散文:Modern American Universities

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Before the 1850’s, the United States had a number of small colleges, most of them dating from colonial days. They were small, church connected institutions whose primary concern was to shape the moral character of their students.

Throughout Europe, institutions of higher learning had developed, bearing the ancient name of university. In German university was concerned primarily with creating and spreading knowledge, not morals. Between mid-century and the end of the 1800’s, more than nine thousand young Americans, dissatisfied with their training at home, went to Germany foradvanced study. Some of them return to become presidents of venerable colleges-----Harvard, Yale, Columbia---and transform them into modern universities. The new presidents broke all ties with the churches and brought in a new kind of faculty. Professors were hired for their knowledge of a subject, not because they were of the proper faith and had a strong arm for disciplining students. The new principle was that a university was to create knowledge as well as pass it on, and this called for a faculty composed of teacher-scholars. Drilling and learning by rote were replaced by the German method of lecturing, in which the professor’s own research was presented in class. Graduate training leading to the Ph.D., an ancient German degree signifying the highest level of advanced scholarly attainment, was introduced. With theestablishment of the seminar system, graduate student learned to question, analyze, andconduct their own research.

At the same time, the new university greatly expanded in size and course offerings, breaking completely out of the old, constricted curriculum of mathematics, classics, rhetoric, and music. The president of Harvard pioneered the elective system, by which students were able to choose their own course of study. The notion of major fields of study emerged. The new goal was to make the university 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 students being the most characteristic of the new regime. Students were also trained as economists, architects, agriculturalists, social welfare workers, and teachers.

18現(xiàn)代美國(guó)大學(xué)

19世紀(jì)50年代以前美國(guó)有一些小的學(xué)院，大多數(shù)成立于殖民時(shí)期。它們是與教會(huì)掛鉤的小機(jī)構(gòu)，主要目的是培養(yǎng)學(xué)生的道德品行。當(dāng)時(shí)在歐洲各地，高等教育機(jī)構(gòu)已經(jīng)發(fā)展起來，用的是一個(gè)古老的名稱--大學(xué)。

德國(guó)已經(jīng)發(fā)展出一種不同類型的大學(xué)。德國(guó)大學(xué)關(guān)心的主要是創(chuàng)造知識(shí)和傳播知識(shí)，而不是道德教育。從世紀(jì)中葉到世紀(jì)末，有9000多名美國(guó)青年因不滿國(guó)內(nèi)所受的教育而赴德深造。他們中的一些人回國(guó)后成為一些知名學(xué)府--哈佛、耶魯、哥倫比亞的校長(zhǎng)并且把這些學(xué)府轉(zhuǎn)變成了現(xiàn)代意義的大學(xué)。

新校長(zhǎng)們斷絕了和教會(huì)的關(guān)系，聘請(qǐng)了新型的教職員，聘用教授根據(jù)的是他們?cè)趯W(xué)科方面的知識(shí)，而不是正確的信仰和約束學(xué)生的強(qiáng)硬手段。

新的原則是大學(xué)既要傳播知識(shí)也要?jiǎng)?chuàng)造知識(shí)。這就需要由學(xué)者型老師組成教工隊(duì)伍?？克烙浻脖澈妥鼍毩?xí)來學(xué)習(xí)的方法變?yōu)榈聡?guó)式的講解方法。德國(guó)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(zhì)的學(xué)習(xí)可以獲得表明最高學(xué)術(shù)造詣的古老的德國(guó)學(xué)位--博士學(xué)位。

隨著討論課制度的建立，研究生們學(xué)會(huì)了提問、分析以及開展他們自己的研究。同時(shí)，新式大學(xué)學(xué)校規(guī)模和課程設(shè)置完全突破了過去那種只有數(shù)學(xué)、經(jīng)典著作、美學(xué)和音樂的狹窄課程表。哈佛大學(xué)的校長(zhǎng)率先推出選課制度，這樣學(xué)生們就能選擇自己的專業(yè)。主修領(lǐng)域的概念也出現(xiàn)了。新的目標(biāo)是使大學(xué)對(duì)實(shí)際社會(huì)更有用。

密切關(guān)注著社會(huì)上的實(shí)際需求，新的大學(xué)著意培養(yǎng)學(xué)生解決問題的能力。工程系學(xué)生成為新式教育體制下最典型的學(xué)生。學(xué)生們還被培訓(xùn)成為經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)家、建筑師、農(nóng)學(xué)家、社會(huì)工作人員以及教師。