Two recently released books offer significant criticisms of the current landscape of higher education. As to what we should do about those problems, the two books propose completely opposed solutions.
Bryan Caplan, a professor of economics at George Mason University, gives away his big idea in his title, “The Case Against Education: Why the Education System Is a Waste of Time and Money.” Caplan argues that the primary value of a college degree is in what it “signals” rather than what people may have learned or experienced.
In Caplan’s view, most education is wasted on the young, who are incapable of appreciating or benefiting freedom education. Caplan’s solution is to “stop using tax dollars to fund education of any kind.” He sees a greater role for vocational or trade education, starting early as children fail to show interest or aptitude (资质) in school subjects, which should primarily focus on the “practical”-not art, music or anything else. Caplan even puts in a good word for child labor as an alternative to the schooling they neither enjoy nor appreciate.
Cathy Davidson, director of the Futures Initiative at the City University of New York, offers a different attitude in “The New Education: How to Revolutionize the University to Prepare Students for a World in Flux (变化).”
Davidson also believes higher education needs to change, but rather than starving it, she advocates for a broad-based “revolution” that attacks the barriers between students and learning, including educational costs, approaches to curriculum, and how we measure and credential (提供证明) students. Davidson has a chapter on “college for everyone”, examining the potential to innovate community colleges to serve as ladders to social mobility.
Education does need to continue to evolve. But it’s Davidson who has a vision for what education could and should be that’s consistent with the traditional values of freedom, opportunity and progress we associate with education. As to which of these two visions we’d like to follow, we have a choice. I hope we choose wisely.
1.Why does Bryan Caplan criticize the present higher education?
A.It fails to teach students overall knowledge.
B.It spends too much time on ungifted students.
C.It costs students much money for education in college.
D.It wastes students’ time in learning unpractical knowledge.
2.What can we learn from Cathy Davidson’s book?
A.Higher education should be accessible to all students.
B.Government shouldn’t fund college students with tax dollars.
C.The barriers between students and learning won’t be broken down.
D.Community colleges have helped more students achieve social mobility.
3.The two books are introduced in the passage to stress ________.
A.the problems with higher education
B.the necessity of higher education reform
C.the situation of the present higher education
D.the popularity of the two newly released books
Subject Art & Design, Craft & Creative, Beauty
Delivery method Online
Study level Professional development, Short, Accredited
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At age 19, Yohannes Gehregeoris borrowed a soft-cover romance novel entitled Love Kitten that changed his life forever. Born in rural Ethiopia to an uneducated cattle merchant who _______ his son’s education, Gebregeorgis had seen a few books in school. But it was the experience of having a book of his own that sparked a lifelong _______.
Today, at 56, Gebregeorgis is _______ libraries and literacy programs to connect Ethiopian children with books. “Most Ethiopian children have only _______ to textbooks in the classroom,” says Gebregeorgis. “Books children read _______ of school, those are the spices of education.”
Forced to _______ Ethiopia to the United States as a political refugee in 1981, Gebregeorgis finally _______ himself through university, receiving a graduate degree _______ library science. He took a _______ at the San Francisco Childhren’s Library in 1985. There, he realized the ________ children’s books could have on a child’s sense of wonder and vision.
“Children could imagine everything from books — ________ to other cultures, to other people, to other children, and to the universe ________,” recalls Gebregeorgis. “It gives them hope and pleasure. It gives them everything that they cannot ________ get in regular textbooks.” ________ Gebregeorgis found that there were none in Amharic, the primary language of Ethiopia. When the library __________ $1, 200 for the purchase of Ethiopian books, Gebregeorgis was ________ to find any.
So he wrote one and founded Ethiopia Reads in 1988. The nonprofit ________ his efforts to bring children’s libraries to Ethiopia. In 2002, Gebregeorgis ________ his job and his home and returned to Ethiopia. Then he opened the Shola Children’s Library on the first floor of his home.
Reading storybooks to children who have no access to television or computers, Gebregeorgis believes that literacy and education will ________ his poor homeland affected by AIDS. “With literate children there is no ________ as to how much we can do.”
1.A.decided on B.insisted on C.counted on D.acted on
2.A.appointment B.judgement C.encouragement D.commitment
3.A.establishing B.constructing C.assessing D.distributing
4.A.avenue B.admission C.access D.approach
5.A.inside B.beside C.offside D.outside
6.A.flee B.abandon C.escape D.withdraw
7.A.get B.pull C.put D.push
8.A.at B.in C.on D.from
9.A.session B.assembly C.post D.course
10.A.effort B.impact C.impression D.assumption
11.A.contradictions B.combinations C.compositions D.connections
12.A.at ease B.at large C.at random D.at length
13.A.somewhat B.furthermore C.otherwise D.therefore
14.A.But B.For C.And D.Or
15.A.anticipated B.allocated C.assigned D.accommodated
16.A.unconscious B.unlike C.unwilling D.unable
17.A.financed B.owed C.invested D.purchased
18.A.sacrificed B.resigned C.left D.deserted
19.A.contribute B.liberate C.promote D.reform
20.A.prevention B.barrier C.ban D.limit
— I’m afraid I can only make a small contribution this time.
—______. We really appreciate your assistance.
A.Every little helps
B.It’s better to give than to receive
C.The more, the better
D.The best things come in small packages
The Chinese government has made it clear________ it tries to achieve in space science in the next 5 years.
A.how B.that C.what D.which
We make no restrictions on the kinds of films we show — ________ a film’s quality meets our standards, we include it.
A.so that B.no matter how C.except that D.as long as
