openly ensure attention to all equally and
at the same time, protect and reveal the full range of human gifts. Encouraging
human ability in all its various forms is just one more reason why we
must continue to work to get a genuine comprehensive system safely started
in Britain - and to promote it relentlessly when we have."
Originally born in Ohio, Caroline Benn came to England to study and married
Anthony Wedgewood-Benn in 1949. She devoted her life to comprehensive
education and was co-founder of the Campaign for Comprehensive Education.
She wrote the definitive study on the progress of comprehensive reform
in the UK and other key works on the future of education. Her active work
in local government as well as being a tutor, lecturer and school governor
meant her death in 2000 was mourned by many in educational as well as
political circles.A Tribute to Caroline Benn celebrates the life and work
of the celebrated educationalist and Tony Benn's late wife. This collection
of essays focuses on the big issues in education. Many were embraced by
her during her long and active life, such as the concept of inclusion,
the campaign for comprehensive education, the need to fight for educational
reform alongside social justice and equality Title:
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