What should universities teach students?This is a question that every university teacher will think about, especially when many people in society and many of our students feel that they should be answered as teachers when they have not learned anything from college.
In fact, I think not only university teachers are difficult to answer this question, perhaps even the education authorities did not think clearly, there are many references to university education these years, from "general education quality education", "excellent engineer plan".
The concept of university education can be summarized as" seeking for skill" and" seeking for Tao". It basically corresponds to "skill education" and "Boya education", and also corresponds to "Humboldt system" and "Newman system".The two ideas are very different in themselves. It's good to try to make up for each other's shortcomings, but without understanding the context, thoughts and actions are often left and right.
In ancient times, higher education was all about Taoism. The emphasis was not on teaching knowledge in books, but on the so-called way of doing things. Confucius said Fan Chi wanted to learn how to grow crops." Higher education is not about teaching vocational skills, and to this day many universities in Britain and the United States still hold this view.
From this point of view, many college students graduate, only to find nothing, can not find a job, this is not surprising.But from a different perspective, it is also reasonable for society to complain about their children's graduation from college when they can't find a job.In the past, our country's educational system was modeled after the Soviet Union, and Soviet universities adopted the "Humboldt system".
The Humboldt system, named after Humboldt (1767-1835), comes from Prussia, Germany. Unlike the Newman system, which carries out Boya education, students must have a deep understanding of a major when they graduate.Under this educational system, Prussia quickly produced elites of all walks of life, transformed itself from a weak country to a powerful country, unified Germany, and the Humboldt system quickly spread throughout Europe.
Of course, today's world is so different that schools can't be divided into one system, but these two ideas of university education have a profound impact on today's universities.For example, in today's world-class universities, most of them adhere to Newman's Taoism tradition, advocating general education and quality education, and striving to train students to be responsible and responsible members of society.There are also many colleges and universities in the United States, such as MIT and Caltech, that are heavily influenced by Humboldt's educational philosophy.
Modern American higher education is actually a combination of general education and professional education through undergraduate and graduate education. After graduation, students can either study in a job position.
After 1949, we were influenced by the Humboldt system under the Soviet Union and paid attention to professional knowledge and skills education.
After the reform and opening-up, we have been influenced by many British and American universities, learning a lot of their practices, this kind of learning is necessary, but in the concrete process many problems arise.
For example, the cost of professional education is relatively high. Therefore, the so-called general education is carried out under the background of large-scale expansion of universities, and a large number of graduates do not have professional skills.
Of course, the management also saw the problem, and the "Excellent Engineer Program" was launched to train engineering talents according to general industry standards. This idea of re-emphasizing work skills and professional education was justified.
Analyzed so much, the last question, in this case as a student what to do?
One fact, though we hate to admit it, is becoming clearer and clearer: "The social class is forming and relatively solidifying, and the educational aspirations of different classes are very different, and education is stratified."
Luo Fat has a program specifically said that the bottom of the society, the middle class and the elite need different education, the bottom of the society more needs skills education, discipline and self-discipline training, first have a skill to solve the pressure of survival.
In this case, as a student, you should understand the difference, not whether the education is good or not, but to know that a university may not be suitable for your educational needs.If you're a middle class and you're involved in a variety of activities at the undergraduate level, it might be a good idea to develop your hobbies, but if you're an elite, you might want to go to a prestigious private school in the U.S.