For litel was hir catel and hir rente.
Just think of the problems this poor widow would have had if she had
had to cope with the stresses and traumas of the eleven plus year as well.
It seems that all she wanted was a simple life – and then came the
eleven plus. It was no good her thinking about her sheep and pigs – she had
to concentrate on verbal reasoning and mathematics.
We know that Chaucer lived between 1340 and 1400 and dear old Gutenberg
developed his printing press in 1439 – so there may have been a little time
lag!
All the verbal reasoning papers would have had to have been written by
hand. The mathematics exercises would have taken time to prepare. The poor
widow may have struggled to find adequate eleven plus resources. There may
have been a further complication – how many places did the local grammar
schools have? She lived beside a grove – down a dale – how would she have
ferried her child to school, to activities and to little treats? Of course the
price of petrol would have been cheaper – but with no car and far from any
bus route – transport would have been something to consider.
How did families survive without the eleven plus?
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