pbs高端访谈:大学是最佳的民主演练空间

 　　GWEN IFILL:Finally tonight, as students line up to receive diplomas and head out in search of work in a tough economy, we turn to one author's assessment¹ of the value of a college education.

　　Jeffrey Brown recorded this book conversation earlier this month.

　　JEFFREY BROWN:On the one hand, an article of faith, a college education is a goal to be sought for all Americans; on the other, a growing question, is college still worth it?

　　A new book looks at this great and troubled institution. It's titled "College: What it Was, Is and Should Be."Author Andrew Delbanco is a professor at Columbia University. His many books include a biography of Herman Melville, and last year he was awarded a National Humanities Medal by President Obama.

　　And welcome to you.

　　ANDREW DELBANCO,professor, Columbia University: Thank you.

　　JEFFREY BROWN:Now, you make a case in this book that something has been lost, or at least in danger of being lost, even a kind of moral center for our colleges. How do you define the problem?

　　ANDREW DELBANCO:Well, I think we want to remember that through much of our history, a very small percentage of the college-age population went to college.

　　And for those people, either they didn't need a job or they had a job waiting for them. College wasn't so much an institution for preparing people for the marketplace, but it was an institution for helping² them discover who they were.

　　In fact, I'd say that the American college which we take for granted is actually a unique institution in the world of higher education. In most countries, the relatively³ small number of people who go on to university are expected to know what they're after, what they're good at, what their competence⁴ is.

　　In our country, we have always wanted to believe that there might be a chance for young people between adolescence⁵ and adulthood⁶ to take some time to reflect, to discover who they are.

　　JEFFREY BROWN:So your sense is that we've lost this place of exploration, I think, or we're losing that sense, and turning more towards a kind of credentialing, utilitarian⁷. . .

　　ANDREW DELBANCO:It's not lost, but I think it's under threat from many directions. And much of that is understandable. The anxiety that parents feel about the cost of colleges. . .

　　JEFFREY BROWN:I will say. You could hear somebody saying right away, right, but it costs so much.

　　ANDREW DELBANCO:It's a well-placed anxiety.

　　And the anxiety that young people feel, especially those who are trying to get into selective colleges, what's this going to do for me, what's it's going to be about, all of that is understandable. But I don't think it should be an either-or. I don't think colleges should be expected exclusively to provide sort of job training services, though they should graduate students with competence and with the ability to read and to write clearly and to think and to work hard.

　　But they should also try their best to preserve this space for self-reflection that has been so important to us.

　　JEFFREY BROWN:Part of the focus of this book, of course, is that the most elite⁸ schools, which is where you're coming from, but also you're making a case for a much broader sector⁹, the entire educational sector?

　　ANDREW DELBANCO:I am.

　　I think so much of the conversation is about a small handful of institutions. And that's understandable on a number of scores. And we want to remember that most college teachers are trained in research universities, so that small group of highly esteemed¹⁰ research universities is important.

　　But, of course, the glory of the American education system is its breadth and its diversity. And we have an enormous number of different kinds of institutions. The community colleges are every bit as important for the future of our country as the Harvards and the Yales.

　　JEFFREY BROWN:One of the pieces of the economic puzzle that you point to as a problem today is access to schools, that the better off you are, the far greater chance you have of getting into especially top schools.

　　So, is there less upward mobility¹¹ now? You're making a case that this problem is exacerbating¹² economic and social divisions in the country.

　　ANDREW DELBANCO:I think that's right.

　　I mean, it's one of the glorious stories of American civilization that we opened up the opportunity for college to an unprecedented¹³ number of young people, much more widely than any society ever had done before. That story, I think, is slowing, it's stalled, it may even have gone into reverse. And we don't acknowledge this frankly¹⁴ as we should how steep the barriers are for kids who come from families that are struggling economically.

　　JEFFREY BROWN:And so what's happening? What do you see happening? A division?

