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A-level Disillusionment
A等級幻滅
Anne Barrie's "Do We Over-educate Our Children?" reminded me that the German author Gunter Grass once said that failing his school leaving exams was a blessing without which he would never have achieved the position he now holds.
安妮·巴瑞的《我們是不是給我們的孩子太多的教育了？》使我想到德國作家君特·格拉斯曾經說過的，他沒有通過中學畢業考試是一件幸事，否則他就永遠不可能取得現有的地位。
I wonder how many other great men and women owe their success to having failed in their academic careers.
不知道有多少其他偉人和名人們將所取得的成就歸功于他們在學業上的失敗。
I was a schoolgirl in the 1960s - the time when it was believed that the future wealth of the country depended on the education of the young:
60年代，我還是一名中學女生，那是一個認為國家未來的富足寄托于年輕人的教育的時代：
money was plentiful, new universities sprang up and great myths evolved to lure young people into the academic life.
資金充裕，不斷有新的大學出現，教育神話的巨大誘惑使年輕人都追求學業上的成就。
Three years later, I obtained a first-class degree in mathematics.
3年后，我獲得了數學的頭等學位。
For some months there had been pressure to try for a further degree - the more post-graduate students there are, the more financial benefits exist for us.
好幾個月里，我面臨著研讀更高學位的壓力&&研究生越多，經濟利益就會越多。
My fellow postgraduates and I knew nothing of the outside world, and happily believed that academic life for another three years would enhance us in the eyes of future employers:
我和我的研究生同學們絲毫不了解外面的世界，高枕無憂地認為學業上再深造三年能增加我們在未來老板眼里的價值。
and so I went to London and began work for a doctorate.
于是我到了倫敦，開始攻讀博士學位。
Here, for the first time, I came across "mature students" - people who had left school at 16 and, years later, taken A-levels at technical colleges and come to university.
在那里我第一次遇到了“成熟的學生”，他們十六歲就離開了學校，幾年后在技術學院參加了A等級課程考試，然后上了大學。
Having chosen their subject with great care, and being more mature, they found a joy in their courses unknown to most of us.
他們的專業是經過深思熟慮后選擇的，他們更成熟，能在所修的課程中獲得大多數我們這樣的學生無法體會到的樂趣。
I have been working now for several years:
現在我已經工作好幾年了，
life has been very different from what I had been led to expect.
現實生活和我們在學校的環境下所期待的樣子完全不同。
However, it is too late to change: the state of understanding will not pay to reeducate people completely.
不過，現在做出改變已經太晚了，醒悟并不能給我們帶來完全的再教育。
As I think back, I regret that I did not fail my A-levels.
回想起來，我真后悔當年沒有讓我的A等級課程考試不及格。
