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Weird question on application form


taxi4ballet

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I wouldn't call it a weird question but more out of place on a summer school application.

 

I can understand why they may want to know this info for a much longer course .......then it might be to see if parents are more or less likely so to speak to be able to afford to contribute for a full three years say.

But it seems irrelevant for a summer course that may only be a week long!!

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well if it is, it's still a pointless question IMO- both my boys are built to dance (although one doesn't want to) but my daughter is built like a rugby player. If parental physique was such a predictor of child physique we'd all be identical for ever....That's the wonders of genetics folks!

And if it's a socio economic question to sniff out those with the cash to pay for full time school I find that even less justifiable (cash over talent?)

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I think it's a weird question and not one I would particularly care to answer to be honest. What does it matter? If it's looking for genetic predisposition to dancing it's a very flawed idea - no dancers in our family but quite possibly due to lack of opportunity rather than lack of talent, and none of my children really share the talents of me or my husband. And it it's a veiled financial question, that's both unfair and also unreliable. You might have a professional couple who have 5 children from the current relationship, another 4 from previous relationships and huge debts whereas a lower earning family could have a single child and have just received a large inheritance....

If a school or programme are selecting on talent/potential to benefit from training as they should be, then what relevance is parental occupation. I would be tempted to write something scandalous just out of wickedness!!

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Pole dancer and cage fighter - both require physical skill and those at the top of the profession could be relatively high earners! Is that wicked enough for you Pups_mum? (With apologies out there to all of you who are, or whose partners, are in those professions - nothing wrong with them.

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Also, if a school has any sort of charitable status based on providing dance opportunities to children from all sorts of backgrounds, then they actually need to monitor who they are offering places to.

In which case you would expect it to be on the monitoring form that you often get that asks things like ethnicity, rather than on the application, and surely the more appropriate question would be a tick box for household income? Telling someone that my husband is an engineer doesn't really tell them very much as that covers a huge range of actual work and income. It must be the same for lots of other professions.

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Pole dancer and cage fighter - both require physical skill and those at the top of the profession could be relatively high earners! Is that wicked enough for you Pups_mum? (With apologies out there to all of you who are, or whose partners, are in those professions - nothing wrong with them.

 

Hello Newdancermum and welcome out of the lurking shadows!  I hope we hear more from you.

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Thanks Janet - I just couldn't resist the challenge by Pups_mum!

 

On a more serious note if an organisation has charitable status, such as the RBS, Elmhurst, Tring Park, YDA, NYB, etc there are tax benefits.  To maintain that status they have to show that they are supporting students from difference backgrounds and abilities which they will do through their scholarship schemes.  This is also one of the reasons for vocational school forms asking about SENS - yes they provide support but also it makes it easier for them to prepare statistics to back up their charitable status.

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I've been asked this on a number of application form before, and also about my educational level ? (though that was for CAT programme)  Think as others have suggested it is to determine socio-economic background as they can sometimes apply for educational grants but have to show that the offer is open to all backgrounds etc.

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I've been asked this on a number of application form before, and also about my educational level ? (though that was for CAT programme)  Think as others have suggested it is to determine socio-economic background as they can sometimes apply for educational grants but have to show that the offer is open to all backgrounds etc.

 

This is the same rationale as the charitable status so yes this will be case.

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  • 1 month later...

I've come across one summer school application form which asks for parents' occupations and I'm a bit puzzled as to why they would want to know. Has anyone got any ideas why they would ask that?

Is it in the Equality and Diversity  bit ? 

 

to prove / disprove that  dance is a  'middle class' pursuit ...  

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