每日一题跟帖I51

依虚兮UID: 2703843

题目：ISSUE51 - "Education will be truly effective only when it is specifically designed to meet the individual needs and interests of each student."

Whether education should be designed by educators or by students is a complex question. We should analysis it case by case according to student's characteristic at different stages of growth.
In my opinion, the claim of the speaker is of some merit to the extent that in higher education, curriculums should be specifically designed to meet the individual ideas. However, I would caution that this suggestion cannot be extended to the basic education, and an age-appropriate education model would be more effective.

When students are at the primary or secondary school, educators should design some national or common curriculums for students to render them a solid and broad foundation for their further study in specialized field, their development of a sound personality and a right outlook on life. According to the definition of UNESC in 1977, basic education is to give everybody the minimum knowledge, concept, social rules and experiences that all human beings share. Students in this age, whose character is continuously being molded, are too immature to be qualified to design their study procedures. If always follow their interests, not only will education fail to be effective but also be lost in chaos. Firstly, teenagers always define what bring them great happiness as their interests, and actually, themselves are not so clear about their strengths and where their potential lies. For example, Alan Greenspan, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve of the U.S, was obsessed with music and planed to be an professional music player when he is young, but only after his frustration with music, did he realize that his talents lies in commerce but clarinet or saxophone. Secondly, students have no experience in society and have little cognition how to plan their own development. As soon as students are concerned with their interests, they will ignore many other basic abilities, like logical and critical thinking, or moral standards. Hardly can this kind of student develop to a qualified citizen with complete morality, and adapt to society. Thus, a basic education, which is specialized to students' needs and interests, is hard to realize and ineffective.

Moreover, from the level of society, a national curriculum like history, moral lesson, can sprout children’s mutual respect, tolerance and a sense of national identity, which is conducive to a cohesive society. For example, Japanese amend their history book to beautify their past invasion in China. Of course, this amendments would arouse a wide condemn in the world, for that history book has a considerable influences on student’s philosophy, which are hardly to change in their adulthood. Thus, a basic education can only be effective when educators but the students themselves design the curriculum.

However, when it comes to the higher education, the case is different; education should meet individual needs and interests. Students who participate in higher educations are almost adults, whose characters and values are too long established to change. And many of them have a fundamentally accurate, clear self-perception and developing direction of life. Before finding particular occupation, students have to define their strong points, and tap their potential energy. In this time, education should focus on helping them to accomplish their aims and dispatching professional personnel for society. Meanwhile, for those students who are not so clear about their strengths before college, specialized education will assist them to check their choice in major, and they still have time to adjust their direction. In sum, the higher education will be more effective if its concentration is student.

To sum up, the speaker’s claim is over-generalized. In different levels, education’s center is not the same, because of the discrepancy between different age groups’ characters and study aims. Only by considering both, can we design an effective education system.

colin8741UID: 2835824

1# 依虚兮
Whether education should be designed by educators or by students is a complex question.(没有问是不是由学生决定，而是该不该去迎合学生的兴趣） We should analysis analyze it case by case according to student's characteristic characters at different stages of growth.
In my opinion, the claim of the speaker is of some merit to the extent that in higher education, curriculums should be specifically designed to meet the individual ideas. However, I would caution that this suggestion cannot be extended to the basic education, and an age-appropriate education model would be more effective.

When students are at the primary or secondary school, educators should design some national or common curriculums for students to render them a solid and broad foundation for their further study in specialized field, their development of a sound personality and a right outlook on life. According to the definition of UNESC in 1977, basic education is to give everybody the minimum knowledge, concept, social rules and experiences that all human beings share. Students in this age, whose character is continuously being molded, are too immature to be qualified to design their study procedures. If always follow their interests, not only will education fail to be effective but also be lost in chaos. Firstly, teenagers always define what bring them great happiness as their interests, and actually, themselves are not so clear about their strengths and where their potential lies. For example, Alan Greenspan, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve of the U.S, was obsessed with music and planed to be an professional music player when he is young, but only after his frustration with music, did he realize that his talents lies in commerce but not clarinet or saxophone. Secondly, students have no experience in society and have little cognition how to plan their own development. As soon as students are concerned with their interests, they will ignore many other basic abilities, like logical and critical thinking, or moral standards. Hardly can this kind of student develop to be a qualified citizen with complete morality, and adapt to society. Thus, a basic education, which is specialized to students' needs and interests, is hard to realize and ineffective. (那些偏科的天才们呢？不能用all吧，改用most比较好)

Moreover, from the level of society, a national curriculum like history, moral lesson, can sprout children’s mutual respect, tolerance and a sense of national identity, which is conducive to a cohesive society. For example, Japanese amend their history book to beautify their past invasion in China. Of course, this amendments would arouse a wide condemn in the world, for that history book has a considerable influences on student’s philosophy, which are hardly to change in their adulthood. Thus, a basic education can only be effective when educators but the students themselves design the curriculum.(关于日本历史的例子是为了说明什么？）

However, when it comes to the higher education, the case is different; education should meet individual needs and interests. Students who participate in higher educations are almost adults, whose characters and values are too long established to change hard to be changed through long time establishing. And many of them have a fundamentally accurate, clear self-perception and developing direction of life. Before finding particular occupation, students have to define their strong points, and tap their potential energy. In this time, education should focus on helping them to accomplish their aims and dispatching professional personnel for society. Meanwhile, for those students who are not so clear about their strengths before college, specialized education will assist them to check their choice in major, and they still have time to adjust their direction. In sum, the higher education will be more effective if its concentration is student.

To sum up, the speaker’s claim is over-generalized. In different levels, education’s center is not the same, because of the discrepancy between different age groups’ characters and study aims. Only by considering both, can we design an effective education system.