　　ANDREW DELBANCO:I see a stratification of the higher education system.

　　I see in the elite, selective colleges a much too high percentages of students from affluent¹⁵ families. And I see too many resources going in that direction and too few resources going to the institutions that serve low-income students and children of immigrants and first-generation college-goers.

　　JEFFREY BROWN:How much do you blame the top-echelon colleges themselves?

　　I note—I went back. During the campaign, Rick Santorum made a statement about calling colleges indoctrination mills. You wrote an op-ed piece. And, of course, you didn't agree with him on that, but you pointed¹⁶ out that there is a—I think you used the word smugness, a certain smugness on the part of elite schools.

　　ANDREW DELBANCO:Well, I didn't agree with him. And I thought he misrepresented President Obama to some degree.

　　But I don't like the rhetoric¹⁷ that greets the incoming class at the most selective institutions, which is almost invariably, you are the best ever. And it encourages young people—a lot of them resist it. There are a lot of wonderful students at these institution, but it encourages them to think that, well, I must be better than all those thousands who didn't get in.

　　I think that's a bad message. And I think there are reasons for the winners to doubt that they won altogether because of their own virtue¹⁸ and merit.

　　JEFFREY BROWN:So, what would you do? What would you—even a single thing to improve college, given that we have only touched on some of the problems that you raise here?

　　ANDREW DELBANCO:I don't have a sweeping¹⁹ answer to that. And that's going to disappoint some readers of my book.

　　But I think every institution has to tackle this on its own terms. One of the glories, as I said, of our system is that it's not really a system. Every institution has a different constituency, different alumni, different cultural values.

　　But I think that we want to keep in mind as firmly as we can and we want to defend this historical function of the American college, which is to help students discover themselves and to become citizens, not just competent employees, but thoughtful citizens. And that includes self-criticism.

　　There are ways to do that by, I think notably²⁰, having those students participate in classes which are, in my mind, the best rehearsal²¹ spaces we have for democracy. The college classroom should be a place where students learn to speak with civility, to listen with respect to each other, to know the difference between an argument based on evidence and an opinion, and most of all to realize that they might walk into the room with one point of view and they might walk out with another.

　　That adds up to a certain kind of humility²². And I think all of our colleges have the responsibility to try to inculcate that as much as possible.

　　JEFFREY BROWN:Of course, most of the rhetoric one hears from politicians, the president included, as well as parents sitting around their tables now trying to figure out how they're going to pay for this, is that there's got to be something at the other end, right?

　　ANDREW DELBANCO:Yes.

　　JEFFREY BROWN:It's got to lead to something that benefits my daughter or son and, most of all, it's put in economic, job terms.

　　ANDREW DELBANCO:Yes. And the economic argument is indisputable. We need a competitive population in the global knowledge economy. The evidence is clear that young people who go to college even for a year or two tend to do better than people who don't.

　　But the argument for democracy is, I think, at least as important.

　　JEFFREY BROWN:All right, we are going to continue this conversation online. And I'm going to invite our viewers to join us there later on.

　　But, for now, Andrew Delbanco's new book is "College: What It Was, Is and Should Be."Thanks so much.

　　ANDREW DELBANCO:Thank you.

1 assessment   

n.评价；评估；对财产的估价，被估定的金额

参考例句：

• This is a very perceptive assessment of the situation.这是一个对该情况的极富洞察力的评价。
• What is your assessment of the situation?你对时局的看法如何？

2 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

3 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

4 competence   

n.能力，胜任，称职

参考例句：

• This mess is a poor reflection on his competence.这种混乱情况说明他难当此任。
• These are matters within the competence of the court.这些是法院权限以内的事。

5 adolescence   

n.青春期，青少年

参考例句：

• Adolescence is the process of going from childhood to maturity.青春期是从少年到成年的过渡期。
• The film is about the trials and tribulations of adolescence.这部电影讲述了青春期的麻烦和苦恼。

