AN ELECTRON BIAS

Is it better to leave school in England with four or with eight so-called Ordinary Level passes? Most people would say eight, but I'm not one of them. This is why. To get eight O' Levels you need to be fairly proficient in all subjects, technical as well as arts. You are something of a general smatterer, disposed to treating all subjects as of approximately equal importance. This may be on temperamental, class, ethnic, or ideological grounds. It could indicate that you aren't particularly biased on either the technical or the arts sides, but prefer to strike a balance somewhere in-between. Many people do, and I shall call them atomists. Atoms, as you know, are basically divisible into two main components (I make no apology to modern pseudo-science, with its external subjectivity), viz. protons and electrons, the former - one or a number - forming a nucleus around which the latter tend to revolve.

May I be so bold as to suggest a similar division between the sciences and the arts, with the former representing the proton side and the latter, by contrast, the electron side of an atomic divide? Have not the arts hitherto revolved around the sciences? You will agree that, in the main, they have; though some of them have been freer some of the time, and there always exists, believe it or not, the possibility of the arts being free to 'do their own thing' independently of scientific control or reference, so that a free-electron and truly theocratic orientation emerges ... to signify the culmination of human creative endeavour in the highest art, be it visual, aural, or literary. That subject is somewhat beyond the scope of this prose poem, but it nonetheless has some bearing on the division between the sciences and the arts, as appertaining to the school curriculum.

We can list on the proton side: mathematics, physics, chemistry, and geometry; on the electron side: English, history, geography, and art; though we are aware that other related subjects can be added, such as technical drawing on the one side and French on the other. Eight suffices for our purposes, and anyone who leaves school with that number of Ordinary Levels is more likely to be atomic than post-atomic, or biased towards the electron. We may regard him as a democratic type, balanced between the sciences and the arts. A golden mean in some countries, particularly those where atomic, and hence democratic, criteria obtain. I list merely Britain and France. But I would describe the British atomicity as favouring the proton side and the French one, by contrast, as favouring its electron antithesis. (We are of course distinguishing between democracy in a constitutional monarchy and democracy in a liberal republic.) However, irrespective of these differences of atomic shade, neither country would rule out a bias, one way or the other, for the absolute.

So it is possible that one could leave school with just four Ordinary Levels, and that at least three of those - if not all four - would be on either the proton or the electron side of an atomic divide, as opposed to two either side of it. Suppose you get four O' Levels on the proton side - for example, maths, physics, chemistry, and technical drawing. That would indicate - would it not? - a strong bias for the sciences, which would suggest an autocratic leaning, a thing perhaps more respectable in Britain than in France, given its royalist traditions. Alternatively, you might get four O' Levels on the electron side - for example, English (literature or language), history, art, and geography, indicating a strong bias for the arts, with the suggestion of a theocratic leaning, which we may suppose more respectable in France than in Britain, given its Catholic traditions. Nevertheless, not wholly respectable in either country, since both of them are atomic and therefore disposed to a science/art compromise rather than to a strong bias towards each extreme.

My position, however, is this: better to get four Ordinary Levels on the arts side of the divide than either eight right across the board or four on the science side. For, objectively considered, the theocratic type is morally superior to both the democratic and the autocratic types - one could say a free-electron equivalent, as opposed to either an atomic or a proton equivalent. To have only four O' Levels isn't necessarily to be less bright than someone with eight; it may well indicate a different (and effectively superior) ideological, temperamental, ethnic, or class position. And the four arts O' Levels may be more strongly electron-orientated again, not the average grouping but something like: English literature, art, French, and music.

As for those autocratic types who leave school with physics (applied or pure), chemistry, mathematics, and technical drawing or, alternatively, with geometry, biology, engineering science, and algebra, all I can say is ... they aren't likely to become hard-line Social Transcendentalists in subsequent years!