陳蕙雅思教材 - 雅思閱讀精選 (Modern AmericanUniversities)

Modern AmericanUniversities

Before the  1850's, the United States  had a number of small colleges,

most of them dating fromcolonial days. They   were small, churchconnected

institutions whoseprimary concern was to shape the moral character of

their students.

Throughout Europe,institutions of higher learning had developed, bearing

the ancient name ofuniversity. In Germany a different kind ofuniversity

had developed. The Germanuniversity was  concerned  primarily with  

creating    and spreading   knowledge,   not morals.  Between midcentury

and the end of the1800's, more than nine thousand young     Americans,

dissatisfied with theirtraining at home, went  to Germany foradvanced

study.  Some of them returned to become presidents ofvenerable colleges --

Harvard, Yale, Columbia-- and transform them into modern universities.   The

new presidents broke allties with the churches and brought in a new kind

of faculty. Professorswere hired for their knowledge of a subject, not

because they were ofthe  proper faith and had a  strong arm for

disciplining   students. The new principle was  that  a university was to

create knowledge as wellas pass it on, and this called  for afaculty

composed of  teacher-scholars.  Drilling and  learning  by rote  were  

replaced  by the  German  method of lecturing, in which the professor's

own research waspresented in class. Graduate training leading to  the  

Ph.D.,  an ancient  German  degree signifying  the  highest level  of  

advanced  scholarly attainment, was introduced.  With the  establishmentof

the seminar system,graduate students learned to question, analyze, and

conduct their own    research.

At the same time, the newuniversity greatly expanded in size and course

offerings, breakingcompletely out of the           old,constricted curriculum of

mathematics, classics,rhetoric, and music. The president of Harvard

pioneered the           elective system, by which studentswere able to choose their

own courses of study. Thenotion of major fields of    studyemerged. The new

goal was to make theuniversity relevant to the real pursuits of the world.

Paying close heed to the practical needs  of society,  the  new  

universities  trained men  and  women to  work  at  its  tasks, with

engineering studentsbeing the most characteristic of the new regime.

Students were alsotrained as economists,    architects,agriculturalists,

social welfare workers,and teachers.

現代美國大學

19 世紀 50 年代以前美國有一些小的學院，大多數成立於殖民時期。  它們是與教會掛

鉤的小機構，主要目的是培養學生的道德品行。  當時在歐洲各地，高等教育機構已經發展 起來，用的是一個古老的名稱--大學。  

德國已經發展出一種不同類型的大學。  德國大學關 心的主要是創造知識和傳播知識，而不是道德教育。 從世紀中葉到世紀末，有 9000 多名美

國青年因不滿國內所受的教育而赴德深造。  他們中的一些人回國後成為一些知名學府--哈 佛、耶魯、哥倫比亞的校長並且把這些學府轉變成了現代意義的大學。

新校長們斷絕了和 教會的關係，聘請了新型的教職員，聘用教授根據的是他們在學科方面的知識，而不是正確 的信仰和約束學生的強硬手段。

新的原則是大學既要傳播知識也要創造知識。 這就需要由 學者型老師組成教工隊伍。 靠死記硬背和做練習來學習的方法變為德國式的講解方法。 德

國式的講解就是由教授講授自己的研究課題。  通過研究生性質的學習可以獲得表明最高學 術造詣的古老的德國學位--博士學位。  

隨著討論課制度的建立，研究生們學會了提問、分 析以及開展他們自己的研究。  同時，新式大學學校規模和課程設置完全突破了過去那種只

有數學、經典著作、美學和音樂的狹窄課程表。  哈佛大學的校長率先推出選課制度，這樣

學生們就能選擇自己的專業。主修領域的概念也出現了。新的目標是使大學對實際社會更有 用。

密切關注著社會上的實際需求，新的大學著意培養學生解決問題的能力。 工程系學生

成為新式教育體制下最典型的學生。學生們還被培訓成為經濟學家、建築師、農學家、社會 工作人員以及教師。