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
2015-01-31
64
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".
The opinions held by Ravitch and Mark Twain on school education are______.
选项
A、identical
B、complementary
C、same
D、opposite
答案
D
解析
推断题。题干问,Ravitch和Mark Twain对于学校教育的观点是什么样的?选项A与选项C是同一个意思,根据正确选项只有一个原则,可同时排除;选项B,互补的;选项D,相反的。根据原文第四段,前者推崇教育,而第五段表明马克吐温则避开去学校。可知,正确答案是D。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/TFh7777K
0
大学英语六级
相关试题推荐
Asgoodsandservicesimproved,peoplewerepersuadedtosendtheirmoneyonchangingfromoldtonew,andfoundthechangewort
A、PeoplewhoeatfishfrequentlyarelesslikelytodevelopA.M.D.B、A.M.D.isgettingmorecommonamongyoungteenagers.C、
Bloggingisapastimeformany,evenalivelihoodforafew.Forsome,itbecomesan【B1】_____.Suchbloggersoftenfeelcompelle
Bloggingisapastimeformany,evenalivelihoodforafew.Forsome,itbecomesan【B1】_____.Suchbloggersoftenfeelcompelle
A、Aliterarywork.B、Asocialart.C、Agovernmentdocument.D、Anindividual’screation.B短文开头提到Architectureisasocialart表明,建筑
Researchershavefoundmoreevidencethatsuggestsarelationshipbetweenraceandratesoflungcanceramongsmokers.Some(36)
ImprovingthebalancebetweentheworkingpartofthedayandtherestofitisagoalofagrowingnumberofworkersinrichWe
WriteacompositionentitledIstheIndependentEnrollmentofUniversityaGoodThing?Youshouldwriteatleast150wordsaccor
A、TravelingaroundtheEurope.B、Havingarestafteraday’swork.C、Goingonbusinesstrip.D、Workingintheircompany.A选项均以动名
Americansusuallyconsiderthemselvesafriendlypeople.Theirfriendships,however,tendtobeshorterandmore【B1】______thanf
随机试题
总图中标注的标高应为_______,如标注_______,则应注明两者之间的换算关系。
WhenIwas16yearsold,ImademyfirstvisittotheUnitedStates.Itwasn’tthefirsttimeIhadbeen【C1】______LikemostEng
A.1次/年B.1次/2年C.1次/3年D.1次11—2年E.1次11—3年为了早期发现宫颈癌,对一切有性生活的妇女进行脱落细胞涂片检查的频率是
被告人李某,出租车司机,因受单位领导批评,为发泄不满驾车驶入闹市区冲向密集人群,当场撞死5人,撞伤20人。李某的行为构成何罪?()
随着经济发展中技术的进步、分工的细化和市场的完善,工程建设中的( )也会越来越多,商品交换会更加频繁,工程价格的种类和形式也会更为丰富。
2014年初A居民企业以实物资产500万元直接投资于B居民企业(非上市企业),取得B企业30%的股权。2014年11月,A企业将持有B企业的股权全部转让,取得收入600万元,转让时B企业在A企业投资期间形成的未分配利润为400万元。关于A企业该项投资业务的
《细菌》一节是人教版初中生物学八年级上册第五单元第四章《细菌和真菌》的第二节内容。教材从细菌的发现、形态结构和生殖三个方面介绍细菌。首先通过了解列文虎克和巴斯德带领学生慢慢揭开细菌的“面纱”,而后介绍了细菌的形态。通过“观察与思考”,学生在认识植物细胞和动
“少了就买,多了就卖”“用板子在火上一盖,火就灭了”这属于学习认知策略中的()。
在“职工”表中有姓名、性别、生日等3个字段,要查询男职工中年龄最大的记录,显示最大年龄,正确的SQL命令是
HowcanMarkspeakBussiannow?
最新回复
(
0
)