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这是我目前找到的最完整的版本,希望对大家有用。 因为权限不够,不能发成附件,而且长度也有限制,分成几部分发,大家自己复制吧:loveliness:
section one:Education
proverbs
1,a graduation ceremony is an event where the commencement speaker tells thousands of students dressed in identical caps and gowns that individuality is the key to success.
2,the primary purpose of a liberal education is to make one's mind a pleasant place in which to spend one's time.
3,next in importance to freedom and and justice is popular education,without which neither freedom nor justice can be permanently maintained.
4,the classroom--not the trench--is the frontier of freedom now and forevermore
5,Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.
6,it is the purpose of education to help us bacome autonomous,creative,inquiring people who have the will and intelligence to create our own destiny.
7,you see,real ongoing,lifelong education doesn't answer questions,it provokes them.
8,people will pay more to be entertained than educated.
9,the most important function of education at any level is to develop the personality of the individual and the significance of his life to himself and to others.this is the basic architecture of a life;the rest is ornamentation and decoration of the structure.
10,the essence of our effort to see that every child had a chance must be to assure each an equal opportunity,not to bacome equal,but to become different-to realize whatever unique potential of body,mind,and spirit he or she possesses
11,a great teacher never strives to explain his vision-he simply invites you to stand beside him and see for youself.
12,if you read and don't,you are an illiterate by choice.
Damaging Research
A study by the National Parent-Teachers Organization revealed that in the average American school,eighteen negatives are identified for every positive that is pointed out.The Wisconsin study revealed that when children enter the first grade,80 percent of them feel good about themselves,but by the time they get to the sixth grade,only 10 10 percent of them have good self-images.
Education and Citizenship
An important aspect of education in the Unite States is the relationship between education and citizenship.Throughout its history this nation had emphasized public education as a means of reansmitting democratic values,creating quality of opportunity ,and preparing new generation of citizens to function in society. in addition,the schools have been expected to help shape society itself.during the 1950s,for example,efforts to combat racial segregation focused on the schools.later,when the Soviet Union lanched the first orbiting statellite,American schools and colleges came under intense pressure and were offerd many incentives to improve their science and mathematics programs so that the nation would not fall behind the Soviet Union in scientific and technological capabilities.
education is often viewed as a tool for solving social problems,expecially social inequality.the schools,it is thought,can transform young people from vastly different backgrands into competent,upwardly mobile adults.yet these goals seem almost impossible to attain.in recent years,in fact,public education has been at the center of numerous controversies srising from the gap between the ideal and the reality.part of the problem is that different groups in society have different expectations.some feel that stdents need better preparation for careers in a technologically advanced society;others believe children should be taught basic job-related skills;still others believe education should not only prepare children to compete in society but also help them maintain their cultural identity(and ,in the case of Hispanic children ,their language) .on the other hand,policymakers concerned with education emphasize the need to increase the level of student achievement and to involve parents in their children's education
some reformers and ciitics have called attention to the need to link formal schooling with programs designed to address social problems.Sociologist Charles Moscos,for example,is a leader in the movement to expand programs like the Peace Crops,Vista nd Outward Bound into a system of voluntary national sevice.National service,as Moscos defines it,would entail "the full-time undertaking of public duties by young people whether as citizen soldiers or civilian servers-who are paid subsistence wages"and serve for at lease one year.in reture for this period of service,the volunteers would receive assistance in paying for college or other educational expenses.
Advocates of national service and school-to-work programs believe that education does not have to be confined to formal schooling.in devising strategies to provide opportunities for young people to serve their society,they emphasize the educational valus of citizenship experiences gained outside the classroom,at this writing there is little indication that national service will become a new educational institution in teh United Stated,although the concept is steadily gaining support among education and social critics.
The teacher's role
Given the undeniable important of classroom experience sociologists have done a considerable amount of research on what goes on in the classroom .often they start from the premise that,along with the influence of peers,students' experiences in teh classroom are of central importance to their later development.one study examined the impact of a single first-grade teacher on her students's subsequent adult status.the surprising results of this study have important implications,its is evident that good teachers can make a big difference in children's lives,a fact that gives increased urgency to the need to improve the quality of primary-school teaching.the reforms carried out by educational leaders like James Corner suggest that when good teaching is combined with high levels of parental involvement the results can be even more dramatic.
