![]() With the advent of the Open University, despite opposition, Rita gets Rita’s mum didn’t have a choice she only knew one It very laudable but where does it leave those who don’t want to go or don’t meet certain criteria? Are these our failures if that is our limited measure of success? There is the significant push at the moment to ensure that working class youngsters can get into some of the more prestigious universities, with recent calls for the acceptance criteria for some being lowered. Certainly we are wrong to suggest that success can only be measured in terms of if you went to university, or indeed which university. Matt quite rightly argues though, that university isn’t the only possible route and there are many reasons why some of the other career based options might be equally valid. I regret nothing about the decision I made there and I enjoyed my uni years, but my first encounter with the world of university, with the slight sneer and feeling of displacement, could have easily seen me running back to my cleaning job, begging for more hours. Fearing that I might be entering a world where we just sat reciting Wordsworth, I opted for a less well renown institute which seemed more aligned to who I was or at least felt the world saw me as a 21 year old with a three year in tow, living in a council flat. I left scratching my head as to what exactly we would explore. With a long suffering sigh, I was informed that options to take modules outside of English Literature in the other disciplines, more suited to my apparently left field interests, would be possible. I talked in the interview about how I thrilled at exploring the social implications of some of the seminal works of English Literature. The first university I went to visit certainly made me feel like I was singing a different song to them. Something even my older brother who also went to university, rejected. For many years I saw myself as Rita, trying to sing aĭifferent song by heading off to university and getting myself a career, Julie Waters stride into Frank’s office, all hair dye and pretend swagger, and I must have been about 14 when I first watched the wonderful This is the ‘song’ which Willy Russell so emotively writes about in Rita, the University education but for some that can mean a complete ‘dismantling of The desire for raise aspirations and expectations leads to a push towards This had a significant impact on his mental well-being. What he describes seems to be about both feeling out of place and ill-equipped to join in with the ‘Great Conversation’ (which he attributes to history teacher and blogger Ben Newmark). He describes it as ‘probably the worst time of my life’ and quite simply ‘dreadful’. In Chapter Two, which focuses on disadvantaged students, a thorny issue regardless of gender, Matt talks about his own experiences of University. This scene came to mind as I was reading the enlightening ‘ Boys Don’t Try? by Matt Pinkett and Mark Roberts. ![]() When she asks her mum what is wrong, she gives the response above: ‘there must be better songs than this’. Rita looks to her mum, sitting amongst the laughing faces, to see tears falling down her cheeks. Rita and her mum, sitting in the pub (the usual activity for the extended group of friends and family) and a song starts up. This has always been a moment in the play which brings me to tears. Rita’s Mum, ‘Educating Rita’ by Willy Russell ![]() ‘There must be better songs to sing than this…’ The importance of cultural capital for disadvantaged students ![]()
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