Discussion questions

1. According to Conventional Wisdom, why should students attend college?

2. The author states that college is no longer appropriate for every one. What examples does she give to support this view? Do you believe that college is for everyone?

3. What do college graduates say about the kind of work they would like to do? What is the realistic outlook in these “world-saving fields? ” Recount the statistics given.

4. What jobs are there to be filled in the next few years? Are courses being offered in colleges to prepare students for these jobs? In your opinion, should colleges prepare students for these fields?

5. Such professionals as doctors, lawyers, and engineers run special risks. What are they? Should colleges limit the number of these graduates so that those who graduate will be able to find jobs?

6. Of what value is a diploma to an employer?

7. What is the value of a college education, in your opinion?

V. Complete the following questionnaire:

1. What can you say about the trends in the British educational system? Is it moving towards greater or lesser uniformity? Towards more or less provision before and after the years of compulsory schooling? Concentrating more on purely academic subjects or on more practical ones?

2. Here are the ten subjects which, according to the national curriculum for England, must be taught in the first three years of secondary education: English Mathematics (Maths), Science, Technology, History, Geography, a modern foreign language (French is the most common), Art, Music and Physical Education (PE). Is there anything here that surprises you? Do you think any other subjects should be included? Are these the main subjects taught in your country?

3. Would you say that people in your country are more or less enthusiastic about university education than they are in Britain?

4. In what ways has the pursuit of equality for all affected the development of the educational system in Britain? Would you say that there was equality of opportunity in the present system?

5. What would you say are the successes and failures of the British educational system? What things, if any, does it appear to do well, and what areas does it seem to neglect or do badly in?

6. Where would you like to study in the UK? Why? How is the Russian educational system different to the system in the UK, the USA? Do you think students of your country are in a better or worse position than students in other countries? Make up a comparative table ‘Education in the UK, the USA, Russia. Present it to the group.

7. It is common these days for 18-year-old school leavers to take a ‘gap year’. Instead of going to university immediately after their A-levels, they go traveling for a year or do charity work abroad, often in exotic locations. Popular destinations for British gap year students are Australia, India and South Africa. If you could take a gap year, where would you go and what would you do? Analyze the advantages and disadvantages of a gap year.

8. What causes stress for American high school students? Read the statistics and say if it would be roughly the same in your country? Pressure to get good grades – 44%, pressure to get into college – 32%, pressure to fit in socially – 29%, pressure to use drugs or alcohol – 19%, pressure to have a boyfriend/girlfriend – 13%.

9. At what age do children start school in your country? When do they take major exams? Do you think those ages are appropriate? What are the advantages and disadvantages of encouraging very young children to study and be successful? Think about: making the most of your abilities, getting good qualifications, getting a good job, being different from other children, free time, stress.

10. Project work: You are to research a particular educational Institution: a university or an institute and to create a large illustrated wall map. You should collect as much information as possible about the institution:

a) download maps, pictures, and texts from the Internet;

b) include something anecdotal or legendary for interest;

c) establish whether there is a source of video material available;

d) each group looks at the detailed information they have collected and decides how they are going to present it;

e) give your short prepared presentation on the institute and then pool all the materials that have been collected;

f) you will have a fixed amount of time to present your findings to the rest of the class;

g) work on producing the largest possible wall map. Each group may need to work on a different section of the map;

h) write up the accompanying texts and to put these up beside the relevant sites. You can illustrate the map with pictures, photos from leaflets to make one huge map collage.

* * *

if I were…

A student I would write a letter to my parents describing a day in my student life. ‘Describe’ is a keyword. More important than the actual events of the days are your reaction to them. They should come to life for the reader and this will depend on your ability to describe them effectively and from your chosen viewpoint humour and/or irony may well prove useful. The introduction and conclusion should provide a perspective on the day’s activities.

A teacher I would write a formal letter to the Department of Russian Education suggesting my ideas concerning the further developments of the education. Try to be convincing in defending your views (About 350 words).

A student I would suggest discussing the problem of testing a person's knowledge and ability. There are many ways of assessing student's learning, his academic achievements. You are offered the article on this problem. Study it, answer the questions that follow the article and then discuss the problem with your group mates. Are you for or against? Key words, arguments and counter-arguments are meant to help you.

EXAMINATIONS EXERT A PERNICIOUS
INFLUENCE ON EDUCATON

We might marvel at the progress made in every field of study, but the methods of testing a person's knowledge and ability remain as primitive as ever they were. It really is extraordinary that after all these years, educationists have still failed to devise anything more efficient and reliable 5 than examinations. For all the pious claim that examinations test what you know, it is common knowledge that they more often do the exact opposite. They may be a good means of testing memory, or the knack of working rapidly under extreme pressure, but they can tell you nothing about a person's true ability and aptitude.

As anxiety-makers, examinations are second to none. That is because so much depends on them. They are the mark of success or failure in our society. Your whole future may be decided in one fateful day. It doesn't matter that you weren't feeling very well, or that your mother died. Little things like that don't count: the exam goes on. No one can give of his best when he is in mortal terror, or after a sleepless night, yet this is precisely what the examination system expects him to do. The moment a child begins school, he enters a world of vicious competition where success and failure are clearly defined and measured. Can we wonder at the increasing number of 'drop-outs': young people who are written off as utter failures before they have even embarked on a career? Can we be surprised at the suicide rate among students?

A good education should, among other things, train you to think for yourself. The examination system does anything but that. What has to be learnt is rigidly laid down by a syllabus, so the student is encouraged to memorize. Examinations do not motivate a student to read widely, but to restrict his reading; they do not enable him to seek more and more knowledge, but induce cramming. They lower the standards of teaching, for they deprive the teacher of all freedom. Teachers themselves are often judged by examination results and instead of teaching their subjects, they are reduced to training their students in exam techniques which they despise. The most successful candidates are not always the best educated; they are the best trained in the technique of working under duress.

The results on which so much depends are often nothing more than a subjective assessment by some anonymous examiner. Examiners are only human. They get tired and hungry; they make mistakes. Yet they have to mark stacks of hastily scrawled scripts in a limited amount of time. They work under the same sort of pressure as the candidates. And their word carries weight. After a judge's decision you have the right of appeal, but not after an examiner's. There must surely be many simpler and more effective ways of assessing a person's true abilities. Is it cynical to suggest that examinations are merely a profitable business for the institutions that run them? This is what it boils down to in the last analysis. The best comment on the system is this illiterate message recently scrawled on a wall: “I were a teenage drop-out and now I are a teenage millionaire.”

(From “For and Against” by L.G Alexander)