I failed the 11+ and went to a SM for a year then at 12+ I was transferred to a GS from where I went on to college and became a teacher. The GS suited me, I was academically inclined, my brother wasn't he left at 16, did an apprentice ship and has his own business. I then taught in SM, GS and Comprehensive schools. It's my view that the problem in the 50s and 60s wasn't the GS who were doing their job of educating the academic pupils, it was the SM schools that were seen as being somehow inferior, it was the attitude that tradesmen were in some way inferior and the staff gravitated to the GS. There seems now to be a change of the balance, there is a realisation that plumbers etc are essential, especially when you can't find one, and maybe the reintroduction of proper apprenticeships will give the less academic pupils something to aim for. Schools can offer the best education possible but if the recipients don't recognise its value, they're wasting their time and, has been reported recently, one of the most disadvantaged group is working-class white boys who see nothing to work for, they often lack the home support that other ethnic groups enjoy.