” In the sixth form we were divided into subject based groups on a very traditional basis. The academically brilliant were encouraged to enter Sixth Classics to study [ancient] Greek and Latin. The next most able were encouraged to go into Sixth History…. The reasonably competent found themselves in Sixth Science doing physics, chemistry and maths. The comparative duffers were put in to Sixth Economics because it was assumed that they would only be suitable for jobs in business and banking.”

Ken Clarke  Kind of Blue: a political memoir p16