Re: Tim the Bishop

Paul Wright <-$P-W$-@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

In article <1175251916.997238.315280@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Paul
wrote:
A hereditary peerage in the family still works wonders today for
getting that MA (Oxon). By having money, going to the right schools,
knowing the right people, going to the right crammer, having the right
tutor, being instilled with confidence in his (meagre) ability, going
to the right church, knowing what books to read (Dawkins perchance?),
being drilled how to act at interview, 'Tim nice but dim', still
makes it to Oxbridge when brighter comprehesive kids go to Armpit
College...

Anyone thinking of applying for a biological science should have read
Dawkins, I'd've thought.

If the government took much more account of which schools prosepective
students went to when allocating Oxbriidge places then watch bog-
standard comprehensives improve greatly as Tims flood there in droves,
taking their parent's money and upper-middle class confidence for
berating teachers with them...

The goverment doesn't allocate Oxbridge places. Individual colleges
handle their own admissions (though there was talk recently of Oxford
centralising admissions, it came to nothing AFAIK). They seemed to be
quite keen on providing access to people from schools who wouldn't
usually send people to Oxbridge.

I don't believe I met anyone at Cambridge who matched the "Tim"
stereotype, but that may have been down to my choice of college and
subject (Churchill, a "new" college, and Natural Sciences, rather than,
say, Land Economy).

The Sciences are a working to lower middle class activity. It's what
generally happens to the kids of those whose parents are not either rich
or professional. The children of lawyers, doctors, dentists etc become
lawyers, doctors, dentists etc. It's one of the reasons why the standard
of dress in biological science depts is so appalling. Gets worse the
closer the proximity to medics. My last lab was in the hospital but not
of it. To a man and woman the lab heads wore scruffy tea shirts and
jeans. I kid you not.

Peter
--
Add my middle initial to email me. It has become attached to a country
www.the-brights.net
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Tim the Bishop
    ... By having money, going to the right schools, ... knowing the right people, going to the right crammer, having the right ... subject (Churchill, a "new" college, and Natural Sciences, rather than, ...
    (uk.religion.christian)
  • Re: Tim the Bishop
    ... knowing the right people, going to the right crammer, having the right ... tutor, being instilled with confidence in his ability, going ... Anyone thinking of applying for a biological science should have read ... Dawkins, I'd've thought. ...
    (uk.religion.christian)