Tolkien about division

I owned the cassette original of "The Hobbit" for the Commodore 64 and, try as I might, could not beat it. Meanwhile, an unassuming kid in my year completed said text adventure without cheating. Our junior high separated students by academic ability, with six classes for each form. I was in the top class, while the aforementioned kid was at least a couple below. I remember the situation with that C64 game being one of the moments when I realised the school's ranking system was bollocks. That there was a lot more to intelligence than IQ tests, and everyone had their strengths and weaknesses. As the years have gone by, Facebook updates and a 25th-anniversary reunion have shown me that being in 7-1 rather than 7-6 back then was absolutely no guarantee of success in life. Time has also taught me how other factors, such as perseverance, can be just as important as smarts. Perhaps the fundamental difference between myself and the "Hobbit"-solver was that I cared about being in the top group and he didn't. He was busy with other quests.

I asked five friends to message me their opinion of academically separated high-school classes in five words or less. Here are the responses in the order I received them:

* PG: "Rarely went. Wouldn't know."
* RS: "Segregation is a bad idea."
* SC: "We didn't have that scenario."
* PB: "Pragmatic thinking with potential consequences."
* CM: "Many students left behind."