Jess passed the entrance exam to move schools to the local grammar this week. Really very pleased for her, and she worked really hard to get there. But...

...I can't help feeling really uneasy about how the whole process worked. I found it really hard to believe how heavily weighted in favour of the middle class the whole testing process was, and in particular the verbal reasoning stuff. Looking over the practice papers, it became very clear that no child could expect to have a reasonable chance of understanding what was expected without specialist coaching. Children growing up in a middle class family have an inherent advantage - through a broader vocabulary if nothing else. How can it be fair for those with sharp elbows and enough money to pay for private tutoring to gain a significant advantage?

It made me feel very guilty about facilitating this for Jess. But I still did it. Parenthood does bring it's challenges!