The Theme of British Education in Nicholas Hytner’s Film the History Boys (2006)

Филологически факултет при Пловдивския университет

 „Паисий Хилендарски” 

British Cultural Studies

TEMA: The theme of British education in Nicholas Hytner’s film The History Boys (2006).

Изготвил: Никол Истилиянова,                 Проверил: Йордан Костурков,

      Заедно в час                                        Пловдивски университет

София 2014

Nicholas Hytner’s film The History Boys (2006), which based on Alan Bennett’s play of the same name, has a lot to say about education in Britain during the 1980s as well as today. First of all, the film is a truthful representation of grammar schools in Britain with references to school uniforms, field trips and high A-Level results. The film also does a great job of illustrating the ways Oxford and Cambridge are viewed in Britain. The “ancient universities”, as they are referred to in the film, are highly respected by everyone and it has always been the case that good grades have never been enough to guarantee one a place there. In the next lines, I will discuss the British educational system with examples from The History Boys and will try and make parallels between it and the education in our own Bulgaria.

The plot of The History Boys takes place in a grammar school in Sheffield in 1983. Interestingly, grammar schools in Britain have not changed that much in the last 30 years. All-boy grammar schools such as the one represented in the film still exist, even though in the last decade mixed schools are becoming more and more popular^[1]. British grammar schools are selective and offer academically oriented general education. Entrance is usually based on test of ability or the so-called Eleven Plus (11+) exam^[2]. These grammar schools do not have a direct parallel in the Bulgarian education system, but they can be compared to our professional and language high schools as kids need to get good scores on their exams after the 7th grade to get accepted.

Attending a good grammar school in Sheffield, it is not surprising that the “history boys” – Crowther, Posner, Dakin, Timms, Akthar, Lockwoord, Rudge and Scripps – achieve very high results in their A-Level exams. The A-Levels are another very important part of the British educational system to which the film alludes. Most students in Britain who want to attend university do so after completing an A-level course. The A-level is a grade of education that is offered by many educational institutions in Britain such as schools and colleges and it is an accepted form of qualification^[3]. The A-levels are generally a two-year course and are equivalent to the Bulgarian 11th and 12th grade. Here come the differences, however. When the boys in the film are happy that they have achieved 3As or 2As and a B, they are really only talking about 3 subjects. Unlike in Bulgaria, the last two years in school in Britain, kids are allowed to pick three or four subjects that really interest them. The idea is that the grades they get and being in these exact academic surroundings will benefit them when they choose to apply to university or work^[4]. The system is very different to what we have in Bulgaria, but The History Boys clearly shows that if you are really sure about what you want to do – in the case of the boys, read History in Oxford – it allows you to focus your efforts and really concentrate on the subjects that will get you there in the end.

Here is the point to mention that the film does a really good job of illustrating an English grammar school in the 1980s, but also nowadays. All of the boys are wearing uniforms and most schools in Britain still require children to wear a school uniforms. It is interesting that the kids’ uniforms in The History Boys are what we can expect to see in any grammar school in England today – long black trousers, a white shirt and a school tie^[5]. And just like the boys in the film do not always wear their uniforms in the most respectable way, so do children nowadays find ways to make their uniforms look “cooler”. Another thing that says a lot about British education is the fact that Mr. Irwin took the boys to a field trip to the Fountains. Going outside school to trips, to museums, to theatre performances plays a great part in education in Britain and is becoming more and more popular. Bulgaria has a lot to learn on those two points – uniforms and field trips – but truth is because of our different culture and views we cannot guarantee that work in Britain would work in our own educational system.

Same applies when we talk about universities. The History Boys does a great job of representing the British way of seeing and talking about Oxford and Cambridge. Those two universities have always been the most respected in England and people who went there have always been regarded with the highest esteem.  For example, a lot of senior UK politicians go to Eton college (an English independent boarding school) and then on to either Oxford or Cambridge^[6]. Interestingly, when the boys and the school staff find out that Mr. Irwin is an Oxford graduate (which it turns out he is not), they respect him more and really do believe he is the one to show them the way to get admitted.

The History Boys is a great illustration of how children in Britain prepare for their Oxford and Cambridge interviews. Good A-level scores have never been enough to get accepted in Oxbridge and the film is a clear representation of that. The boys take a seventh term to prepare for their interviews and Mr. Irwin’s comments on their essays are similar to what a lot of kids hear when they first say “I want to go to Oxbridge” – “I didn’t say it was wrong, I said it was dull”; “They are not even bad, they are just boring”. People in Britain know what an Oxbridge interview asks future students to think outside the box, there are people whose sole job is to coach pupils to get through the process. Mr. Irwin, however, sums it up nicely in a single sentence – “You know the answer, but so does everybody else, so say something different!”. The questions pupils are asked at an Oxbridge interview are weird, they are designed to stretch their brains and make the candidates really show how good they are^[7]. Oxford and Cambridge play a great part in British culture, people expect the best of the best to go there and the people who went there to achieve great things in their lives. The last minutes of The History Boys which recount the futures of the eight boys clearly show that their time at Oxford has prepared them for great things – among them there is a headmaster, a magistrate, a tax lawyer and a lieutenant. Interestingly, Sofia University has always been the most respected university in Bulgaria, but never has it had the reputation of Oxbridge. Nowadays, more and more universities are gaining a better reputation (New Bulgarian University, the American University of Bulgaria) and one has to wonder whether Sofia University will stay top of the top for long.

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