Why Go to School?

Lesson 19

                                      Why Go to School?

                                            Text A
MATTHEW:   Lesley, you're a teacher. How does the English school system work?
LESLEY:   Um, well, first of all most children start school at the age of five and they  
   can't leave school until the age of sixteen , which is just , you know , the age
   the age of five until eleven. . . um, and previously¹ they used to take an e~even
   plus examination which would then determine whether they would go to a grammar
   school or alternatively a secondary modern school. But now we have a... a new
   systen where children aren't divided off at the age of eleven and will go into a
   comprehensive system ofschooling, and. . . will do the things that they're best 
   able to do at certain ages and if they want to take the exams they are able to
   at. . . at the age of sixteen.
MATTHEW:   Do you think that's a . . . an improvement to th system?
LESLEY:   Well,... mm, theoretically... it's supposed t be much better because it gives. . .
   it stops separating children off at the age of eleven and gives them a
   better chance, and in fact what usually happens is that those children who
   wouldn't. . . er who would have gone to a grammar school tend to be at the
   top end of the comprehensive system, and those that would have gone to
   secondarymodern school find themselves at the lower levels of the school.
MAT'THEW:   Do you think that the present school system is an efficient way of
   educating children?
LESLEY   Mm. . . well if you , if you accept that , you know , there have to be schools,  
   it seems to work fairly efficiently². Of course one of our great problems in
   England is that we have very large cl'asses and. . . um, it would be very nice
   in a class, there are only twenty. . . mm and so that each child gets more
   individual attention so that their own particular needs just aren't passed over.
MATTHEW   Do you think the. . . the subjects that er. . . children study today are
   adapted to present-day society?
LESLEY   It would be very good if... er, more children at school had the opportunity of
   learning about the society they live in... in economic terms and in social
   terms , so that they are much more aware of the problems that we face today.
   But I also think that education isn't only something that has to be. . . has
   to be relevant. . . um, I think education can be just a. .. a gradual  
   extension of one self , and I don't think it's um. . . importarit for
   subjects to be seen only in terms of how useful they are when you leave
   school. . . but how much you enjoy them and how much they mean to you.
MATTHEW   David, what would you do in an average day at school?
DAVID   Um... it mainly consists of English and Maths, which takes up a lot of the
   lesson time and then. . . um. . . like on Mondays , for example. . .er,
   we would do ...er, I don't know, Maths, English, Art, History and then
   Tuesdays would be some more English, probably ... um, His tory , Reiigious  
   studies , Physics , whatever taking now which is `O' level , which is... is
   nine subjects in all.
MATTHEW   I see, so you can choose. . . the subject you want to take for 'O' level...
   You don't have to take. . . every subject in the schdol?
DAVID   No,.... no, no.
MATTHEW   What about games. . . er and drama and things like that?
DAVID   We have about an hour and a half of games a week, and for about an hour a week 
   we. . . do a. . . a thing known as er. . . social studies, which is
   um... it's a kind of a cross-section of... er what life wili be after we
   we leave school. . . Um. . . where we do drama. .. a . . . we study
   ecology,sociology et cetera... Um, it's not 'O' level, we don't take an 'O'
   level in it, it's just for er... expersence.
 
MATTHEW   janet, do you... think that your daughters gain a tremendous amount from
   their education?
JANET   I think they. . . they gain a certain amount of um... necessary knowledge,
   yes,but I wish it was broader. I wish that instead of being driven    
   towards passing exams that they had, certainly at this stage of adolescence³' ,
   the chance to really broaden their outlook' completely and not feel this
   necessity to read towards passing an exam , to collecting a piece
   of paper at the end of it.
MATTHEW   Er. . . do you have any specific ways in which you think. . . time at
   school could be improved?
JANET   Yes , I think there could be a. . . a lot more encouragement in doing
   things for their own sake, for getting the satisfaction out of   them... um,
   rather than this 'rat race' that everybody's forced into. . . um... for what
   is achieved at the end. I think . . . a lot more should be done to encourage
   people to get the value out of it themselves.
MATTHEW   Do you think that er. . . education is just something that takes place  
   inside a school building , or is . it a. . . an activity which takes
   place not only outside but right the way through your life?
JANET   I think it starts the moment you're born, and . . . er... that it's going on 
   all around you. It's notjust taking place in a school building. . .
   um it should be. . . part of your whole life.