Because the role of the teacher is to change the learner in some ways,the teacher-student reationship is an important part of education.Sociologists have pointed out that this reationship is asymmetrical or unbalanced,with the teacher being in a position of authority and the student having little choice but to passively absorb the information provided by the teacher.in other words,in convertional classrooms there is little opportunity for the student to become actively involved in the learning process.on the other hand,students often develop strategies for undercutting the teacher's authority:mentally withdrawing,interrupting ,and the like.Hence,much current research assumes that students and teachers influence each other instead of assuming that the influence is always in a single direction.
Education Philosophy
for the past fifty years our schools have operated on the theories of John Dewey(1859-1952),an American educator and writer.Dewey believed that the school's job was to enhance the natural development of the growing child,rather than to pour information,for which the child had no context,into him or her.in the Dewey system,the child becomes the active agent in his own education,rather than a passive receptacle for facts.
Consequently,American schools are very enthusiastic about teaching"life skills"--logical thinking,analysis,creative problem-solving,the actual content of the lessons is secondary to the process,which is supposed to train the child to be able to handle whatever life may present,including all the unknowns of the future.students and teachers both regard pure memorization as uncreative and somewhat vulgar.
in addition to "life skills"schools are assigned to solve the evergrowing shock of social problems.Racism,teenage pregnancy,alcoholism,drug us,reckless driving,and suicide are just a few of the moderm problems that have appeared on the school curriculum.
this all contributes to a high degree of social awareness in American youngsters.
Student Life
to the students,the most notable difference between elementary school and the higher levels is that in junior high they start"changing classes,"this means that rather than spending the day in one classroon,they switch classrooms to meet their different teachers.this gives them three or four minutes between classes in the hallways,where a great deal of the important social action of high school.traditionally takes place.students have lockers in these hallways,around which they congregate.
society in general does not take the business of studying very seriously.schoolchildren have a great deal of free time,which they are encouraged to fill with extracurricular activities--sports,clubs,cheerleading,scouts--supposed to inculcate such qualities as leadership,sportmanship,ability to organize ,etc.those who don't become engaged in such activities or have after-school jobs have plenty of opportunity to "hang out"listen to teenage music,and watch television.
compared to other nations,American students do not have much homework,studies also show that American parents have lower expectations for their children's success in school than other nationlities do.(Historically ,there has not been much correlation between American school success and success in later life)"he is just not a scholar,"the American parents might say,content that their son is on the swim team and doesn't take drugs.(some of the young do choose to study hard,for reasons of their own,such as determining that the road to riches lies through Harvard Business School.)
what American schools do effectively teach is the competitive method.in innumerable ways children are pitted against each other--whether in classroom discussion,spelling bees,reading groups,or tests.every classroom is expected to produce a scattering of A's and F's (teachers often grade A=excellent;B=good;C=average;D=poor;and F=failed).a teacher who gives all A's looks too soft--so students are aware that they are competing for the limited number of top marks.
Foreign students sometimes don't understand that copying from other people's paper or from books is considered wrong and taken seriously.here,it is important to show that you have done you own work and are displaying your own knowledge.it is more important than helping your friends to pass,whom we think do not deserve to pass unless they can provide their own answers.Group effort goes againse the competitive grain,and American students do not study together as many Asians do.Many Asians in this country consider their group study study habits a large contributor to their school success.
Adult education
after complaining about many aspects of American life,a 40- year-old woman from Hong Kong concluded,"But where else could someone my age go back to school and get a degree in social work?here you can change your whole life,start a new business do what you really want to do"
so at least to this person,school requirements weren't inhibiting.and to millions of others,adult education is the path to a new career,or if not to a new career,to a new outlook.schools generally encourage the older person who wants to start anew,and besides regular classes,schedule evening classes in special programs.today there are so many people of retirement age in college that its is no longer remarkable.
