Issue104 【clover】第一次小组作业 by a08805436

a08805436UID：2725634

虽然得蒙66大侠指点·· 这篇文章还是觉得有点跑题了大家帮忙看哈~

TOPIC: ISSUE104 - "It is primarily through formal education that a culture tries to perpetuate the ideas it favors and discredit the ideas it fears."
WORDS:
446
TIME: 00:45:00
DATE: 2010-1-31 14:46:57

Is it through formal education that a culture maintains the thoughts it likes and diminish the ideas it fears, as the author contends? Although I agree that it is one of the purposes of education that help preserve the culture. However, education is not the primary way to maintain the status of a culture, and it should not be.

Firstly, I agree with the author that it is through formal education that a culture does perpetuate the thoughts that can benefit itself most and diminish the thoughts that may nurture different, or even dangerous opinions. For most of the countries or ethnic groups that survived till today, culture is one of the cohesive elements that help them strive and thrive. In some sense, education in a specific culture is an important tool for the culture to develop itself and maintain itself. Education is just like some kind of nutrient to the plant of culture.

Beyond the concession, however,
I disagree with the opinion that the kind of procedure of maintaining culture is primarily through formal education, and furthermore, should not be through education. What is formal education? It is a door that can shed light upon our face; it is a candle that could kindle our hope; it is the beacon showing the road ahead. The aim of education is to trace the truth while the aim of culture is to protect the culture itself, which may constitute negative effect on the pure aim of education. For example, the leaders of a nation may use the culture to steer the mainstream of ethos. In order to achieve their goals they may use education as a tool and thus to consolidate their supremacy.


Then, what is the element that has propelled a culture forward in the course of human history? In my opinion, it is the leaders who have defined the identity of the culture, just like the sunshine shed light upon a plant, that has nourished the culture most. Compared to the procedure of education, leaders of a nation give guidelines of the culture and thus perpetuate the ideas that could benefit the whole country most (at least from their points of view). In that way, the spiritual function of a culture is fully used, and therefore the culture could enjoy its flourishing development along with the people that lives their life inside the culture.

In final analysis, a culture is a plant, which needs the sunshine from the leaders that has defined its identity and the nutrient of sustained education that has helped the culture survived in the long and winding history. The process of metabolism in that plant is assimilating the ideas it favors and excreting the ideas it fears.

misirUID：2684938

我改了下~
你先看看吧。。。