One story in the Daily Mail
has given space to the loons who suggest that the St. Andrew's University post
graduate Prince William's three decent School A Level's are not good enough to
allow him to do a ten week course on estate management at Cambridge University on
the grounds of his birth and ethnic origins.
There was a time when a
chap might get into a College as an undergraduate with far worse A Level's if
he was good enough in certain sports or music or some field of interest. And it did not matter what his background
was.
Of more interest were
other Mail stories. Recent developments in science and technology are enabling
us to discover in much greater detail the meaning and nature of what we have
found from the deep past.
It has become a much more
complicated and interesting place than previous historians and archaeologists
have thought.
Two pictures, above, have
featured in the Mail recently. One is
the Mail showing its fervent loyalty by looking in detail at Prince Harry's
hair loss and asking silly questions.
The other picture is a
scientific reconstruction of the head and looks of a man who lived almost 5000
years ago and whose remains were discovered near Stonehenge.
It is possible to suggest
that he was a man of high status, who fed well and was above average height for
the period.
Times may change but do
people?
I don't know how it is now, but 30 years ago, if you passed the competitive entrance exam and interview, most colleges asked for only two Cs at A-level (or the equivalent in Scottish Highers) to satisfy the matriculation requirements.
ReplyDeleteThe exam, though much maligned, gave candidates from schools with a poor academic record a chance to demonstrate their knowledge and reasoning ability directly to university staff - a far fairer method than today's personal statements, which may or may not be pupils' unaided work.
Although the private sector entrenched their advantage by allowing pupils to stay on post-A level (while pupils at other establishments had to take it a year earlier), the exam was a highly effective tool of social mobility. Sadly, that particular baby was thrown out with the bathwater in the process of reform.
As for the pictures, the resemblance to the ancient chap may be striking, but surely Harry's beard is just too Plantagenet for words!