首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Americans today don’t place a very high value on intellect. Our heroes are athletes, entertainers, and entrepreneurs, not schola
Americans today don’t place a very high value on intellect. Our heroes are athletes, entertainers, and entrepreneurs, not schola
admin
2014-12-26
80
问题
Americans today don’t place a very high value on intellect. Our heroes are athletes, entertainers, and entrepreneurs, not scholars. Even our schools are where we send our children to get a practical education—not to pursue knowledge for the sake of knowledge. Symptoms of pervasive anti-intellectualism in our schools aren’t difficult to find.
"Schools have always been in a society where practice is more important than intellect", says education writer Diane Ravitch. "Schools could be a counterbalance". Ravitch’ s latest book, Left Back: A Century of Failed School Reforms, traces the roots of anti-intellectualism in our schools, concluding they are anything but a counterbalance to the American distaste for intellectual pursuits.
But they could and should be. Encouraging kids to reject the life of the mind leaves them vulnerable to exploitation and control. Without the ability to think critically, to defend their ideas and understand the ideas of others, they cannot fully participate in our democracy. Continuing along this path, says writer Earl Shorris, "We will become a second-rate country. We will have a less civil society".
"Intellect is resented as a form, of power or privilege", writes historian and Professor Richard Hofstadter in Anti-intellectualism in American Life, a Pulitzer Prize winning book on the roots of anti-intellectualism in U.S. politics, religion, and education. From the beginning of our history, says Hofstadter, our democratic and populist urges have driven us to reject anything that smells of elitism. Practicality, common sense, and native intelligence have been considered more noble qualities than anything you could learn from a book.
Ralph Waldo Emerson and other Transcendentalist philosophers thought schooling and rigorous book learning put unnatural restraints on children, "We are shut up in schools and college recitation rooms for 10 or 15 years and come out at last with a bellyful of words and do not know a thing". Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn exemplified American anti-intellectualism. Its hero avoids being civilized—going to school and learning to read, so he can preserve his innate goodness.
Intellect, according to Hofstadter, is different from native intelligence, a quality we reluctantly admire. Intellect is the critical, creative, and contemplative side of the mind.
Intelligence seeks to grasp, manipulate, re-order, and adjust, while intellect examines, ponders, wonders, theorizes, criticizes and imagines.
School remains a place where intellect is mistrusted. Hofstadter says our country’ s educational system is in the grips of people who "joyfully and militantly proclaim their hostility to intellect and their eagerness to identify with children who show the least intellectual promise".
According to the passage, Emerson is likely to be______.
选项
A、an opponent of environment protection
B、a pioneer of classical learning
C、an advocator of anti-intellectualism
D、a scholar at college
答案
C
解析
推断题。根据关键词“Emerson”定位于第五段第一句,“Ralph WaldoEmerson and other Transcendentalist philosophers thought schooling and rigorous booklearning put unnatural restraints on children.”他们认为学校和呆板的书本教育会抑制孩子的天性。所以,正确答案是C。他反对知识主义教育。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/Ksh7777K
0
大学英语六级
相关试题推荐
A、Itcausesaseverehealthproblem.B、Itleadstogreateconomiclosses.C、Humansmaydieoftheinfectionwithoutanysign.D、
Obviously,ifyouhavetroublesleeping,thefirstthingyoushoulddoisavoidcoffee,tea,andcigarettesintheevening.You
A、Whatisso-calledThanksgivingDay.B、HowtocelebrateThanksgivingDay.C、TheexacttimeofThanksgivingDay.D、Thehistoryo
A、Toplaytheviolinonceagain.B、TogototheUnitedStates.C、Toapplyforascholarship.D、Tohaveherperformancetaped.D①
A、Toplaytheviolinonceagain.B、TogototheUnitedStates.C、Toapplyforascholarship.D、Tohaveherperformancetaped.D①
LisaNesserisanAmericanwholivesinThailand.She【B1】______aschoolthereforchildrenfromBurma,thecountryalsoknown
It’smyhonortobeheretonight.OurorganizationiscalledtheNoiseAbatementSocietythat【B1】______andtriestodealwi
WhenthePortuguesebegantradingwithChinaintheearly1500s,【C1】______wasoneoftheluxurygoodstheycarriedhomeintheir
WhenthePortuguesebegantradingwithChinaintheearly1500s,【C1】______wasoneoftheluxurygoodstheycarriedhomeintheir
随机试题
男生,26岁,常于劳动时有呼吸困难,胸痛,伴眩晕。体检:胸骨左缘第3~4肋间Ⅲ级粗糙的喷射牲收缩期杂音,超声心动图示室间隔厚度16mm,与左室后壁之比为1.5:1,其孪生弟于半年前猝死。最有可能的诊断为
A.HC+4位年号+4位顺序号B.SC+4位年号+4位顺序号C.BZ+4位年号+4位顺序号D.BS+4位年号+4位顺序号在境内销售澳门生产的化学药,其注册证证号的格式应为
下列关于衡量企业业绩不同观点的说法错误的有()。
下列天体系统等级由低级向高级排列正确的是()。
生产关系是
劳动力商品区别于一般商品的最大特殊性在于()
阅读以下说明,回答问题1至问题3。某大型家电制造企业业务发展迅速稳定,资金和规模不断增长,拟建设企业电子商务系统及企业内部信息管理平台。企业网站购物流程如下图所示,请将其补充完整。备选答案:A.会员登录B.商品配送
采用虚拟存储器的主要目的是( )。
将数据库的结构划分成多个层次,是为了提高数据库的()。
SomehowCaliforniaisalwaysatthecuttingedge,beitintheflower-powerdaysofthe1960sorthedotcomboomofthe1990s.A
最新回复
(
0
)