6 adulthood   

n.成年，成人期

参考例句：

• Some infantile actions survive into adulthood.某些婴儿期的行为一直保持到成年期。
• Few people nowadays are able to maintain friendships into adulthood.如今很少有人能将友谊维持到成年。

7 utilitarian   

adj.实用的，功利的

参考例句：

• On the utilitarian side American education has outstridden the rest of the world.在实用方面美国教育已超越世界各国。
• A good cloth coat is more utilitarian than a fur one.一件优质的布外衣要比一件毛皮外衣更有用。

8 elite   

n.精英阶层；实力集团；adj.杰出的，卓越的

参考例句：

• The power elite inside the government is controlling foreign policy.政府内部的一群握有实权的精英控制着对外政策。
• We have a political elite in this country.我们国家有一群政治精英。

9 sector   

n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形

参考例句：

• The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
• The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。

10 esteemed   

adj.受人尊敬的v.尊敬( esteem的过去式和过去分词 )；敬重；认为；以为

参考例句：

• The art of conversation is highly esteemed in France. 在法国十分尊重谈话技巧。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He esteemed that he understood what I had said. 他认为已经听懂我说的意思了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 mobility   

n.可动性，变动性，情感不定

参考例句：

• The difference in regional house prices acts as an obstacle to mobility of labour.不同地区房价的差异阻碍了劳动力的流动。
• Mobility is very important in guerrilla warfare.机动性在游击战中至关重要。

12 exacerbating   

v.使恶化，使加重( exacerbate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• This pedagogical understretch is exacerbating social inequalities. 这种教学张力不足加重了社会不平等。 来自互联网
• High fertilizer prices are exacerbating the problem. 高涨的肥料价格更加加剧了问题的恶化。 来自互联网

13 unprecedented   

adj.无前例的，新奇的

参考例句：

• The air crash caused an unprecedented number of deaths.这次空难的死亡人数是空前的。
• A flood of this sort is really unprecedented.这样大的洪水真是十年九不遇。

14 frankly   

adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说

参考例句：

• To speak frankly, I don't like the idea at all.老实说，我一点也不赞成这个主意。
• Frankly speaking, I'm not opposed to reform.坦率地说，我不反对改革。

15 affluent   

adj.富裕的，富有的，丰富的，富饶的

参考例句：

• He hails from an affluent background.他出身于一个富有的家庭。
• His parents were very affluent.他的父母很富裕。

16 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

17 rhetoric   

n.修辞学，浮夸之言语

参考例句：

• Do you know something about rhetoric?你懂点修辞学吗？
• Behind all the rhetoric,his relations with the army are dangerously poised.在冠冕堂皇的言辞背后，他和军队的关系岌岌可危。

18 virtue   

n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力

参考例句：

• He was considered to be a paragon of virtue.他被认为是品德尽善尽美的典范。
• You need to decorate your mind with virtue.你应该用德行美化心灵。

19 sweeping   

adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的

参考例句：

• The citizens voted for sweeping reforms.公民投票支持全面的改革。
• Can you hear the wind sweeping through the branches?你能听到风掠过树枝的声音吗？

20 notably   

adv.值得注意地，显著地，尤其地，特别地

参考例句：

• Many students were absent,notably the monitor.许多学生缺席，特别是连班长也没来。
• A notably short,silver-haired man,he plays basketball with his staff several times a week.他个子明显较为矮小，一头银发，每周都会和他的员工一起打几次篮球。

21 rehearsal   

n.排练，排演；练习

参考例句：

• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。
• You can sharpen your skills with rehearsal.排练可以让技巧更加纯熟。

22 humility   

n.谦逊，谦恭

参考例句：

• Humility often gains more than pride.谦逊往往比骄傲收益更多。
• His voice was still soft and filled with specious humility.他的声音还是那么温和，甚至有点谦卑。