《英语流行话题阅读:语境识词4500》98 Drawbacks of Public Schooling

　　Unit 98
Drawbacks of Public Schooling¹
John Taylor Gatto had just been named New York State Teacher of the Year nine years ago when he made a shocking announcement. After teaching 26 years in New York City public schools, he was quitting saying he could no longer continue to "hurt kids". Since then, Mr. Gatto has written and lectured extensively on the negative effects of compulsory² schooling, which he believes, has become a destructive activity to lock people up and drill them and confine them with low-level abstractions.
The following are excerpts³ from a recent interview:
1. On why he wrote the book The Underground History of Education
I had a need to understand after 30 years of fairly successful teaching why the business had evolved the way it had. The first thing I learned was that the school world is not independent, but a subordinate industry to government and industry and commerce.
2. On testing
There's no teacher worth his or her salt who, inside of a period at the start of a year, doesn't know who's going to get the As, who's going to get the Bs, who's going to cause trouble ... How do you know when you get a good haircut? You look in the mirror.
What we've allowed to happen is for normal good judgment⁴ and wisdom to be set aside for some kind of mathematical scale. There's nothing a standardized⁵ test measures other than your ability to score well on the next standardized test.
3. Some assumptions made in modern schooling
Government school is a central force of social cohesion⁶. The certifiable expertise⁷ of school-teachers is superior to laypeople. Children will inevitably⁸ grow apart from parents in beliefs as they grow older, and this process must be encouraged.
4. On curriculum
There is no scientific evidence justifying⁹ any particular subject selection, any sequence of subjects, any internal arrangements of time. There is no body of knowledge inaccessible¹⁰ to a motivated elementary school student. The rationing¹¹ of learning by age is indefensible.
5. On the role of the teacher
The balance of responsibility was once divided much differently. The assumption was that the kid would do 90 percent of the work and the teacher 10 percent. Sometime around the turn of the 20th century, that assumption was deliberately¹² reversed.
6. On the future of schools
The most effective reform is home-school revolution. Approximately 2 million people from all social classes and cultural backgrounds, in effect, set up private labs of education.

1 schooling   

n.教育；正规学校教育

参考例句：

• A child's access to schooling varies greatly from area to area.孩子获得学校教育的机会因地区不同而大相径庭。
• Backward children need a special kind of schooling.天赋差的孩子需要特殊的教育。

2 compulsory   

n.强制的，必修的；规定的，义务的

参考例句：

• Is English a compulsory subject?英语是必修课吗？
• Compulsory schooling ends at sixteen.义务教育至16岁为止。

3 excerpts   

n.摘录，摘要( excerpt的名词复数 )；节选（音乐，电影）片段

参考例句：

• Some excerpts from a Renaissance mass are spatchcocked into Gluck's pallid Don Juan music. 一些文艺复光时期的弥撒的选节被不适当地加入到了格鲁克平淡无味的唐璜音乐中。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He is editing together excerpts of some of his films. 他正在将自己制作的一些电影的片断进行剪辑合成。 来自辞典例句

4 judgment   

n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见

参考例句：

• The chairman flatters himself on his judgment of people.主席自认为他审视人比别人高明。
• He's a man of excellent judgment.他眼力过人。

5 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。

6 cohesion   

n.团结，凝结力

参考例句：

• I had to bring some cohesion into the company.我得使整个公司恢复凝聚力。
• The power of culture is deeply rooted in the vitality,creativity and cohesion of a nation. 文化的力量，深深熔铸在民族的生命力、创造力和凝聚力之中。

7 expertise   

n.专门知识(或技能等)，专长

参考例句：

• We were amazed at his expertise on the ski slopes.他斜坡滑雪的技能使我们赞叹不已。
• You really have the technical expertise in a new breakthrough.让你真正在专业技术上有一个全新的突破。

8 inevitably   

adv.不可避免地；必然发生地

参考例句：

• In the way you go on,you are inevitably coming apart.照你们这样下去，毫无疑问是会散伙的。
• Technological changes will inevitably lead to unemployment.技术变革必然会导致失业。

9 justifying   

证明…有理( justify的现在分词 )； 为…辩护； 对…作出解释； 为…辩解（或辩护）

参考例句：

• He admitted it without justifying it. 他不加辩解地承认这个想法。
• The fellow-travellers'service usually consisted of justifying all the tergiversations of Soviet intenal and foreign policy. 同路人的服务通常包括对苏联国内外政策中一切互相矛盾之处进行辩护。

10 inaccessible   

adj.达不到的，难接近的

参考例句：

• This novel seems to me among the most inaccessible.这本书对我来说是最难懂的小说之一。
• The top of Mount Everest is the most inaccessible place in the world.珠穆朗玛峰是世界上最难到达的地方。

11 rationing   

n.定量供应

参考例句：

• Wartime austerities included food rationing and shortage of fuel. 战时的艰苦包括食物配给和燃料短缺。
• Food rationing was abolished in that country long ago. 那个国家早就取消了粮食配给制。

12 deliberately   

adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地

参考例句：

• The girl gave the show away deliberately.女孩故意泄露秘密。
• They deliberately shifted off the argument.他们故意回避这个论点。