Last week I was doing mock interviews at a very good local school. This kind of work takes you down one of two directions mainly related to sensations of despair or joy. At this school I was pleased to be feeling the latter. The pupils were knowledgeable, interesting, inspiring and likeable. They were articulate – even here in the heart of chavspeak – and impassioned. Some of them talked so enthusiastically about their subjects that I found myself thinking “Yes, I’d like to study that subject too” – and that’s saying something when you’re interviewing an applicant for physics.
I find myself thinking wistfully back to that age when my overwhelming motivation in terms of the future was to leave school as soon as legally possible, leave home and get a job. I had never heard of university - people from my background were not encouraged to have aspirations. These days schools are well equipped with careers libraries, advisors and opportunities to investigate university options - at my school 21 years ago when I was about to leave, 'careers advice' constituted a visit to a dusty little office in the local town, staffed by a dusty old lady, to look in the dusty filing cabinet sparsely populated with ancient yellowing leaflets. The options were extreme - hairdressing, or join the army. Or, if you were really ambitious, you could get a job at the local Argyll wellie boot factory or the nearby nuclear power plant.
But back to the mock interviews. I'm sitting on one side of a very small table, so the applicant is very close to me.Young person number 6 comes in with a passion for English Lit, for which he's applied to some of our 'best' universities. I ask him "What have you been reading lately?" to which he replies "The Wife of Bath" (Chaucer). I say "What do you think of it?". He leans forward on one arm, with the other hand stroking a recent beard he's grown, looks deeply into my eyes and says "It's quite sexual".
Can't fault him for honesty, but it's an unusual answer in an interview. Let's hope Oxford are impressed.
2 comments:
Sadly, many of the careers advice available to some schoolers nowadays hasn't progressed very much. I still hear of people who have been disheartened from ever applying to any remotely 'good' institutions because their careers advisers have told them you need a string of A* grades at GCSEs to even be considered for interview.
Lmao at the gutsy kid at the end! :D
Yes, that is true - see that all the time with people who want to apply for 'competitive' courses and who are told not to - often completely inaccurately.
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