                            
                                            Text B

   In 1967, The Observer, one of Britain's leading Sunday newspapers papers , organized a competition for secondary school-children ; they had to write about "The School that I'd Like". This meant , of course , that they also had to say what was wrong with the schools they had.

David , 15
But what is the main purpose of schools to educate young people so that when they go out into thewvorld they will be prepared for ~t? But are they? We learn our Mathematics, English, Physics, etc. , but what do you learn about sex, marriage and things like this? These are just as important but we don't learn very much about them.

Carol , 17
Give us more variety! Give us the chance to visit factories more frequently , to talk with miners , dustmen , doctors , lawyers , jail-birds and drug addicts⁴, too. Give us the chance to visit remand mand homes and prisons. We want to know more about life and less about books.

Robin⁵, 16
What a bore school is nowadays, the same as it has been for hunireds of years. What we get is the same old thing: teacher, outdated
textbooks , and a class fed up to the teeth with the teacher and the school. What we need is one great change in the educational system of the country. Children do not want to be taught at, but want to find things for themselves. If a child is interested in the way a rabbit's heart works, let him go and find out, by cutting one up.

Irena , 15
Homework should not be given. Many of us would rather spend another hour at school than two hours at home doing an hour's homework, where we are constantly being distracted by television
and such things.

Sidney, 15
The first step must surely be to raise teachers'salaries by at least fifty per cent so as to attract first-class people to the profession. And the only means of doing this is by offering salaries equal to their responsibility in shaping the hopes of tomorrow and competitive with those offered by industry.

Christopher, 16
The discipline and life of the school would be based on freedom for the pupil. So freedom and a minimum of control would be important and the pupils, male and female, would be treated as adults and allowed to see if they can live together in a community like intelligent people. Given this responsibility and freedom, the pupils obviously would not always be well-behaved and sensible, but they would, I believe, grow up to be mature and intelligent adults who are socially and in all other ways, useful to the community.

Margaret , 14
. . . all this (i. e. freedom in schools) suggests that the school would always be chaotic⁶, which would give all the. pupils an insihgt into what life, after school, is like: chaos⁷.

 

                                Additional Information

    I am beginning ro feel the pressure of work. None of the courses are as simple as they appear to be. There are a lot of reference books to consult and you can consider yourself lucky if you manage to get half of them from the Iibrary. Most copies seem to be permanently⁸ lent out. The reading rooms are always crowded and you have to get there early in order to find a place.

    The biggest headache is our dormitory. Though there are desks for us to work at, nobody ever works there. For one thing, the room is so crowded that there is little elbow room, and it is so dark that we need the electric light even in day time. The worst is the human element - there are always those who don't want to work and won't let others work either. They either chat, sing, play the guitar or listen to tapes. How I miss my little cubicle⁹ of a room at home!

    Perhaps it's only a reaction against my early excitement, but anyway I am often overcome by low spirits. Sometimes I even think I am wasting my time here and wish I had not come here at all. But of course I know they are only passing moods caused by my disillusionment. I find some of the teachers just hopeless and totally irresponsible. All they are interested in is to earn some extra money by moonlighting. In one way. they are to be sympathized with because they do need the extra money what .with their low salaries and the rising prices. But surely they shouldn't let us suffer as a result.

    My biggest disappointment is in my fellow students. Of course I am ceferring only to some, and perhaps they are only a minority. They are a far cry from my old image of college students. They dress and behave no better than the hooligans we often see in the streets. I really don't know how they managed to get into the university, for they don't seem to be interested in their studies at all.

