Since World War II, England has tried to tear down the educational barriers that have long divided the country into what Disraeli called two nations of the privileged and the people. Many children in England and Wales still take a rigorous exam around the age of eleven that funnels the gifted minority into grammar schools, which prepare them for universities. The academic chaff is relegated to so-called secondary modern schools that tend to brand their graduates as lifetime "duds." Reform has centered on the establishment of comprehensive schools, their version of U.S. public high schools, which teach all things...
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