The Revolution in American
Higher Education To produce the upheaval in the United States that changed
and modernized the domain of higher education from the mid 1860's to the
mid 1880's, three primary causes interacted. The emergence of a half dozen
leaders in education provided the personal force that was needed.
Moreover, an outcry for a fresher, more practical, and more
advanced kind of instruction arose among the alumni and friends of nearly
all of the old colleges and grew into a movement that overrode all
conservative opposition. The aggressive "Young Yale" movement appeared,
demanding partial alumni control, a more liberal spirit, and a broader
course of study. The graduates of Harvard college simultaneously rallied
to relieve the college's poverty and demand new enterprise. Education was
pushing toward higher standards in the East by throwing off church
leadership everywhere, and in the West by finding a wider range of studies
and a new sense of public duty. The old style classical education
received its most crushing blow in the citadel of Harvard College, where
Dr. Charles Eliot, a young captain of thirty five, son of a former
treasurer of Harvard, led the progressive forces. Five revolutionary
advances were made during the first years of Dr. Eliot's administration.
They were the elevation and amplification of entrance requirements, the
enlargement of the curriculum and the development of the elective
system, the recognition of graduate study in the liberal arts, the raising
of professional training in law, medicine, and engineering to a
postgraduate level, and the fostering of greater maturity in students'
life. Standards of admission were sharply advanced in 1872-1873 and
1876-1877. By the appointment of a dean to take charge of student
affairs, and a wise handling of discipline, the undergraduates were led
to regard themselves more as young gentlemen and less as young animals. One
new course of study after another was opened up - science, music, the
history of the fine arts, advanced Spanish, political economy, physics,
classical philology, and international law.
美國高等教育的革命
從 19 世紀 60 年代中期到 19 世紀 80 年代中期,改變了美國高等教 育并使其現代化的激變有三個互相作用的因素。
六位教育界領導者的出現保證了所需的人 力因素。 除此之外,要求更新、更實用、更高層次的教育呼聲在幾乎所有老式學院的校友
和朋友間升起并發展成壓倒所有保守派的一場運動。 咄咄逼人的"青年耶魯"運動出現了,
要求校友具有部分控制,更自由的精神和更廣的選課范圍。哈佛學院的畢業生同時團結起來 緩解學校的貧困狀況并要求新的事業。
在東部地區的高等學府拋棄了教堂的領導,西部地 區的學校則擴大了學習范圍,樹立了一種新的社會責任感,由此教育不斷地被推向更高的標 準。
在哈佛學院的城堡里,舊式的經典教育受到了最毀滅性的打擊。 哈佛以前一個財政主 管的兒子,35 歲的年輕領袖查爾斯·艾略特博士,領導了進步的力量。
在他管理學院的第 一年取得了五個革命性的進展。 那就是提高和加強入學要求,擴充課程和發展選修課,承
認大學文科的研究生學習,將法學、醫學和工程學的職業訓練提高到研究生水平和促進學生 生活的成熟。 入學標準在 1872~1873 年及 1876
年~1877 年急劇提高。 由于采用了學生 事務院長負責制和明智的處理紀律的手段,大學生把自己更多地看作是年輕的紳士,而不是 年輕的動物。
學校開設了一個又一個的新課程--自然科學、音樂、美術史、高級西班牙語、 政治經濟學、物理、古典語言學和國際法。
譯路通武漢翻譯公司整理
2012.7.5