解放军文职招聘考试Modern American Universities

 Modern American Universities

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 Germany a different kind of university

had developed. The German university was  concerned  primarily  with  

creating    and  spreading   knowledge,   not  morals.  Between midcentury

and the end of the 1800's, more than nine thousand young      Americans,

dissatisfied with their training at home, went  to Germany for advanced

study.  Some of them returned 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 the     establishment of

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

conduct 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 courses 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.

现代美国大学

 

19 世纪 50 年代以前美国有一些小的学院，大多数成立于殖民时期。  它们是与教会挂

钩的小机构，主要目的是培养学生的道德品行。  当时在欧洲各地，高等教育机构已经发展 起来，用的是一个古老的名称--大学。 

德国已经发展出一种不同类型的大学。  德国大学关 心的主要是创造知识和传播知识，而不是道德教育。 从世纪中叶到世纪末，有 9000 多名美

国青年因不满国内所受的教育而赴德深造。  他们中的一些人回国后成为一些知名学府--哈 佛、耶鲁、哥伦比亚的校长并且把这些学府转变成了现代意义的大学。 

新校长们断绝了和 教会的关系，聘请了新型的教职员，聘用教授根据的是他们在学科方面的知识，而不是正确 的信仰和约束学生的强硬手段。

新的原则是大学既要传播知识也要创造知识。 这就需要由 学者型老师组成教工队伍。 靠死记硬背和做练习来学习的方法变为德国式的讲解方法。 德

国式的讲解就是由教授讲授自己的研究课题。  通过研究生性质的学习可以获得表明最高学 术造诣的古老的德国学位--博士学位。 

随着讨论课制度的建立，研究生们学会了提问、分 析以及开展他们自己的研究。  同时，新式大学学校规模和课程设置完全突破了过去那种只

有数学、经典著作、美学和音乐的狭窄课程表。  哈佛大学的校长率先推出选课制度，这样

学生们就能选择自己的专业。主修领域的概念也出现了。新的目标是使大学对实际社会更有 用。

密切关注着社会上的实际需求，新的大学着意培养学生解决问题的能力。 工程系学生

成为新式教育体制下最典型的学生。学生们还被培训成为经济学家、建筑师、农学家、社会 工作人员以及教师。