We had to go shopping in Cambridge yesterday. It is not my favourite pastime, but sometimes it has to be done.
We had a coffee whilst overlooking King's College chapel.
Two things came to mind.
One is that for 4oo years this college existed exclusively as a place of further education for former Eton pupils, and that they alone in Cambridge were, during that time, exempted from the requirement to be examined in order to be awarded their degrees. I know that this situation has changed, but have no doubt that the privilege that still divides our society has its origins in such practices.
The other was that a lot of people have donated a coffee to me this year, and to them I want to say thank you. I appreciate it. That support made a difference.
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Thank YOU for all your work this year. Lovely sunny day for a coffee (yesterday) and your observation about King’s College/Eton tells me that there has been progress!… but it is slow going.
“that they alone in Cambridge were, during that time, exempted from the requirement to be examined in order to be awarded their degrees.”
Did not Prince Albert put an end to this when he “reformed” Cambridge?
Yes – about 40 years after the sham began
Thank you for drawing attention to socio-economic factors which seem to have had, and still do have, profound effects on individuals, groups, societies and the past and present populations of our World.
You have helpfully presented a classic example of cumulative advantage. And cumulative advantage has the obverse which is cumulative disadvantage, as described in the Bible-Matthew 13:12.
Too many of the approximately 25% of our children who are permanently/chronically hungry are effectively homeless, they will have their socio-economic prospects stunted by attending crumbling, understaffed schools and their life quality and expectancy reduced by the energetic promotion of junk foods. And some will have the added cumulative disadvantages continuing to be inflicted by the two child benefit cap.
That our governments exacerbate the harms done by choosing not to intervene to reduce/remove such grievous and obvious cumulative disadvantages suggests that our governments may be placed somewhere between ignorance and callousness.
As it nearly says in the Bible:
By their big donors shall you know their policies.
🙂
Thank you for your stimulating work this year – and photo of Kings College Chapel – my Father studied at Kings (but not from Eton!) – he started at Altringham County High School (age 8) in the 2nd year of it’s foundation (1912) and then went on to ‘Science Sixth’ at University College School, London. He then gained some practical experience at Woolwich Arsenal before he went ‘up to’ Cambridge in 1924. Kings sent me a copy of Father’s obituary (I have it somewhere still) but there was some story of him doing a chemistry experiment and having to pay to replace some panes of glass in the Kings College Chapel windows. I recollect attending an RGS Monday evening lecture many years ago where an eminent British climber described how he and some fellow students practiced a rock climb on the Chapel – I believe it still goes (night climbing) on but if caught, that is the end of term for the culprit(s) although they probably do less damage than my Father’s chemistry experiment.
You are welcome and Happy New Year Richard & Co and to all you regulars who come here with your insights.
Happy new year
The formal direct link between Eton and King’s may have weakened about 150 years ago and eventually ended, but Eton (like a few other leading private schools, plus a few state schools) still manages to get dozens of pupils into Oxbridge each year.
If we want to talk about historic privilege, King’s only admitted male students until 1972. Eton is still all-male. The last all-male Cambridge college admitted women from 1988, but there are still some all-female Cambridge colleges.
King’s has been one of the most progressive Oxbridge colleges in recent times.
It was one of the first three to admit women, along with Churchill and Clare,
voting to do so by an overwhelming majority among its fellows in 1969
(and with the support of EM Forster who as an Honorary Fellow was
present though he did not have a vote); I am proud to have been – as
one of the most junior fellows – part of that majority.
Eton, with its annual fees of over 50 K, remains a bastion of all-male privilege.
PS – should have said `one of the first three all-male colleges’.
There had been all-women colleges at Oxford and Cambridge since around 1870.