從伊頓到牛津金錢(qián)鋪就的升學(xué)路英語(yǔ)美文
Eton Master Attacks "Buying" into Oxbridge
在英國(guó)，為了讓孩子今后更容易地升入名牌大學(xué)，許多家長(zhǎng)都不惜支付高額學(xué)費(fèi)讓孩子就讀名牌私立學(xué)校。但這種用金錢(qián)鋪就升學(xué)路的方式未必就能實(shí)現(xiàn)家長(zhǎng)的名牌大學(xué)夢(mèng)，因?yàn)榇髮W(xué)在招生時(shí)可能會(huì)對(duì)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(guó)《每日電訊報(bào)》3月25日?qǐng)?bào)道，日前，英國(guó)著名私立中學(xué)伊頓公學(xué)的高級(jí)教師戴維·湯恩德提出，所有大學(xué)在招生時(shí)，都應(yīng)該對(duì)畢業(yè)于名牌私立學(xué)校的學(xué)生的分?jǐn)?shù)要求更高，因?yàn)樗麄兘邮芰烁哔|(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(fèi)大量金錢(qián)讓孩子進(jìn)入私立學(xué)校讀書(shū)，是為了他們?nèi)蘸笊朊拼髮W(xué)而不是為了開(kāi)發(fā)他們的能力和潛質(zhì)的話，很可能就會(huì)得不償失。他說(shuō)：“有人認(rèn)為，要想進(jìn)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(shí)力更重要。我想這種觀點(diǎn)是完全錯(cuò)誤的。從伊頓畢業(yè)的學(xué)生應(yīng)該以更高的分?jǐn)?shù)進(jìn)入大學(xué)，因?yàn)樵谒麄冊(cè)谝令D受到了其他學(xué)生沒(méi)有的高質(zhì)量教育。社會(huì)公正性要求高等院校在招收學(xué)生時(shí)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(huì)引起許多家長(zhǎng)的不滿。但引起私立學(xué)校學(xué)生家長(zhǎng)不滿的還遠(yuǎn)不止湯恩德的建議。近日，英國(guó)政府?dāng)U大了高等院校對(duì)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(guó)許所大學(xué)表示，國(guó)家高等教育基金委員會(huì)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(jì)學(xué)院也表示，他們已將40個(gè)招生名額專門(mén)用于招收公立學(xué)校的學(xué)生。同時(shí)，英國(guó)高等院校入學(xué)服務(wù)中心(一個(gè)專門(mén)受理英國(guó)大學(xué)申請(qǐng)的機(jī)構(gòu)，每個(gè)學(xué)生都必須經(jīng)過(guò)該機(jī)構(gòu)來(lái)申請(qǐng)大學(xué))也更改了大學(xué)申請(qǐng)書(shū)的形式，新申請(qǐng)書(shū)增加了申請(qǐng)者填寫(xiě)畢業(yè)學(xué)校和社會(huì)背景的要求。
為此，湯恩德表示，高等院校留出專門(mén)名額招收公立學(xué)校的學(xué)生是不公平的，學(xué)生進(jìn)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(bào)道說(shuō)，伊頓公學(xué)去年對(duì)該校11歲的入學(xué)申請(qǐng)者進(jìn)行了心理學(xué)考試，而這些考試題通常都是針對(duì)大學(xué)三年級(jí)的學(xué)生設(shè)立的。伊頓公學(xué)表示，心理測(cè)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.
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