Moral Relativism In America
Improving American education requires not doing new things but doing(and remembering)some good old things.at the time of our nation's founding.Thomas Jefferson listed the requirements for a sound education in the Report of the Commissioners for the University of Virginia.in this landmark statement on American Education,Jefferson wrote of the importance of education and writting,and of reading,history,and geography.but he also emphasized the need "to instruct the mass of our citizens in these,their rights,interests,and duties,as men and citizens."Jefferson believed education should aim at the improvement of both one's "morals"and "faculties"that has been the dominant ciew of the aims of American education for over two centuries.but a number of changes,most of them unsound,have diverted schools from these great pursuits.and the story of the loss of the school's original moral mission explains a great deal.
starting in the early seventies,"values clarification"programs started turning up in schools all over America.according to this philosophy,the schools were not to take part in their time-honored task of transmitting sound moral values;rather ,they were to allow the child to "clarify"his own values(which adults,including parents,had no "right"to criticize).the "values clarification"movement didn't clarify values;it claridied wants and desires.this form of moral relativism said,in effect,that no set of values was right or wrong;everybody had an equal right to his own values;and all values were subjective,relative,personal.this destructive view took hold with a vengeance.
in 1985 The New York Times published an article quoting New York area educators,in slavish devotion to this new view,proclaiming that "they deliberately avoid trying to tell students what is ethically right and wrong."the article told of one counseling session involving fifteen high school juniors and seniors.in the course of that session a student concluded that a fellow student had been follish to return on thousand dollars she found in a purse at school.according to the article,when the youngsters asked the counselor's opinion,"he told them he believe the girl had done the right thing,but that,of course,he would not try to force his values on them."if i come from the position of what is right and what is wrong,"he explained,'then i'm not their counselor.'"
once upon a time,a counselor offered counsel,and he knew that an adult does not from character in the young by taking a stance of neutrality toward questions of right and wrong or by merely offering "choices"or "options"
in response to the belief that adults and educators should teach children sound morals,one can expect from some quarters indignant objections(i have heard one version of it expressed countless times over the years):"who are you to say what's moral and what's important?"or "whose standards and judgments do we use?"
the correct response ,it seems to me,is ,are we really ready to do away with standards and judgemnts?is anyone going to argue seriously that a life of cheating and swinding is as worthy as a life of honest,hard work?is anyone (with the exception of some literature professors at our elite universities)going to argue seriously the intellectual corollary ,that a Marvel comic book is as good as Macbeth?unless we are willing to enbrace some pretty silly positions,we have got to admit the need for moral and intellectual strandards..the problem is that some people tend to regard anyone who would pronounce a definitive judgment as an unsophisticated Pholistime or a closed-minded"elitist"trying to impose his view on everyone else.
b]the truth of the real world is that without standards and judgments,there can be no progress.unless we are prepared to say irrational things--that nothing can be proven more valuable than anything else or that everything is equally worthless--we must ask the normative question..it may come as a surprise to those who feel that to be "progressive"is to be value-neutral.but as Matthew Amold said"the world is forwarded by having its attention fixed on the best things"and if the world cann't decide what the best things are,at least to some degree,then it follows that progress,and character,are in trouble.we shouldn't be reluctant to declare that some things,some lives,books,ideas,and values are better than others.it is the responsibility of the schools to teach these better things.
at one time,we were not so reluctant to teach them.in the mid-nineteenth century,a diverse,widespread group of crusaders began to work for the public support of what was then called the "common school",the forerunner of the public school.they were to be charged with the mission of moral and civic training,training that planted its roots in shared values.the advocated of the common school felt that the nation could fulfill its destiny only if every new generation was taught these values together in a common institution
the leaders of the common school movement were mainly citizens who were prominent in their communities--bussinessmen ,ministers,local civic and government officials.these people saw the schools as upholders of standards of individual morality and small incubators of civic and personal virtue;the founders of the punlic schools had faith that public education could teach good moral and civic character from a common ground of American values.
but in the past quarter century or so,some of the so-called experts became experts of value neutrality,and moral education was increasingly left in their hands.the commonsense view of parents and the public,that schools should reinforce rather than undermine the values of home,family,and country,was increasingly rejected.
there are those today still who claim we are now too diverse a nation,that we consist of too many competing convictions and interest to instill common values.they are wrong,of course we are a diverse people.we have always been a diverse people ,and as Madison wrote in Federalist No 10,the competing,balancing insterests of a diverse people can help ensure the survival of liberty.but there are values that all American citizens share and that we should want all American students to know and to make their own :honesty,fairness,self-discipline,fidelity to task,friends,and family,personal responsibility,love of country,and belief in the principles of liberty ,equality,and the freedom to practice one's faith.the explicit teaching of these values is the legacy of the common school,and it is a legacy to which we must return.
