Age 28: Up Series (Paul, Suzy and Nicholas)

We had our first day of watching age 28 of the UP series. We watched Paul, Suzy and Nicholas. Even though this section focused on age 28, it showed clips of them when they were 14 and 21. It was very interesting to see how much of there age at 7 determined what they would be when they were older.

First we watched Paul. When Paul was young, he went to a Charity Boarding School and his parents were missionaries. When asked about higher education, he claimed that he didn’t know what University was. He also realized his expectations of his class, as he said he wanted to be a police officer, but knew that it would be too hard. Paul got married and became a brick layer. He stated that he was in the working-class suburbs, but he owns a house and two cars. He said that his only regrets of education were that he was lazy. He thinks that if people have money, they should go to private school. When he was 8, he moved from England to Australia. He was able to become successful because he went towards the contest system. The 7-year old Paul is reflected when he is older, as he was building a house at the park. This is what he decided to do when he was at the park and now he is a brick layer. His aspirations for his kids are for them to go further than him, which is a thought generated from the contest system.

Next was Suzy. Suzy attended a Private Girls Boarding School and was part of the upper class. In the movie, at 7, she stated that she didn’t know anyone of colour, and didn’t want to. When she speaks of her University plans, she doesn’t seem interested in school, as she says her mom has it all planned for her and she can’t remember. She got married at the age of 22. She left school at age 16 and went to Paris and later on got a secretarial job. She claims that she did not like school. She doesn’t want her kids to go into the private sector right away. At 21, she was very rebellious. In terms of comparing Suzy to herself at 7, it is easy to see that she is not interested in school and that she does not want to seek higher education.

The last was Nicholas. He went to a rural one room school. At 7, he said he wanted to learn about the moon. He ended up studying Physics at Oxford. At 28, he was currently a professor in the U.S. as a nuclear Physicist. He got married to a fellow student. As he grew up in England, he was part of the sponsorship system. As he was a gifted child, he was able to become part of the elite, but then he cheats the system and moves to the U.S. His comparison to when he was 7 is that he wanted to learn about that moon and that is exactly what he did.

All three of these students were able to accomplish what they wanted by the time they were 7. It is neat to see how they evolved into what was predicted in the film. One question that I have is: do the researcher effects have any influence on this? It is interesting as well as sad that, so far, with these three students, there life was determined by the time they were 7.