Topic 2.1 how to work miracles in education class 3

1

. Look at the photo on the right. Do you recognize the place? It has been around for many centuries, by the way. If need be, ask your teacher for more information.

2. Watch at episode from a video guided tour of one of the most picturesque places in merry old England. Take notes. Would you love to visit the place? If yes, then in what capacity?

3. Work in pairs. Share ideas on British education, especially old universities. What do you know about their reputation in the world?

4. Read the beginning of a story written by a contemporary British writer. Say what made the two star students shine even brighter.

Old love

by Jeffrey Archer

Some people, it is said, fall in love at first sight but that was not what happened to William Hatchard and Philippa Jameson. They hated each other from the moment they met. This mutual loathing commenced at the first tutorial of their freshmen terms. Both had come up in the early thirties with major scholarships to read English lan­guage and literature, William to Merton, Philippa to Somerville. Each had been reliably assured by their school­teachers that they would be the star pupil of their year.

Their tutor, Simon Jakes of New College, was both bemused and amused by the ferocious competition that so quickly developed between his two brightest pupils, and be used their enmity skillfully to bring out the best in both of them without ever allowing either to indulge in outright abuse.

Philippa, an attractive, slim red-head with a rather high-pitched voice, was the same height as William so she conducted as many other arguments as possible standing in newly acquired high-heeled shoes, while William, whose deep voice had an air of authority, would always try to expound his opinions from a sitting position. The more intense their rivalry became the harder the one tried to outdo the other. By the end of their first year they were far ahead of their contemporaries while remaining neck and neck with each other. Simon Jakes told the Merton Pro­fessor of Anglo-Saxon Studies that he had never had a brighter pair up in the same year and that it wouldn't be long before they were holding their own with him.

During the long vacation both worked to a gruelling timetable, always imagining the other would be doing a little more. They stripped bare Blake, Wordsworth, Cole­ridge, Shelley, Byron, and only went to bed with Keats. When they returned for the second year, they found that absence had made the heart grow even more hostile; and when they were both awarded alpha plus for their essays on Beowulf, it didn't help. Simon Jakes remarked at New College high table one night that if Philippa Jameson had been born a boy some of his tutorials would undoubtedly have ended in blows.

'Why don't you separate them?' asked the Warden, sleepily.

'What, and double my work-load?' said Jakes. 'They teach each other most of the time: I merely act as referee.'

Occasionally the adversaries would seek his adjudi­cation as to who was ahead of whom, and so confident was each of being the favored pupil that one would always ask in the other's hearing. Jakes was far too canny to be drawn; instead he would remind them that the examiners would be the final arbiters. So they began their own subterfuge by referring to each other, just in earshot, as 'that silly woman', and 'that arrogant man'. By the end of their second year they were almost unable to remain in the same room together.

In the long vacation William took a passing interest in Al Jolson and a girl called Ruby while Philippa flirted with the Charleston and a young naval lieutenant from Dartmouth. But when term started in earnest these inter­ludes were never admitted and soon forgotten.

At the beginning of their third year they both, on Simon Jakes' advice, entered for the Charles Oldham Shakespeare prize along with every other student in the year who was considered likely to gain a first. The Charles Oldham was awarded for an essay on a set aspect of Shakespeare's work, and Philippa and William both realised that this would be the only time in their aca­demic lives that they would be tested against each other in closed competition. Surreptitiously, they worked their separate ways through the entire Shakespearian canon, from Henry VI to Henry VIII, and kept Jakes well over his appointed tutorial hours, demanding more and more refined discussion of more and more obscure points.

The chosen theme for the prize essay that year was 'Satire in Shakespeare'. Troilus and Cressida clearly called for the most attention but both found there were nuances in virtually every one of the bard's thirty-seven plays. 'Not to mention a gross of sonnets,' wrote Philippa home to her father in a rare moment of self-doubt. As the year drew to a close it became obvious to all con­cerned that either William or Philippa had to win the prize while the other would undoubtedly come second. Nevertheless no one was willing to venture an opinion as to who the victor would be. The New College porter, an expert in these matters, opening his usual book for the Charles Oldham, made them both evens, ten to one the rest of the field.

Before the prize essay submission date was due, they both had to sit their final degree examinations. Philippa and William confronted the examination papers every morning and afternoon for two weeks with an appetite that bordered on the vulgar. It came as no surprise to anyone that they both achieved first-class degrees in the final honours school. Rumour spread around the Univer­sity that the two rivals had been awarded alphas in every one of their nine papers.

I would be willing to believe that is the case,' Philippa told William. 'But I feel I must point out to you that there is a considerable difference between an alpha plus and an alpha minus.'

I couldn't agree with you more,' said William. 'And when you discover who has won the Charles Oldham, you will know who was awarded less.'

With only three weeks left before the prize essay had to be handed in they both worked twelve hours a day, falling asleep over open text books, dreaming that the other was still beavering away. When the appointed hour came they met in the marble-floored entrance hall of the Examination Schools.

'Good morning, William, I do hope your efforts will manage to secure a place in the first six.'

'Thank you, Philippa. If they don't I shall look for the names C. S. Lewis, Nichol Smith, Nevil Coghill, Edmund Blunden, R. W. Chambers and H. W. Garrard ahead of me. There's certainly no one else in the field to worry about.'

‘I am only pleased,' said Philippa, as if she had not heard his reply, 'that you were not seated next to me when I wrote my essay, thus ensuring for the first time in three years that you weren't able to crib from my notes.'

'The only item I have ever cribbed from you, Philippa, was the Oxford to London timetable, and that I dis­covered later to be out-of-date, which was in keeping with the rest of your efforts.'

They both handed in their twenty-five-thousand-word essays to the collector's office in the Examination Schools and left without a further word, returning to their respective colleges impatiently to await the result.

4. Work in small groups. Think of a continuation of the story line. According to the logic of the beginning, how should the story – almost fairy-tale-like – end?

5. Have a competition in class for BEST ENDING. Present your ideas and ask the teacher to act as a judge.

6. Work in small groups. There are some socio-cultural facts mentioned in the excerpt. Do you know what they are and who the people are? Does this knowledge contribute to the overall understanding of the excerpt? In what way?

• Merton

• Keats

• Shelley

• Byron

• Coleridge

• Blake

• Somerville

• Wordsworth

• the Charleston

• St. Anne’s

• New College

• the Charles Oldham Prize

• Al Jolson

• the Warden

7. Speaking of names, one is very often remembered today, William Blake. Enjoy reading one of Blake’s poems. Do you think Oxford scholars might take profound interest in such texts?

ETERNITY

He who binds to himself a joy

Does the winged life destroy.

He who kisses the joy as it flies

Lives in eternity's sunrise.

8. Work in pairs. Study the excerpt yet once again and pick out all the words and phrases connected to the process of education at Oxford University. Pay special attention to the way classes and exams are held, papers are graded and students are stimulated. There is also a list of proper names which may seem less familiar save one. Which one? Who were those people and why are they mentioned here?

9. Work in small groups. Discuss the phenomenon of competition in education? How healthy and unhealthy can it be? What consequences can it provoke?

10. Work individually. Write down your ideas on the importance of having a little bit of competition in class (150 words).