Aristocratic?
Ha... I hear you muttering under your breath! You know that Oxbridge only exists for the worlds’ privileged aristocratic youth strutting their arrogant stuff with expectations of wealth and power. You think it is rare that a state educated pupil makes an impact in these hallowed halls and cloisters? Think again!
Both Oxford and Cambridge are vibrant, diverse and complicated places that defy a ‘pigeon hole’ description. Yes, there are still pockets that try and preserve that aristocratic perception. Socialy exclusive drinking clubs still exist, full of well-dressed man, who hold immature attitudes towards women. Some tutors even wear a black armband on the anniversary of the first female to be admitted to their college. Increasingly
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(As critics of the system point out this has to be seen in the context of 93% of UK children being educated in the state system.) Vocal extremist from each group feel too many concessions are being made to the other. Study the prospectuses and it appears every effort is being made to select the best and brightest students regardless of background. Each university is conscious of its reputation and is dedicated to maintaining and enhancing its position with absolute dedication. Anyone admitted to Oxbridge gets there on merit. Today the debate centres around ‘academic potential’ measured against ‘realised potential’ and in many cases it is clear where individual colleges stand on this issue by reading their prospectus.
Worry echoed by teachers
One of the major obstacles holding back bright state educated pupils is their ‘upper-class’ perception of Oxbridge and the fear they will not fit in or be able to cope with the volume of work. This worry is echoed by their teachers who are concerned that their careful teaching and nurturing may be destroyed by such an environment.
These are real concerns – an Oxbridge education is quite unlike anything else. In an 8-week term students are expected to produce between 2 and 3 times as much work as their colleagues at most other universities running a 12-week term. Talk to Oxbridge students and you will find their chosen subject is a passion that dominates their
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Colleges select student they believe will thrive in their unique individual culture and in some cases point applicants to their more suitable neighbours. In a short space of time colleges have an ability to generate a coherent community where many students become very patriotic towards their institution telling all who care to listen that, without doubt, theirs is by far the best educational house in the world!
Many will choose an extra curriculum activity such as rowing or singing in the college choir as a counter balance to recharge their batteries. The consequence of this lifestyle is very little time for anything else. But is this a hardship? Many academics regard this environment as precious. However the University is a pressurised powerhouse with deadlines and expectations and many a college porter has been concerned enough with the effects of stress on their young charges to call for medical
In fact, “a determined student, even encountering hardships in his/her life while attending college full time, will succeed” (Culpepper 330). Also, many professionals successfully graduated college while dealing with hardships such as “raising children alone, working in multiple jobs, and caring for sick relatives” (Culpepper 330). They showed commitment by staying focused on what they wanted to achieve in their lives. An overloaded student accomplishes his/her tasks by organizing his/her daily schedule, not allowing more than one activity developing in the same hour. Also, the student has to allow for himself/herself recreational time as a reward, for that will balance his/her overwhelmed lifestyle.
The point of education is to gain knowledge. That knowledge will help people progress in life and that will lead to a growing society. Throughout the years education became competitive and was less about gaining knowledge and more about getting a better score on standardized tests. In the article How the Myth of Meritocracy Ruins Students by Erica Etelson, she explains how the education system is becoming more and more competitive and if there is not a change it will slowly make the education system worst. Her main argument of the article is that the idea that success should be based on ability and talent of individuals is wrong because success should not be based on ability and talent of individuals. Etelson backs up her argument by explaining to the reader about the pressure students are under, how competitiveness is causing a problem, and why things need to change. The education system needs to change so that students can go back to gaining knowledge and grow rather than compete for the best test score.
Society’s expectation of Ian to strive for superior education in a big city holds a large role in negatively impacting his struggle to achieve his goals. Modern society has inclined towards a Charles Darwins Principles of Biology (1864) occupational system, or as Herbert Spencer coined: survival of the fittest. In current civilization, the competition in the job industry has become vastly augmented due to the influx of individuals striving for the maximum level of education possible. With this development of competition, location and degree of study is imperative to success in one’s future. The expectation to receive a higher educa...
During my analysis of the article “The Vexation of Class”, it quickly became evident that the author, Nick Tingle, investigates his vexation by making numerous comparisons to David Bartholomae’s “Inventing the University”. Tingle analyzes Bartholomae’s article in terms of its assumptions made in reference to class, such as how the student writer must become someone whom they are not. Within the clear conversation of his vexation experienced growing up in a working-class household, as well as the effects and struggles that students endure when being a member of a working-class school, Tingle’s use of pathos holds effective throughout the article.
Students are in colleges because they are told to, or because they still want to be financially depend on their parents and not have to worry about growing up to face the real world. The author in her article writes such ideas. Furthermore, since colleges became a big industry in the 60’s, and now the number of people attending has fallen, colleges use marketing skills to bring more students in. They try to make college sound as easy as possible to make more people register. Students, once in college are not happy and drop out,...
