Disadvantages Of Common School

Having engaged in Dr. John Tillson’s lecture on this topic, and with the extra readings relating to this topic, I understand that there are three reasons that a child can be separated from other children with in the classroom. Robin Barrow discusses these reasons as being: “the student in question is judged to be too disruptive; to be incapable of gaining anything from being there; to be possessed of some exceptional and specific talent requiring specialised nurture.” [1] However, instead the focus should be on what exactly the child is educationally benefiting from being in that setting, and also if the child in question is causing a disturbance to the learning/ education of the other children around them in the classroom.

Before engaging in this course, I had never heard of the notion of a ‘Common School’. A Common School is where all children, of all abilities “attend the same school and are taught the same curriculum” [2] .There are arguments that go against Common Schools, for example: in maintaining religious identity, differing abilities may be a cause for concern, a lack of parental choice, etc. For Pring, the common school represents the ideal of “a common educational experience for all young people across the ability range and social classes” (Pring, 503) [3]. Richard Pring argues in favour of a Common School as it is a “preparation for living in a community that requires a common culture to overcome divisions arising from ‘wealth and birth and social