After What you Gave me I Had a choice And I Chose Me - Educating Rita

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After What you Gave me I Had a choice And I Chose Me.

Rita White is a married hairdresser living on a council estate in Liverpool. In her youth she despised school, along with all her friends, family and parents, although as we later find out she only despised school due to others doing the same: “not that I went along with it so reluctantly. I mean, there was always somethin’ in me head tappin’ away tellin’ me I might have got it all wrong”. She herself desperately wanted to learn and achieve relatively high standards in school. Rita even told her mother: “I always thought boardin’ school sounds great, schools like that, y’know with a tuck-shop an’ a matron an’ prep. An’ a pair of kids called Jones minor an’ Jones major. I told me mother once. She said I was off me cake”.

         

        School however in her area was not considered “a skill of life”, so she failed, along with all her friends. In the time Rita was at school children that were not very intelligent did not receive any special tutoring or help as they would in the present time. They had to continue with school the best they could, then leave at sixteen and apply for any job they could do. In those days the two main schooling systems were the Secondary modern, or Grammar schools. Rita would most likely have gone to the secondary modern. This was, in basic terms, a school where all (majority) of children who failed their 11+ attended. Most of the children in these schools attended only because they had to, so most of the teachers attempted to teach them only the bare necessities. Children who did want to learn however, were also dragged down to the level of the lowest drop-outs there.

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        Up until now employment as a hairdresser has been acceptable enough for Rita. Lately however she has yearned for something more mentally challenging and stimulating. Also she is now desperate for: “a better way of life”. This does not only associate with her material possessions or an improved standard of living but also to her lost schooling. Rita wants to compensate for the years she spent in school not working by enrolling on an Open University course. For those who do not know the basics of the course, then here they are. The O.U. was set up to offer ...

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