"Only Connect . . ." The Goals of a Liberal Education
"Only Connect . . ." The Goals of a Liberal Education
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发表时间：
1998
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通讯作者：
William Cronon
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作者：
William Cronon
成为一个受过自由教育的人意味着什么？这似乎是一个简单的问题，特别是考虑到学院和大学经常屈服于这个陈旧的短语作为其机构使命的中心标志。这些词就像咒语一样被无休止地重复，从高中生在邮箱中收到的数百份光鲜亮丽的招生手册开始，一直到他们在毕业典礼当天听到的最后一次疲惫的祈祷。如果这句话在经过如此多次的重复之后听起来没有至少有点空洞，那确实会令人惊讶，而且如果本科生最终将通识教育视为一种营销策略或一种陈词滥调，那么他们当然可以被原谅。然而，我们中的许多人仍然对这些词寄予厚望，相信它们描述了学院或大学应该提供的最终产品之一。那么我们所说的自由教育到底是什么意思，为什么我们如此关心它呢？在谈到“自由”教育时，我们当然不是指向学生灌输政治自由主义价值观的教育，至少不是后一个短语最明显的意义上的教育。相反，我们用这些词来描述庆祝和培育人类自由的教育传统。如今，“自由主义”和“自由”已经成为深陷争议的词汇，受到政治光谱远端的拥戴和谩骂，以至于我们几乎不知道如何在不将它们变成口号的情况下使用它们——但它们很难与这种教育传统分开。 Liberal 源自拉丁文liberalis，意思是“自由艺术的或与文科相关的”，而后者又源自拉丁语单词 liber，意思是“自由”。但这个词实际上有更深层次的根源，类似于古英语单词 leodan，意思是“成长”和 leod，意思是“人民”。它也与希腊语单词 eleutheros 相关，意思是“自由”，并可以追溯到梵文单词 rodhati，意思是“一个人攀爬， ” “一个人成长。 “自由和成长：毫无疑问，这是我们谈论自由教育时所指的核心价值观。通识教育建立在这些价值观之上：它渴望培养人才的成长，为人类自由服务。所以一个…
What does it mean to be a liberally educated person? It seems such a simple question, especially given the frequency with which colleges and universities genuflect toward this well-worn phrase as the central icon of their institutional missions. Mantra-like, the words are endlessly repeated, starting in the glossy admissions brochures that high school students receive by the hundreds in their mailboxes and continuing right down to the last tired invocations they hear on commencement day. It would be surprising indeed if the phrase did not begin to sound at least a little empty after so much repetition, and surely undergraduates can be forgiven if they eventually regard liberal education as either a marketing ploy or a shibboleth. Yet many of us continue to place great stock in these words, believing them to describe one of the ultimate goods that a college or university should serve. So what exactly do we mean by liberal education, and why do we care so much about it? In speaking of " liberal " education, we certainly do not mean an education that indoctrinates students in the values of political liberalism, at least not in the most obvious sense of the latter phrase. Rather, we use these words to describe an educational tradition that celebrates and nurtures human freedom. These days liberal and liberty have become words so mired in controversy, embraced and reviled as they have been by the far ends of the political spectrum, that we scarcely know how to use them without turning them into slogans—but they can hardly be separated from this educational tradition. Liberal derives from the Latin liberalis, meaning " of or relating to the liberal arts, " which in turn derives from the Latin word liber, meaning " free. " But the word actually has much deeper roots, being akin to the Old English word leodan, meaning " to grow, " and leod, meaning " people. " It is also related to the Greek word eleutheros, meaning " free, " and goes all the way back to the Sanskrit word rodhati, meaning " one climbs, " " one grows. " Freedom and growth: here, surely, are values that lie at the very core of what we mean when we speak of a liberal education. Liberal education is built on these values: it aspires to nurture the growth of human talent in the service of human freedom. So one …