 All they care for is to have a good time , as though to enter university is an end in itself. They hold dances every Saturday evening or play cards in the dormitories deep into the night , drinking and smoking heavily. What's more they always jump the queue in the dining halls and quarrel with anyone who tries to stop them. Once they even came to blows. What a disgrace!

    But despite all this, college life is opening up for me a new vista¹⁰ that brings as much excitement as enlightenment. Here we can talk about anything under the sun. I had always thought myself well-read and my classmates at school had looked up to me for my wide "general knowledge". But now I've come to realize how ignorant I really am.

Just from casual conversaation and informal discussions , I've learnt more about the wvorld and society in the past two months than what I learned from all the fo.rmal classes at school. Also I found many extra-curricula lectures by guest speakers most stimulating¹¹. One in particular inspired me very much, a lecture on symphonic music by a young conductor from the Central Conservatory¹². Before, music used to be merely a collection of beautiful sounds to me. But now I am constantly discovering new and hidden meaning behind all these sounds.
    One thing I am sure; college life is and will be a most colourful and fruitful period in my whole life.

 

1 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。

2 efficiently   

adv.高效率地，有能力地

参考例句：

• The worker oils the machine to operate it more efficiently.工人给机器上油以使机器运转更有效。
• Local authorities have to learn to allocate resources efficiently.地方政府必须学会有效地分配资源。

3 adolescence   

n.青春期，青少年

参考例句：

• Adolescence is the process of going from childhood to maturity.青春期是从少年到成年的过渡期。
• The film is about the trials and tribulations of adolescence.这部电影讲述了青春期的麻烦和苦恼。

4 addicts   

有…瘾的人( addict的名词复数 )； 入迷的人

参考例句：

• a unit for rehabilitating drug addicts 帮助吸毒者恢复正常生活的机构
• There is counseling to help Internet addicts?even online. 有咨询机构帮助网络沉迷者。 来自超越目标英语 第3册

5 robin   

n.知更鸟，红襟鸟

参考例句：

• The robin is the messenger of spring.知更鸟是报春的使者。
• We knew spring was coming as we had seen a robin.我们看见了一只知更鸟，知道春天要到了。

6 chaotic   

adj.混沌的，一片混乱的，一团糟的

参考例句：

• Things have been getting chaotic in the office recently.最近办公室的情况越来越乱了。
• The traffic in the city was chaotic.这城市的交通糟透了。

7 chaos   

n.混乱，无秩序

参考例句：

• After the failure of electricity supply the city was in chaos.停电后，城市一片混乱。
• The typhoon left chaos behind it.台风后一片混乱。

8 permanently   

adv.永恒地，永久地，固定不变地

参考例句：

• The accident left him permanently scarred.那次事故给他留下了永久的伤疤。
• The ship is now permanently moored on the Thames in London.该船现在永久地停泊在伦敦泰晤士河边。

9 cubicle   

n.大房间中隔出的小室

参考例句：

• She studies in a cubicle in the school library.她在学校图书馆的小自习室里学习。
• A technical sergeant hunches in a cubicle.一位技术军士在一间小屋里弯腰坐着。

10 vista   

n.远景，深景，展望，回想

参考例句：

• From my bedroom window I looked out on a crowded vista of hills and rooftops.我从卧室窗口望去，远处尽是连绵的山峦和屋顶。
• These uprisings come from desperation and a vista of a future without hope.发生这些暴动是因为人们被逼上了绝路，未来看不到一点儿希望。

11 stimulating   

adj.有启发性的，能激发人思考的

参考例句：

• shower gel containing plant extracts that have a stimulating effect on the skin 含有对皮肤有益的植物精华的沐浴凝胶
• This is a drug for stimulating nerves. 这是一种兴奋剂。

12 conservatory   

n.温室，音乐学院；adj.保存性的，有保存力的

参考例句：

• At the conservatory,he learned how to score a musical composition.在音乐学校里，他学会了怎样谱曲。
• The modern conservatory is not an environment for nurturing plants.这个现代化温室的环境不适合培育植物。