One day the present eleven plus candidate may want to hold
down a job. This could be to pay for driving lessons, a trip to Peru or even
trying to pay back university fees. The employer will look at your child (by
now a young adult) and make a series of decisions.
How many employees do we need?
What qualifications are needed for the job?
Is there going to be a problem with age?
How important will the induction be?
Do we need to try to recruit from a wider pool?
Do we have the right people doing the interviewing?
Do we believe the C.V.?
Will this candidate want promotion?
Is twelve A* GCSEs and four A grade A Levels enough to fill
this job of being a first class barista?
By this stage passing or failing the eleven plus may not
really be of any major significance. Some
university students will pass many happy hours serving coffee, enjoying the
banter and squirreling the tips. They may look fondly at anxious parents urging
their precious child to complete yet another paper. They may hear a parent say:
“If you do not pass your eleven plus you may land up serving coffee. Do you
want that for the rest of your life?”
There could be a little pause in the hubbub of the coffee
house while a rapt audience contemplated this loaded question. One student,
studying `Early American English’ may whisper: “Well Mark Twain knew the difference: `Cauliflower
is nothing but cabbage with a college education’.”
