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
2015-12-01
34
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 practical is more important than intellectual,"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".
What do American parents expect their children to acquire in school?
选项
A、The habit of thinking independently.
B、Profound knowledge of the world.
C、Practical abilities for future career.
D、The confidence in intellectual pursuits.
答案
C
解析
从文章第1段的内容可知,美国人现在不太重视才智了。我们崇拜的是运动员、演员和企业家,而不是学者。甚至我们的学校也是一个我们送孩子去接受实用教育的场所。在我们的学校,不难发现普遍的反才智主义的现象。从第2段的内容可知,作家Diane Ravitch说,“学校总是处于一个实践重于智慧的社会之中。”据此可知,美国人期待他们的孩子在学校学到实际本领。C项与文章的意思相符,因此C项为正确答案。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/ezGO777K
0
考博英语
相关试题推荐
Smallbusinessownersmustaccepttheburdensofentrepreneurship.Beinginbusinessforyour-selfrequiresyourfullattention
ThehistoryofAfrican-Americansduringthepast400yearsistraditionallynarrated【21】anongoingstraggleagainst【22】andindif
StandingontherimoftheGrandCanyon,gazingacrossthisgiantwoundintheEarth’ssurface,avisitormightassumethattheca
Forsomeonewhoselifehasbeenshattered,HiroshiShimizuisremarkablycalm.InacrampedTokyolawoffice,thesubdued,bitte
WiththeUSeconomyslowingdown,layoffsareeverywhere.Noindustryisspared.Ifyouenduphavingtostartover,inaddition
ThechangesingloballyaveragedtemperaturethathaveoccurredattheEarth’ssurfaceoverthepastcenturyaresimilarinsize
ThechangesingloballyaveragedtemperaturethathaveoccurredattheEarth’ssurfaceoverthepastcenturyaresimilarinsize
Thegiftofbeingabletodescribeafaceaccuratelyisarareone,aseveryexperiencedpoliceofficerknowstohiscost.Asme
Everysuccessfulpersonhasonethingincommon.Ifyouaskedhowtheywereabletoreachtheircareergoals,theanswerwouldu
随机试题
NEDKELLYhasbeendescribedas"oneofthemostromanticfiguresinAustralianhistory"andas"thefatherofournationalcour
男,38岁,右膝关节、右踝关节持续性肿痛2个月。既往腰痛病史14年,伴晨僵,活动后改善。查体:右膝及右踝关节肿胀,有压痛,右膝关节积液,枕墙距2cm,双侧“4”字试验(+)。实验室检查:血常规示WBC13.2×109/L,PLT383×109/L;ESR
肝功能减退的感染患者,可按常用剂量谨慎使用或略减剂量应用的药品有()。
下列关于钻孔桩施工时的清孔做法,叙述正确的有()。
如何理解经济法律关系客体中的行为?签订合同的行为是否是经济法律关系的客体?
()是教师职业道德的基本要求。
简述专才教育的特征。
十进制数90转换成无符号二进制数是__________。
【B1】【B13】
You(have)(heardfrom)him(since)lastmonth,(haveyou)?
最新回复
(
0
)