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  3. I had a teacher once who called his students "idiots" when they screwed up. He was our orchestra conductor, a fierce Ukrainian i

I had a teacher once who called his students "idiots" when they screwed up. He was our orchestra conductor, a fierce Ukrainian i

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问题     I had a teacher once who called his students "idiots" when they screwed up. He was our orchestra conductor, a fierce Ukrainian immigrant named Jerry Kupchynsky, and when someone played out of tune, he would stop the entire group to yell, "Who eez deaf in first violins?" He made us rehearse until our fingers almost bled. He corrected our wayward hands and arms by poking at us with a pencil.
    Today, he’d be fired. But when he died a few years ago, he was celebrated: Forty years’ worth of former students and colleagues flew back to my New Jersey hometown from every corner of the country, old instruments in tow, to play a concert in his memory. I was among them, toting(携带)my long-neglected viola. When the curtain rose on our concert that day, we had formed a symphony orchestra the size of the New York Philharmonic.
    I was stunned by the outpouring for the gruff old teacher we knew as Mr. K. But I was equally struck by the success of his former students. Some were musicians, but most had distinguished themselves in other fields, like law, academia and medicine. Research tells us that there is a positive correlation between music education and academic achievement. But that alone didn’t explain the belated surge of gratitude for a teacher who basically tortured us through adolescence.
    We’re in the midst of a national wave of self-recrimination over the U. S. education system. Every day there is hand-wringing over our students falling behind the rest of the world. Fifteen-year-olds in the U. S. trail students in 12 other nations in science and 17 in math. An entire industry of books and consultants has grown up that capitalizes on our collective fear that American education is inadequate and asks what American educators are doing wrong.
    Comparing Mr. K’s methods with the latest findings in fields from music to math to medicine leads to a single, startling conclusion: It’s time to revive old-fashioned education. Not just traditional but old-fashioned in the sense that so many of us knew as kids, with strict discipline and unyielding demands. Because here’s the thing: It works.
    Now I’m not calling for abuse: I’d be the first to complain if a teacher called my kids names. But the latest evidence backs up my modest proposal. Studies have now shown, among other things, the benefits of moderate childhood stress: how praise kills kids’ self-esteem: and why grit is a better predictor of success than SAT scores.
    All of which flies in the face of the kinder, gentler philosophy that has dominated American education over the past few decades. The conventional wisdom holds that teachers are supposed to tease knowledge out of students, rather than pound it into their heads. Projects and collaborative learning are applauded: traditional methods like lecturing and memorization—derided as "drill and kill"—are frowned upon, dismissed as a surefire way to suck young minds dry of creativity and motivation. But the conventional wisdom is wrong.
Which can best describe the theme of the text?
选项 A、The correlation between music education and academic achievement.
B、The comparison between conventional and old-fashioned wisdom.
C、The necessity of adopting the old-fashioned teaching policies.
D、The defects in the conventional teaching and education system.
答案C
解析 主旨题。文章首先介绍了作者的老师Mr．K的教学方式近乎严苛，却在去世后受到学生的尊敬，以此引出美国现代教育体制的弊病，从而呼吁恢复旧式传统教育理念，故[C]符合文意。
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