Oxford students fail woke test
Over the past few years we’ve heard a lot about the wokeness of students, with none more woke – more excessively, indulgently, hideously right-on – than the ones at Oxford University, home of the (seemingly successful) Rhodes Must Fall campaign.
But could the Oxford student body actually be less woke than it appears? It certainly seems possible, given the indignation of history dons last week as exam results were released. Student exam papers showed “patronising disdain” towards groups including Irish people and Northerners, they said.
The dons complained that a paper in early modern social history produced some “remarkably bad answers” – but students’ treatment of women was singled out for added head-shaking. The finalists “implied that the only women with any agency were those who became queens regnant” – showing nary a thought for women beyond the throne.
Eyebrows were raised that only 13 students answering on medieval Christendom chose questions related to gender. “Many exam scripts did not mention women once,” it was bemoaned. “The world of [this course] seems to be a world in which only men are worth studying and writing about, that is, provided they were not slaves or serfs.”