From pericles@astro.temple.edu Fri Jun 23 12:29:13 2000 Received: from mxu1.u.washington.edu (mxu1.u.washington.edu [140.142.32.8]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW00.05/8.9.3+UW99.09) with ESMTP id MAA15348 for ; Fri, 23 Jun 2000 12:29:11 -0700 Received: from thunder.ocis.temple.edu (root@thunder.ocis.temple.edu [155.247.166.100]) by mxu1.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW00.02/8.9.3+UW99.09) with ESMTP id MAA21038 for ; Fri, 23 Jun 2000 12:29:10 -0700 Received: from smaug.ocis.temple.edu (smaug.ocis.temple.edu [155.247.166.78]) by thunder.ocis.temple.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id PAA16192 for ; Fri, 23 Jun 2000 15:29:16 -0400 (EDT) X-WebMail-UserID: pericles Date: Fri, 23 Jun 2000 15:29:33 -0400 Sender: pericles From: pericles To: classics@u.washington.edu X-EXP32-SerialNo: 00002713 Subject: RE: Oxford misapprehension Message-ID: <39578CA1@smaug.ocis.temple.edu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: WebMail (Hydra) SMTP v3.61 This is interesting. Presumably the state schools prepare students with lower incomes than those at non-state schools (mutatis mutandis: I've met people from England who say they've lived on eggs to afford non-state schools). So the linkage that Gabby describes is between classics programs and comfortable kids. It might be that the Oxford classicists could figure out ways to reach out to those with no previous training. Certainly that happens all the time in the States, and it would not be hard to name outstanding American classicists who began the languages as undergraduates. As an admissions director at Princeton said around 1960--the year when p'ton supposedly first accepted more public school grads than preppies--this policy brings a less polished but often more ambitious and able group of students to campus. (A recent report from Yale, which retained it prep bias longer, carries the same message.) Exactly why the state schools ignore these valuable subjects is another question perhaps interesting to unpack. Best, Dan Tompkins >===== Original Message From classics@u.washington.edu ===== >I heard recently that the current situation of Oxford putting aside >places for state-school candidates is - the political issues >notwithstanding - having an especially damaging effect on Classics, >since no state school teaches the Greek and Latin which Oxford >requires of beginning classics students. Classics positions falling >empty are not being replaced in some colleges, I heard. > >Can anyone confirm or expand on this at all? > >(I haven't been following this thread fully, so I apologise if I'm >repeating what has already been said [or refuted].) >- > Gabby. > >John-Gabriel Bodard >Listowner, Iconographie Discussion List > >Reading Classics Department .