And equally important was there a definite link between failing and academic ability? Although I passed myself I have always considered it a very cruel device in its day writing of hundreds of kids as failures at that age.
It wasnt failure, any more than 'all boys with red hair in that line, wll other boys in the other' is. Its mere selection.
For certain purposes IQ tests tell you something about people.
Mostly that they are capable of abstract thought. And are quick to recognise patterns. And in my day had a capacity for mental arithemtic - they could store sums in their heads.
Thast a suitable basis for academic education, which is all anout abstracts.
But that's all it is.
I could catch the 7:44 after a 10 minute walk to get in by nine a.m. Or the 7:56 but I had to catch a bus instead of walking at the other end, or run the two miles to the school.
Overall travel time 1 hour 30 mins.
Not my nearest but because it was deemed necessary for me to attend a church school, 10 minutes walk to the station for the 7.52am train, change to the Underground for a couple of stops then walk to school to arrive just in time for an 8.55 start.
My mates from junior school needed at least another half hour for the bus trip into town plus their walking time to the nearest bus stop.
When London Transport buses went on strike for 6 weeks in
1958, our shed and back yard became a cycle park!The real bummer was the off-peak hourly train service which meant that although we finished school at ten to four, the first available train didn't get me home until about 5.30. Obviously, when the buses were running, my mates arrived home correspondingly later.
As an aside to this, the station where we changed between the underground and BR - Barking - had a very good PA system and the the recorded announcements featured Alvar Liddell, the BBC newsreader, which guaranteed absolute clarity.
Day dreaming while sitting around during the long wait for the train home, you could almost hear the PA announcement: "This is the BBC Home Service. Here is the Nine o'clock News and this is Alvar Liddell reading it. The next train to arrive at Platform 7 is for Stanford-le-Hope via Tilbury calling at ...."
Drivel.
Why not try asking in a French Grocer's for une livre de beurre - A pound of butter - and see what happens.
Then nip over the border to Flanders, go into any bar or cafe and ask for een pintje - a little pint - and await results.
OK, you'll get 500g of butter, not 454g, and only 250ml of beer instead of 284ml. Actually the 'little pint' refers to the straight sided shape of the glass into which the house larger is usually served and which is perceived to be the shape of a pint glass. [1]
I'm sure there many more similar phrases in other languages which translate directly into English.
[1] It is common in Flanders to ask for beer according to the shape of glass that it is usually served in.In Antwerp and the surrounding area a local beer named De Koninck is widely drunk - it is the closest Belgian beer to an English bitter - but only a tourist would ask for it by name. The locals will ask for een bolleke which is a little bowl - not what you might otherwise think!
WTF? Your snipping is bollocks. My comment was in response to "I guess it's only the English that struggle ..."
Or a demi-livre in the bread shop.
I was fortunate to attend a small village primary school so the teachers could attend to more personal circumstances*. A girl and myself were probably the only ones out the 12 pupils who were already competent readers and read because we enjoyed it. We quickly got through the available books so the solution was that once a week with our parents permission one of the two teachers who was going visit it anyway would take us along to the mobile library when it parked up nearby.
G.Harman
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