ABSTRACT
Three kinds of claim are made for comprehensive schooling: educational, egalitarian or social, and communitarian – though they are not always separated and are not necessarily opposed to each other. The educational argument amounts to saying that comprehensive schools can develop talent better than selective schools. It is a worthy aim to make the most of everyone's varied abilities for their sake. Ford implies by her interpretation of a comparative study of a comprehensive, a grammar school and a modern school, that the streamed comprehensive school has similar effects to the tripartite system, and thus, among other things, cannot develop talent any further than grammar and modern schools. Finally, the communitarian argument is that, by serving a neighbourhood, the comprehensive school can diminish tensions, remove hostile stereotypes and cement solidarity, thus providing a focus for the enrichment of everyone's life, adults as well as children.
