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  3. My children went to private school, and given the way things are in our educ

My children went to private school, and given the way things are in our educ

游客2023-12-21  45
问题     My children went to private school, and given the way things are in our education system I am glad they did; but 1 wish I had not been presented with the choice between the state and private sectors, for I believe that one of the worst things about this country is the chasm in our education system. It is not exclusive to Britain, but it is uniquely divisive here. The difference in quality between state and private schools is particularly large; the division between the two is based almost entirely on money rather than (as in France) religious preferences; the private sector is unusually large and powerful.
    The consequences for our society are therefore heinous. The private/state divide exacerbates the class consciousness that lurks beneath our relationships, poisons our politics and distorts our decisions. It leads people to hire, argue with and vote for each other for the wrong reasons. It clouds our judgment. It’s not like this in America, mainland Europe or indeed anywhere else in the civilised world, I promise you. So I was relieved when, a few weeks ago, my twin daughters moved on from the class-stratified secondary school system to what I assumed would be the socialist republic of university. When I went to university, it had much in common with the Soviet Union. You had to queue for hours for awful food, people banged on about ideology a lot and, everybody seemed to be pretty much on an equal footing, socially and economically.
    It doesn’t seem to be that way these days, according to reports from my daughters and their friends. At Edinburgh, Durham, Bristol and Exeter, the private school kids seem to hang out mostly with the private school kids and the state school kids with the state school kids. The twain do meet a bit, at lectures and tutorials, through societies and in pubs and clubs. But most of their social lives seem to be conducted in bubbles similar to those in which they spent their secondary school lives. This has happened not because young people are more tribal than older ones but because universities have been marketised. In the old days they got their income from the state; now they are quasi-businesses. This leads them to behave like profit-maximising firms and offer a range of products to their customers. They can make more money from selling their Finest accommodation to the well-off and Value to the hard-up than if they offered their Value product across the board. So these days the upscale student does not have to queue for tepid showers: if she wants a double bed and ensuite bathroom, she will get it.
    There are, therefore, big price differences between halls of residence at these universities: the most expensive accommodation costs up to three times the price of the cheapest. Not surprisingly, social stratification follows the money. At Edinburgh (30% private overall), you can pay ￡7,444 at Chancellors Court (70% private). That compares with ￡2,324 for the cheapest non-catered shared room the university offers. At Exeter (33% private overall), you can pay ￡200-plus a week at Holland Hall (60% private) or ￡l04 at St David’s (5% private). At Bristol (40% private overall), Churchill Hall (70% private) cost ￡l86 a week; Favell House (22% private) costs ￡l27 a week.
    At Durham things seem more mixed. Although there is a wide range of prices the university is divided into Oxbridge-style colleges, which students end up in partly by choice and partly by random allocation. That may be why my daughter studying at Durham says a quarter of her friends are from state school, while my daughter at Edinburgh says 5% of hers are. I am not a Stalinist. I do not believe in the forced break-up of communities. I have no desire to destroy the bonds of affection that tradition and habit have created. I understand that people are tribal and that social stratification is natural. But university is an unnatural experience. That is the whole point of it. It is why we send these near-adults away from home for the third phase of their education.
    They have jumped through the same hoops to get there, they have been judged to be as clever as each other, and they should be living as equals. University should not let people slip into familiar grooves. Students are there to encounter ideas and people they did not come across at school. They are meant to be stretched—to be pushed, in that ghastly but useful phrase, outside their comfort zone. That’s not going to happen if they spend three or four years in the company of people just like them. They will return to the real world with their prejudices unshaken and horizons unwidened. There is a simple and practical solution: universities should charge everybody the same and allocate rooms by lottery. There would be a cost, which somebody—the students or taxpayer—would have to pay. But I reckon that if it helped to dissipate some of the miasma of class consciousness that still pervades our society, it would be worth it. [br] According to the passage, university should be a place where ______.
选项 A、social stratification must be completely eliminated
B、all the students are treated equally both socially and economically
C、students can widen their horizons and alter their prejudices
D、students leave their comfort zone and mix with those from other groups
答案 C
解析
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