VOA慢速英语2010年-Education Report - John Dewey, 1859-19

This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

We have a question from China. Feng Tianqiang says "I want to know something about John Dewey."

John Dewey

John Dewey was an influential¹ thinker and educator. The New York Times once called him "America's philosopher."

Larry Hickman is director of the Center for Dewey Studies at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. He was not surprised that the question came from China.

LARRY HICKMAN: "I just returned from two weeks of meetings in Beijing in December. And among the conversations I had with my Chinese colleagues was the very close relationship between Dewey's ideas and those of Confucius. I also worked with a group of lay Buddhists² who like Dewey's work very much because it is very comfortable with some of the ideas of Mahayana Buddhism³."

Dewey described his ideas in books including "Democracy and Education," "The School and Society" and "How We Think."

Larry Hickman

LARRY HICKMAN: "Dewey was perhaps the best known philosopher, educator and public intellectual of the twentieth century. He was active in many fields, including education, philosophy, psychology⁴ and also humanistic and humanitarian⁵ affairs. He was an important influence in the founding of the American Association of University Professors and the American Civil Liberties Union."

He was also influential in the founding of the National Association for the Advancement⁶ of Colored People, though he himself was white.

John Dewey was born in Burlington, Vermont, in eighteen fifty-nine. He was influenced by the scientific work of Charles Darwin. He was also influenced by the work done with immigrant English learners in Chicago by Jane Addams. She was a social worker and the first American woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. And Dewey was influenced by observing his own children.

At the University of Chicago, he founded the Laboratory School. Chemistry courses have labs. Why not a place to experiment with education? But Dewey would likely have disagreed with many current practices in American education, like the wide use of standardized⁷ testing.

LARRY HICKMAN: "He thought that testing had its place, but that testing should be more like medical tests. That is, they should be testing for individual needs, interests, abilities, and not to compare one student to another. As Dewey put it, the relation of the abilities of one student to another is none of the teacher's business."

John Dewey died in nineteen fifty-two. But Dewey scholar Larry Hickman says his ideas are still being taught in education schools.

In fact, last year was his one hundred fiftieth birthday, so it was a busy year for Dewey studies. Celebrations took place not only in the United States, but also at two universities in Beijing and in Croatia, Italy and Poland.

And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. For a link to more on John Dewey, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.

1 influential   

adj.有影响的，有权势的

参考例句：

• He always tries to get in with the most influential people.他总是试图巴结最有影响的人物。
• He is a very influential man in the government.他在政府中是个很有影响的人物。

2 Buddhists   

n.佛教徒( Buddhist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Jesuits in a phase of ascendancy, persecuted and insulted the Buddhists with great acrimony. 处于地位上升阶段的耶稣会修士迫害佛教徒，用尖刻的语言辱骂他们。 来自英汉非文学 - 历史
• The return of Saivite rule to central Java had brought no antagonism between Buddhists and Hindus. 湿婆教在中爪哇恢复统治后，并没有导致佛教徒与印度教徒之间的对立。 来自辞典例句

3 Buddhism   

n.佛教（教义）

参考例句：

• Buddhism was introduced into China about 67 AD.佛教是在公元67年左右传入中国的。
• Many people willingly converted to Buddhism.很多人情愿皈依佛教。

4 psychology   

n.心理，心理学，心理状态

参考例句：

• She has a background in child psychology.她受过儿童心理学的教育。
• He studied philosophy and psychology at Cambridge.他在剑桥大学学习哲学和心理学。

5 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

6 advancement   

n.前进，促进，提升

参考例句：

• His new contribution to the advancement of physiology was well appreciated.他对生理学发展的新贡献获得高度赞赏。
• The aim of a university should be the advancement of learning.大学的目标应是促进学术。

7 standardized   

adj.标准化的

参考例句：

• We use standardized tests to measure scholastic achievement. 我们用标准化考试来衡量学生的学业成绩。
• The parts of an automobile are standardized. 汽车零件是标准化了的。