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Monday, July 11, 2011

Eleven Plus Opinions

If only the eleven plus could be changed so that it was a little more universally attractive to more children. Some children feel that they are just not ready to take on the challenge of the eleven plus. Other children know that they are able to take the examination – but determine that they are neither ready nor willing – and so opt out. Other children do not want to take part unless a guarantee can be offered that any extra work will result in a pass.

It would be wonderful if our children could feel that the eleven plus was the very essence of education for the bright and the deserving? Imagine if more of our eleven plus children could feel that working towards a competitive examination was an innate gift. Suppose we set out to establish that the eleven plus was the very essence of education.

It would be fun to try to make our children excited about the eleven plus and the rather broader education it has the potential to offer. This could save a lot of slogging through countless eleven plus questions and papers.

If we could reach a state of confidence - untrammelled by urgency and anxiety – we would find little reason not to be pleased with ourselves.

Rudyard Kipling gave us `If’. The link through to `poemhunter.com’ offers the whole poem – but the comments that follow are almost equally illuminating. There will always be countless shades of opinion on the eleven plus.

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