CNN host and best-selling author Fareed Zakaria argues for a renewed commitment to the world’s most valuable educational tradition.
The liberal arts are under attack. The governors of Florida, Texas, and North Carolina have all pledged that they will not spend taxpayer money subsidizing the liberal arts, and they seem to have an unlikely ally in President Obama. While at a General Electric plant in early 2014, Obama remarked, "I promise you, folks can make a lot more, potentially, with skilled manufacturing or the trades than they might with an art history degree." These messages are hitting home: majors like English and history, once very popular and highly respected, are in steep decline.
"I get it," writes Fareed Zakaria, recalling the atmosphere in India where he grew up, which was even more obsessed with getting a skills-based education. However, the CNN host and best-selling author explains why this widely held view is mistaken and shortsighted.
Zakaria eloquently expounds on the virtues of a liberal arts education―how to write clearly, how to express yourself convincingly, and how to think analytically. He turns our leaders' vocational argument on its head. American routine manufacturing jobs continue to get automated or outsourced, and specific vocational knowledge is often outdated within a few years. Engineering is a great profession, but key value-added skills you will also need are creativity, lateral thinking, design, communication, storytelling, and, more than anything, the ability to continually learn and enjoy learning―precisely the gifts of a liberal education.
Zakaria argues that technology is transforming education, opening up access to the best courses and classes in a vast variety of subjects for millions around the world. We are at the dawn of the greatest expansion of the idea of a liberal education in human history.
刊載於2015/7/29 聯合報 D3
http://udn.com/news/story/7051/1084746
CNN「福理德.澤卡瑞亞的環球廣場(Fareed Zakaria GPS)」節目主持人,也是《華盛頓郵報》專欄作家澤卡瑞亞的新書 In Defense of a Liberal Education,今年甫由W.W. Norton公司出版不久,便登上《紐約時報》暢銷書排行榜,更在網路書店亞馬遜教育書類排名第一。
書的開頭他引用E.O. Wilson的一段話:
我們渴求智慧卻淹沒在資訊裡,但今後的世界會由有綜合能力者主導,這種人善於思辨,能把握時機,彙集正確的資訊,做出睿智的重大抉擇。
澤卡瑞亞的理想,其實就是liberal Education的理想。Liberal Education通譯為博雅教育或人文教育,是全人教育的一環,也是美國很多名校19世紀以來的教育理想與課程核心。但二次世界大戰後大學課程越來越專門化,只強調知識的工具價值,導致學生知識過分偏狹。近年來進入全球化的時代,大家都一窩蜂談職場競爭力,談“skills-based learning”(學一技之長),如電腦、電子、法律及工程等,人文學科因為不實用而更被忽視。美國德州、北卡等四州州長甚至揚言不再補貼人文學門。Zakaria則不以為然,認為人文博雅教育不容輕忽。相對於職業教育,修讀歷史、哲學、文學和藝術等人文博雅教育,可以幫助學生思辨,培養綜合能力,讓學生一生受用。而學習寫作、溝通和養成學習能力,對學生各方面的發展都有莫大裨益。
全世界最具創新能力的國家,美國之外,在歐洲應數新科技公司林立的瑞典。以色列也不遑多讓。就風險創業投資占GDP比率而言,以色列排名世界第一,美國第二,瑞典也名列前茅。但在OECD(經濟合作暨發展組織)34個會員國裡,2012年PISA(Programme for International Student Assessment學生能力國際評量)的排名,瑞典和以色列則在美國之後,三個學科平均排名為28及29。不過,經常在PISA排行榜上表現傑出的國家,如新加坡、香港、台灣等,在科技上不見得就很出色。由此可見,學業成績並非決定創新力、成就的充分條件。
書中提到耶魯與新加坡大學合作的通識教育模式,很值得世界各國研究,而MOOCs(磨課師,Massive Open Online Courses)的出現,可讓博雅教育的推廣更便利、省錢,則是一大福音。
頗為有趣的是澤氏在「為今日的年輕人辯護」一章,提到指責年輕人「一代不如一代」,是自柏拉圖以來的傳統,他覺得現代的年輕人價值觀其實比以往進步,起碼願意捐錢幫助弱小,願意當志工的比率比以前的世代更多!
大學用了沒? /OC
書林書號:10014127
作者:蔡慶同 主編
ISBN:9789574456512
會員價:272
In Defense of a Liberal Education
書林書號:30221963
作者:Zakaria, Fareed
ISBN:9780393352344
會員價:530
為博雅教育辯護:當人文課熄燈,大學正讓青年世代失去遠大未來(In Defense of a Liberal Education)
書林書號:44522360
作者:法理德.札卡瑞亞(Zakaria,Fareed)
ISBN:9789865695378
會員價:260