School should teach values
people often say,"Yes,we should teach these values,but how do we teach them?"this question deserves a candid response,one that isn't given often enough.it is by exposing our children to good character and inviting its imitation that we will transmit to them a moral foundation.this happens when teachers and principals,by their words and actions,embody sound convictions.as Oxford's Mary Warnock has written,"You cannot teach morality without being committed to morality yourself;and you cannot be committed to morality yourself without holding that some things are right and others wrong."the theologian Martin Buber wrote that the educator is distinguished from all other influences"by his will to take part in the stamping of character and by his consciousness that he represents in the eyes of the growing person a certain selection of what is ,the selection of what is "right"of what should be."it is in this will,Buber says,in this clear standing for something,that the "vocation as an educator finds its fundamental expression."
there is no escaping the fact that young people need as example principals and teachers who know the difference between right and wrong,good and bad ,and who themselves exemplify high moral purpose..
As Education Secretary,i visited a class at Waterbury Elementary School in Waterbury,Vermont ,and asked the students,"is this a good school?"they answered,"yes,this is a good school."i asked them,"why?"among other things,one eight-year-old said,"the principal Mr,Riegel,makes good rules and everybody obeys them"so i said,"give me an example"and another answered,"you cannot climb on the pipes in bathroom ,we don't climb on the pipes and the principal doesn't either."
this example is probably too simple to please a lot of people who want to make the topic of moral education difficult,but there is something profound in the answer of those children ,something educators should pay more attention to..you cann't expect children to make massages about rules or morality seriously unless they see adults taking those rules seriously in their day-to-day affairs.certain things must be said,certain limits laid down ,and certain examples set.there is no other way..
we should also do a better job at curriculum selection.the research shows that most "values education"exercises and separate courses in "moral reasoning"tend not to affect children's behavior:if anything,they may leave children morally adrift,where to turn ?i believe our literature and our historyare a rich quarry of moral literacy.we should mine that quarry.children should have at their disposal a shock of examples illustrating what we believe to be right and wrong,good and bad--examples illustrating what is morally right and wrong can indeed be known and that there is a difference.
what kind of stories,historical events,and famous lives am i talking about?if we want our children to know about honesty,we should teach them about Abe Lincoln walking three miles to return six cents and,conversely,about Aesop's shepherd boy who cried wolf if we want them to know about courage,we should teach them about Joan of Arc,Horatius at the bridge,and Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad.if we want them to know about persistence in the face of adversity,they should know about the voyages of Columbus,and the character of Washington during the Revolution and Lincoln during the Civil War.and our youngest should be told about the Little Engine That Could.if we want them to know about respect for the law,they should understand why Socrates told Crito:"No,i must submit to the decree of Athens."if we want our children to respect the rights of others,they should read the Declaration of Independence ,the Bill of Rights,the Gettysburg Address,and Martin Luther King,Jr's "Letter from Birmingham jail."from the Bible they should know about Ruth's loyalty to Naomi,Joseph's forgiveness of his brothers,Jonathan's friendsship with David,the Good Samaritan's kindness toward a stranger ,and David's cleverness and courage in facing Goliath.
these are only a few of the hundreds of examples we can call on,and we need not get into issues like nuclear war,abortion,creationism,or euthanasia.this may come as a disappointment to some people.but the fact is that the formation of character in young people is educationally a task different from,and prior to,the discussion of the great,difficult controversies of the day.first things first.we should teach values the same way we teach other things:one step at a time .we should not use the fact that there are many difficult and controversial moral questions as an argument against basic instruction in the subject.after all,we do not argue against teaching physics because laser physics is difficult,against teaching biology or chenistry because gene splicing and clonng are complex and controversial,against teaching American history bacause there are heated disputes about the Founders' intent.every field has its complexities and its controversies.and every field has its basic,its fundamentals.so too with forming character and achieving moral literacy..As any parents knows,teaching character is a difficult task .but it is a crucial task,because we want our children to be not only healthy,happy,and successful but decent,strong,and good.none of his happens automatically;there is no genetic transmission of virtue.it takes the conscious,committed efforts of adults,it takes careful attention. |
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