Raising Of The School Leaving Age was at that point to 16. I wonder what he would have made of us effectively (and eventually - officially) raising it to 18?
He had two major points:
1) After a proper day's work, few were the teenagers who had enough energy to go rampaging and indulging in yobbish behaviour. Thus he wanted to go back to a compulsory leaving age at 14.
2) The artificial social mix of all youngsters together in similar age groups disappeared in the workplace and more adult attitudes were immediately essential.
Up to that point I had always assumed that lumping all children together for a great many years into similar age ranges was normal because it was the norm. It is not entirely so.
Naturally, I am aware that the jobs are few and pure classroom work will not always be part of educating teens but keeping these matters in the back of the mind may at some point bear fruit.
