ABSTRACT
The conditions under which boys from primary school can climb the educational ladder to the Universities are such that people are praying for a great blessing, democracy in the Universities with a new curse, the production of an intelligencia in the worst sense of the term. It is important to stress this element of experimentation because some of the more extreme rhetoric emanating from the 1970 Black Paper writers such as Timothy Raison has remained a part of the 'folk law' concerning the alleged damage done to primary education by 'Plowdenism. Since the 1960s, however, much has been written which is critical of Piagetian ideas and his methodology. Meadows concludes that information-processing models of cognitive development, as opposed to the 'very basic studies and processes which involve all cognitive functioning', have limited application for teachers.