The campus climate topic in Indian higher education is a relatively a new subject; whereas, in the U.S., the campus climate issues have been explored for more than two decades through different theoretical lenses. Therefore, research and literature on the campus climate facilitates a direction to study the topic in Indian higher education settings. It is well documented that higher education in the U.S. has identified, studied, and acknowledged that students from the various subordinate identities are facing a range of issues in the college environment. Along with the scholarly research, higher education institutions and scholars have created institutional interventions and innovative approaches to improve the campus climate and learning outcomes
All college students sitting in classrooms today face challenges that can impede their success. A challenging course schedule, competing demand for the student’s time, and college readiness are all factors that can hinder a student’s performance in the classroom. Moreover, these challenges also have the ability to impact the student’s overall student development. While most students share a common set of stressors, there are certain groups on campus that face pressures and challenges that are not shared by the majority of their peers. Student athletes are such a group. Joshua Watson (2005) noted the positive benefits of participating in intercollegiate activities, but also noted that such participation can lead to issues of “maladjustment, emotional illness, and psychological distress” (p. 442).
In George Orwell’s Such, Such Were the Joys, the school Crossgates is perceived as a prestigious private school, when in fact its true operations run as a deceiving and disappointing institution. Orwell explained first how the institution’s standard of living was poorer quality than lower-class living. The narrator who came from a poor family retold that he “took a social step upwards by attending [Crossgates], and yet the standard of comfort was in every way far lower than in my own home, or indeed, than it would have been in a prosperous working-class home” (Orwell 434). Crossgates was perceived to have been a lavished place to reside, where the school kids would have top-notch residing quarters. Instead, the Crossgates boarding situation lacked all hospitability and had a lower standard of living than what would constitute as lower class.
Author Melissa Campbell stated, “All jobs, regardless of what they are, involve some level of stress”. Some may say that the stress a student endures throughout college, can prepare them for what the future holds, but in actuality stress is stress. No matter what form can take a tole on a student. Students will be stressed for many years to come in their future. Whether it be their first job interview, marriage, or welcoming a new member to the family. The possible four years at college need to be as stress free as possible. Their needs to be some types of fun involved even though they are students first. Lastly, “Jobs produce stress not just in terms of the actual work itself but also in terms of dealing with your co-workers”(Cooper). College is suppose to be about meeting new people, forming a social life. There could be enough possible stress with roommates or professors, there is no need for stress from co-workers or management making the college experience less
Everyone has experienced some type of stress in their life. Whether it has been from work, school, or troubles at home, stress is stress. If anyone had played sports in high school, you know the challenge of balancing school and sports. Imagine that stress, then multiply it exponentially. Everyone knows that college is a much more rigorous version of high school. The only reason some athletes made it to college is due to scholarships for their performance on the field. If they don’t perform well on the field, that scholarship might get cut. This makes practicing the athletes main priority. However, college athletes have to concentrate on their grades so they don’t drop out of college. These athletes know they may not make it to the pro’s, so they know they have to have a back up plan. This back up plan is called a college degree. So college athletes have to concentrate both on sports and classes. Sounds kind of challenging. This is why I believe student athletes should be allowed to miss classes occasionally due to their sport. Athletes are under much more stress, are required to attend practices and classes, and complete their homework. This is simply impossible to do, at least for a human. I believe that this is an important topic because it affects all college athletes.
4 Giancola, J.K., Grawitch, M.J., and Borchert, D. (2009). Dealing with the stress of college: A
According to the College Health website, “No one is immune from stress, but those entering the ivory towers of college are particularly vulnerable to it.” Attending college for the first time gave me a feeling of displacement, nonetheless, I maintained my sense of priority, I am here to learn, here to excel, and here to focus on my objective.
Due to the effects of higher enrolment, teaching methods are now directed towards suiting the masses, thus everything has become less personal, as well as, less educationally in depth. Teaching techniques consist of multiple choice tests, rather than written answer questions which require critical analysis, as Jacobs states “So many papers to mark, relative to numbers and qualities of mentors to mark them, changed the nature of test papers. Some came to consist of “True or False?” and “Which of the following is correct?” types of questions” (Jacobs 49). While teachers also no longer engage in one on one conversations with students, but merely in a lecture hall among masses and everyone is seen as just a student number. Jacobs states a complaint from a student “who claimed they were shortchanged in education. They had expected more personal rapport with teachers” (Jacobs 47). Universities are too much focused on the cost benefit analysis, of the problem of increased enrolment, with the mind set of “quantity trumps quality” (Jacobs 49). The benefit of student education and learning is not being put first, but rather the expansion of the university to benefit financial issues. Taylor states “individualism and the expansion of instrumental reason, have often been accounted for as by-products
In “The Case Against College” Linda Lee tells us exactly who belongs in college, they are “the high-achieving student who is interested in learning for learning’s sake…. And those who seem certain to go on to advanced degree’s in law, medicine, architecture, and the like,” (670). But just because there are certain people who belong in school does not mean that those are the people that attend. Those who are more privileged just happen to be in a position that allows them to partake in certain amenities, one of them being a higher standard of
Community colleges and universities all belong to higher education, but actually they do not have the same requirements for their students. Peter Sacks is a college teacher. With Sacks’ teaching experiences, he believes that “nobody in the system had much of a stake in shoring up educational standards” which shows his dissatisfied about the current education system. Sacks thinks higher education should only be provided to students who can do excellent job on studying. However, only a few universities hold their applicants to this high requirement. Indeed, the phenomenon that Sacks finds is correct, many community colleges and universities have low requirements for students, but Sacks does not see the good part of this low requirements. If higher education includes different requirements, more people will be able to accept better education than high school, and this will be helpful for themselves and society.