Morning glory

Beautiful and misty here this morning. The bus shelter lit by an eery glow caught my eye.
I was met first thing today by a child who told me that if they got into school x their mother would buy them .......... and reeled off a list of 'stuff'. Sadly, this is not unusual. The children in this area have just found out whether they have passed the odious 11+ and we have entered the closing stages of the annual collective madness that accompanies the selective school system (in my experience). Parents pitted against parents; children made to feel either lesser or greater depending on this piffling result. Children told by others that their parents were surprised they got in. More competitiveness "how many marks did you get?" because 'passing' or shudder 'failing' is not enough. The 'lesser' schools receive their annual helping of prejudice and some of those who will be going to them are sent off on the next stage of their education with a feeling that either this isn't what their parents wanted for them, or that they have somehow let them down.
It should make me spit, but actually each year it makes me sadder and sadder that this nasty and divisive system inflicts this pressure, anxiety and hurt on children for no good reason I can see.