從伊頓到牛津金錢鋪就的升學(xué)路英語美文
Eton Master Attacks "Buying" into Oxbridge
在英國，為了讓孩子今后更容易地升入名牌大學(xué)，許多家長都不惜支付高額學(xué)費讓孩子就讀名牌私立學(xué)校。但這種用金錢鋪就升學(xué)路的方式未必就能實現(xiàn)家長的名牌大學(xué)夢，因為大學(xué)在招生時可能會對私立學(xué)校的學(xué)生提出更高的要求。
All universities should require significantly higher grades from applicants from leading independent schools because of the quality of education they receive, a senior teacher at Eton said yesterday.
據(jù)英國《每日電訊報》3月25日報道，日前，英國著名私立中學(xué)伊頓公學(xué)的高級教師戴維·湯恩德提出，所有大學(xué)在招生時，都應(yīng)該對畢業(yè)于名牌私立學(xué)校的學(xué)生的分?jǐn)?shù)要求更高，因為他們接受了更高質(zhì)量的教學(xué)。
在伊頓執(zhí)教37年的化學(xué)教師湯恩德表示，如果父母花費大量金錢讓孩子進入私立學(xué)校讀書，是為了他們?nèi)蘸笊朊拼髮W(xué)而不是為了開發(fā)他們的能力和潛質(zhì)的話，很可能就會得不償失。他說：“有人認(rèn)為，要想進入牛津、劍橋這樣的名校，學(xué)生畢業(yè)的中學(xué)似乎比他們自身的'實力更重要。我想這種觀點是完全錯誤的。從伊頓畢業(yè)的學(xué)生應(yīng)該以更高的分?jǐn)?shù)進入大學(xué)，因為在他們在伊頓受到了其他學(xué)生沒有的高質(zhì)量教育。社會公正性要求高等院校在招收學(xué)生時必須考慮學(xué)生所畢業(yè)的學(xué)校背景。”
現(xiàn)年58歲的湯恩德承認(rèn)，他的建議肯定會引起許多家長的不滿。但引起私立學(xué)校學(xué)生家長不滿的還遠(yuǎn)不止湯恩德的建議。近日，英國政府?dāng)U大了高等院校對公立學(xué)校畢業(yè)生的招生比例。這一決定使得眾多私立學(xué)校都在擔(dān)心他們的學(xué)生是否還能夠大量的升入名牌大學(xué)。
英國許所大學(xué)表示，國家高等教育基金委員會已向他們下達(dá)了招收更多公立學(xué)校畢業(yè)生的指使。本月，倫敦經(jīng)濟學(xué)院也表示，他們已將40個招生名額專門用于招收公立學(xué)校的學(xué)生。同時，英國高等院校入學(xué)服務(wù)中心(一個專門受理英國大學(xué)申請的機構(gòu)，每個學(xué)生都必須經(jīng)過該機構(gòu)來申請大學(xué))也更改了大學(xué)申請書的形式，新申請書增加了申請者填寫畢業(yè)學(xué)校和社會背景的要求。
為此，湯恩德表示，高等院校留出專門名額招收公立學(xué)校的學(xué)生是不公平的，學(xué)生進入大學(xué)的惟一條件應(yīng)該是他們的潛質(zhì)，而不是畢業(yè)學(xué)校背景及其它。報道說，伊頓公學(xué)去年對該校11歲的入學(xué)申請者進行了心理學(xué)考試，而這些考試題通常都是針對大學(xué)三年級的學(xué)生設(shè)立的。伊頓公學(xué)表示，心理測試題可以充分看出學(xué)生的綜合能力和天賦。
All universities should require significantly higher grades from applicants from leading independent schools because of the quality of education they receive, a senior teacher at Eton said yesterday.
It would be unjust if parents were buying entry to elite universities for their children rather than the opportunity for their children to reach their academic potential, he said.
"I would feel it totally wrong if an independent school were getting a higher proportion of pupils into Oxford and Cambridge than their real ability merits," said David Townend.
Mr Townend, 58, an assistant master, admitted that his remarks would be unpopular with some parents. They would also be controversial at a time when the heads of independent schools feared that their students could miss out as universities strive to meet the Government"s targets for increasing the number of state school entrants.
But Mr Townend, who has taught chemistry at the Berkshire school for 37 years, said social justice demanded that universities follow Bristol"s example of taking school background into account when sending out their offers of places.
He proposed a motion which was overwhelmingly passed by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers at its annual conference in Torquay committing it to campaign for entry to higher education to be on potential alone. The union voted to encourage universities to make allowance in the selection procedures for a variety of educational provision experienced by individual candidates at school or college.
"It must be right that pupils from Eton should be required to achieve significantly higher grades than someone who has not had the benefits we at Eton can provide," Mr Townend said.
Universities have been given "benchmark" targets by the Higher Education Funding Council for increasing the proportion of state educated pupils they admit.
The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service is also changing the application form to include questions indicating a candidate"s school and social background.
This month the London School of Economics admitted that it sets aside 40 places which are available only to applicants from low-achieving state schools.
Mr Townend told the conference of teachers from state and independent schools that he would not want to see universities set quotas for state school pupils, which would be unfair.
However, research had shown that teachers in the independent sector tended to overestimate the grades their pupils would achieve at the end of their courses while those in the state sector underestimated them.
It would be much fairer for pupils to apply to university only after they had received their results, argued Mr Townend, who said that he believed passionately in social justice.
"I emphatically state that entry to university should be on potential alone.
"Oxbridge asks for three As and many good universities from the Russell group ask for 3 Bs from Eton.
"I see no reason why they should not offer much lower grades from schools without such good results."
Last year Eton introduced psychometric tests designed by Durham University for all applicants at the age of 11 and they had been used to measure the potential of junior scholars.
【從伊頓到牛津金錢鋪就的升學(xué)路英語美文】相關(guān)文章：
經(jīng)典美文：龍門伊水02-19
讀書鋪就我的成才路抒情作文03-25
目標(biāo)鋪就成功路國旗下講話稿08-06
英語六級必讀美文牛津大學(xué)03-12
生命的意義和金錢美文08-03
到綿陽經(jīng)典美文09-13
路與行經(jīng)典美文09-05
英語閱讀美文欣賞金錢能買來幸福嗎11-08
從新媒體女王到睡眠大使的英語美文09-04