This article is an edited version of a talk written for delivery at a conference organized to celebrate 50 years of Kidbrooke Comprehensive School with the overall theme "The Comprehensive Ideal: Taking It Beyond the Individual School." Having honored the pioneering work at Kidbrooke, Clyde Chitty then takes a close look at three key issues: the "collegiate" scheme proposed by Tim Brighouse, the long-running debate about catchment areas, and the centrality of curriculum reform. The article concludes by arguing that we cannot allow the government to redefine the comprehensive ideal simply as a means of legitimizing the introduction of yet more diversity into an already complex and unworkable secondary system.