Education

***WARNING: Boredom may ensue! Few pictures exist in this post, simply some interesting things I have learned.

Education:
We've had two different lectures now on the education system in our British Life and Culture class. The first was about the structure: primary, secondary, sixth form college, and then university. Primary and secondary is similar to our elementary, middle and high schools, but it ends at age 16. At this point, according to our tour guide Deborah, 60% of students decide school is done for them, and enter the workforce (remember this). The kids that want a future continue on to a college, like an extended high school for us.

When that is completed, students are 18. Most go on a 'gap year' of working and/or traveling before they attend university. The United States needs this!! Imagine graduating high school and then seeing the world and experiencing a work environment before entering the madness of college! Most of the lecturers we've spoken to say the students who take a gap year make it though their first year at uni with more success.

About the English university: three years is the typical length to attend and students are usually given living quarters for all three years. Most importantly, before 2006, the tuition to attend college was ZERO POUNDS! Literally, students paid nothing besides living costs and books to attend uni. In the last three years, Parliament instated a fee to combat the rising cost of education. This fee is 3,145 pounds per year. With the exchange rate, the fee equals $4,561.25.

I'm going to let that sink in for people paying out of state tuition, or have thousands in student loans, or no government aid. (Pause for dramatic effect) Three years at $4,561 equals $13,683.75 in tuition for a degree from ANY university in the UK. Who wants to transfer?

Money should not be an objection for any person in the UK. The fact that only 40% of students decide to take advantage of really cheap uni makes me sick to my stomach.

However, I understand since education is cheap, universities can be much more selective. Deborah told us that Oxford required entrance exams and then held interviews for the different colleges in Oxford. One interview, the student walked in to a table with 10 men, one of which said, "entertain us." Another walked into an interview to find his questioners all reading newspapers. He set fire to the newspapers with a lighter. He got in.

Radcliffe’s Camera sits next to the first building that famous English architect Christopher Wren designed. This was his only building before designing St. Paul’s cathedral after the London fire.

Moving on, the class lecture the night before, our speaker, a Cambridge graduate student in economics and class told us that unless our parents had been educated in with a high-class education, it was unlikely we would ever rise in statute. He related class directly to education and used parents' class as the only definition. As Americans, this infuriated most of us. Our new president is black, was raised by his grandma, and was far from wealthy before working his way through school and earning a high-paying job. Thankfully, Deborah contradicted almost everything he said the next day.

Close to Oxford is the Eagle and Child pub. No mom and dad, I didn’t just go to a pub during a field trip. This ‘bird and baby’ pub is famous, dating back to 1650. J.R.R Tolkien and C.S. Lewis frequented the pub while living in Oxford, and occasionally wrote there. They called themselves ‘the inklings’ and nicknamed the pub ‘bird and baby.’ The place also has the most amazing, rich, perfectly perfected chocolate cake and ice cream.

Christchurch is also near Oxford and has a university along with the cathedral. This is also where Lewis Carroll was urged to write down all the stories he told to a little girl named Alice and her friends. Under this willow tree, the Adventures of Alice in Wonderland were created.

I was powerfully affected by the British Museum. We had an amazing tour guide, but I think even without his sickening amount of knowledge, I would have loved every second of it. Before we even reached an exhibit, Mark told us about the ceiling of the building. He said over 3,000 individual planes of three sided glass were used. Although all were triangular, each were different had to be separately made for a specific angle in the dome. While I settled for the term- beautiful, Mark chose aesthetically pleasing. His definition of aestheticism was regularities with minute irregularities. We see them to be all uniform, but with small differences.Later, we saw the top edges of the Parthenon that had been brought over to the UK by Lord Elgin. Artists carved horses and riders into the edges going to a tribute for Athena. Every horse had a rider and at first all looked the same. Then, we noticed every few horses, a soldier would be turned around, or a horse head would be tilted up or down: aesthetically pleasing.

The first exhibit we saw were the temple walls of the Assyrians, who lived from approximately 2400 bc. That would make this wall about 4400 years old. Through the wall carvings, we learned the difference between warriors and the overtaking of the Jews.

After seeing an original statue of the Pharaoh Ramesses, we looked at this bath’s hieroglyphs. Mark told us that in hieroglyphics, each sign was one or more phonetic sounds, like our letters. Unfortunately, they had over 400 symbols. Image an ‘s’ symbol and than a ‘t’ symbol, but also an ‘st’ letter… confusing.

The Rosetta Stone. As in the real one. The original. History folks.

Here, an ancient Egyptian accountant named Nebanon is depected. He loved his cats and was intentionally unrealistically pictured to show off his strengths. Mark said this was the most famous Egyptian painting and one of the most famous frescos.
A really funny part of the tour was when we were going through the Egypt section. Mark said, “Does anyone know where the largest compilation of mummies is?” Of course, none of us knew, a few murmured Egypt, but then he got all mysterious and answered his own question, “Upstairs.” Didn’t see that one coming.
This is the lady Henutmehyt from around 1213 BC. She was buried with bling, indicating wealth. She was only about 158 cm (a little over 5 feet) and was a ginger. The oddest death fact for me was that she suffered from emphysema, even though smoking hadn’t been invented yet.
The most interactive exhibit at the Tate Britain Museum is bamboo hanging from a ceiling. Called “What Falls to the Ground, but Can’t Be Eaten,” the bamboo creates a loud and sometimes painful exhibit if whacked with one of the hard shafts. The artwork is by Vong Phaophanit, and is one of his most sensory works.

The weekend after Wales, I stayed in London and had the pleasure of reuniting with my international camp friends. Living in all parts of England, we all gathered in London and had one hell of a weekend.
Next weekend: Glasgow, Scotland.