Selective Education - The Modern Apartheid for Children

I have posted this on the Conservative Party blogspot, on the PM blog spot and sent it to many newspapers. It is a short letter giving my views on selective education.

Dear Sir,
The recent argument over grammar schools is, in my opinion, long over-due. I myself am a former student of a comprehensive college, and now attend the 6th Form of the school. In my experience there a two major negative influences that grammar schools have.
Firstly, because an element of the school system is selective, we segregate students. Not only do we split the male and female students, but also split between high academic achievers and low academic achievers. This generates a completely false idea of what the world is like. Not only are there few places where life is accordingly separated, but also, it engenders an idea that it is acceptable to treat people differently because of their abilities. We moved on from the idea that women were different because of their sex in 1928, that blacks were different because of their skin in 1990 when apartheid ended, so why do we still cling to such an old fashioned notion nowadays?
Secondly, having a selective school system means that at some schools, presumably, students are supposed to receive a better quality of education, or be in a more desirable environment because of the academic surroundings. (If this is not the case, why do people send their children there?) Therefore, because there are schools that are supposed to offer better education, it makes comprehensive schools appear as second best. In my case, I probably would have been able to enter my local grammar, but my parents refused to send me there. Because of that, have I received a poorer education or be expected to get lower grades? Of course not. But because grammar schools are for ‘brighter students’ (quoting hundreds of ‘Letters to the Editor’), ones that are going to get to the top of tree, by not going there, I am not expected to reach as high or be as academically talented.

Therefore, I would urge anyone who wants to keep grammar schools to consider what good selective education actually does for students at these schools. But, more importantly, consider the damage a selective education does to comprehensive educated students, their self-esteem, aspirations and ability to aim high. This is more of plea than a statement of opinion. It simply isn’t fair on comprehensive students to have a two tier system, nor right that some students should receive a better class of compulsory education. Please reconsider your attitude to grammar schools and their relevance in the 21st century.