oh - over here everything is marked by external examiners. I am semi-privileged as I went to a private school and come from a relatively educated family (parents didn't have degrees, but read lots of social science and anarchism books and English literature), although I also had a shite childhood and was very poor and hungry. So I suppose I count as intelligent. I don't think I would have got to Cambridge without private school, though. Smaller and quieter classes and more individual attention make all the difference (my school wasn't better grade-wise than the good state schools). My friends from state schools who went to Oxford had much more stable family backgrounds, more money, and more professional qualified parents who had jobs.
But it is very hard to imagine Bush had MUCH intelligence. Maybe he had loads of extra tuition. Or got in on the basis of sports or something. I think it was easier back in them days for posh people because the interview process would have involved lots of cronies who knew each other. In fact one person I knew who wrote for the New Statesman allegedly got into Oxford due to family connections. Although someone I knew (my friend's mother who edited the Good Book Guide) went to Yale in the 70s and came from a normal middle-ish class Jewish New Jersey family. But then she was extremely intelligent. Hey ho.
I wish I had brains back but would rather just be happy and able to do things like riding horses over mountains and diving in coral reefs and stuff.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-12-27 11:10 pm (UTC)I am semi-privileged as I went to a private school and come from a relatively educated family (parents didn't have degrees, but read lots of social science and anarchism books and English literature), although I also had a shite childhood and was very poor and hungry. So I suppose I count as intelligent. I don't think I would have got to Cambridge without private school, though. Smaller and quieter classes and more individual attention make all the difference (my school wasn't better grade-wise than the good state schools). My friends from state schools who went to Oxford had much more stable family backgrounds, more money, and more professional qualified parents who had jobs.
But it is very hard to imagine Bush had MUCH intelligence. Maybe he had loads of extra tuition. Or got in on the basis of sports or something. I think it was easier back in them days for posh people because the interview process would have involved lots of cronies who knew each other. In fact one person I knew who wrote for the New Statesman allegedly got into Oxford due to family connections. Although someone I knew (my friend's mother who edited the Good Book Guide) went to Yale in the 70s and came from a normal middle-ish class Jewish New Jersey family. But then she was extremely intelligent. Hey ho.
I wish I had brains back but would rather just be happy and able to do things like riding horses over mountains and diving in coral reefs and stuff.