Autobiographical account

Autobiographical account Within this short biographical dialogue I intend to explain my personal educational experience as well as argue my particular ideology which I feel is relevant to this piece. The ideology that I am going to discuss is the elitist ideology. I attended Virgo Fidelis convent senior school, when I started this educational institute it was a public school. My parents were adamant that I attend; they felt that by sending me there I would be exposed to different people and it would afford me different opportunities and structure. “ The main aim of the education of those who attended public schools was to develop a certain sort of character” (Matheson, 2004, p. 24) As well as being educated to a high standard. In order to get a place all students needed to take an entrance exam. This would determine what class you would be put in. This was a ranking system; students would be given the education that best fitted their needs and capabilities. All students were taught a variety of subjects but the higher set, students that scored higher in the entrance exam were taught “ Latin”. Latin can be seen as an intellectual subject and these students were the ones that the school believed would achieve higher grades and would be expected to leave and go on to university. I feel that this is an example of an elitist ideology because although they wanted all students to feel that they were being treated the same this was clearly not the case. There was a negative reaction when other students found out that they were seen as not be as intellectual. This created a rift between the different groups. The main purpose of having an education is to provide information to benefit us academically, spiritually, physically and vocationally. Bibliography Matheson, D.(2004) An Introduction to the Study of Education. 2nd Ed. London: David Fulton Publishers