ABSTRACT
The fears were for Britain’s future industrial competitiveness, and the prospect of a society made bottom-heavy with a great sump of dead-enders and delinquents. Several causes were blamed for this. Schools were blamed for being cut off from the world of work and making children learn by rote to achieve their ‘Standards’ (grades); this turned youngsters off any desire to further their education after leaving at 13 or 14. J.H.Whitehouse observed: ‘In the two years between 14 and 16 a boy forgets most of what he has learned at school.’3 Arnold Freeman in 1914 praised schools as character-builders, civilizing youngsters’ behaviour-but there was too abrupt a break between school and the world of work, and school-leavers were left to drift on their own.
