I distinctly remember the first time I ate steak. I had just moved to a sixth-form in a posh area and a new schoolmate had offered me the pink, Waitrose-bought meat in between two slices of bread. Having been more used to processed-meat fillings, I was shocked to learn that people actually put something as luxe as a steak in a sandwich. Learning how the other half ate was one of many lessons I picked up from attending school with people who were wealthier than any I’d previously come across.
It’s a silly example, but it was one of many social benefits of going to a socially mixed school.
Which is why I find Theresa May’s plans to bring back grammar schools so alarming. Repeating the myth that grammar schools increase social mobility, the prime minister insisted last week that new grammars would improve life chances for 1.25 million children in schools that were failing or in need of improvement. At best this policy is nostalgia for a time when things were very different; at worst it is a frank disregard for the evidence. Only 3% of students at grammar schools are entitled to free school meals – compared to 18% in a normal state comprehensive. Any new grammar schools will simply provide another mechanism alongside private schooling to further segregate students depending on how much money their parents have.
This segregation is not beneficial for pupils. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has consistently pointed out that increasing the social mix in schools improves the attainment of more disadvantaged students, without affecting the performance of their more wealthy counterparts. I can attest to this. Before I went to my posh (comprehensive) sixth-form in north London’s Hampstead, I’d only picked up a newspaper to scan the lonely hearts columns for my future husband. But being at school with middle-class mates whose arguments were backed up by opinion pieces in broadsheets, I adapted to keep up. And here I am writing one.
But the idea that middle-class kids might actually have something to learn from their working-class mates is rarely mentioned. And this belief that social mixing is of no benefit to the better off could be key to the fact that May and her supporters are less than keen on encouraging it.
I would like to think that my schoolmates learned a thing or two from me and the other people at our school who weren’t middle-class. Rewind to a politics class where we debated the notion of a welfare state so thin it would only protect against starvation and destitution. Housed in temporary accommodation at the time and living on benefits, I was a passionate advocate on their behalf. Our classroom hosted a fierce debate with contributions from both those who had and hadn’t benefited from the welfare state. It provided an invaluable intersection between theory and reality in the shape of an angry sixth-former with a point to prove.
At university, years later, we would debate evidence that kids who played instruments and went to museums tended to have higher IQs. It was in these areas that my middle-class peers often fell down. They couldn’t view information like that outside of their own narrow experiences. These people genuinely thought their success was because their parents were smart and had made good choices. Being around students who hadn’t been as lucky as they had introduced the notion that sometimes correlation does not equal causation.
This seemed common sense to me, having grown up around tons of bright kids who were often held back academically by other factors. At university I met many of the opposite: those who should have been flung off the ladder early on, but who were aided by private tuition and schooling that allowed them to keep climbing it.
I also remember informing a friend that teaching at a state school doesn’t mean you’re that likely to get stabbed. He had aspirations to run the country one day, and, having gone to Cambridge, he may well do. I am glad that by going to university with me he has had the opportunity to socialise with those he someday wishes to represent.
Whatever your background, school can provide a vital lesson in learning about those not like you, and becoming a more rounded person. If the government wants to reintroduce an education system that benefits wealthier children academically, it’s worth remembering that it is not just the poor who are losing out.
