康奈爾大學(xué):論大學(xué)的責(zé)任
在當(dāng)今世界,讀大學(xué)好像是人生中非常重要的一個(gè)環(huán)節(jié),那么大學(xué)的責(zé)任到底是什么?康奈爾大學(xué)在強(qiáng)調(diào)個(gè)人發(fā)展的同時(shí)也特別注重社會(huì)責(zé)任,在你所能想到的大學(xué)的作用里,有培養(yǎng)合格公民這一項(xiàng)嗎?大學(xué)又是怎樣培養(yǎng)合格公民的呢?
What is the purpose of college? Certainly it prepares students for careers and offers opportunities for learning and personal advancement that they may not get otherwise. But what other purpose does college serve?
大學(xué)的目的是什么?當(dāng)然,大學(xué)為個(gè)人的學(xué)習(xí)和進(jìn)步提供機(jī)會(huì),為個(gè)人的職業(yè)生涯打好基礎(chǔ)。但是除此之外大學(xué)還有什么目的呢?
Like many leaders in higher education, Gretchen Ritter, the dean of arts and sciences at Cornell University , believe that we also have a responsibility to foster good citizenship, and I think that’s one of the most important contributions college can make to society.
像高等教育的許多領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者一樣,康奈爾大學(xué)藝術(shù)與科學(xué)院院長(zhǎng)Gretchen Ritter認(rèn)為大學(xué)也應(yīng)以培養(yǎng)合格公民為己任,那也是大學(xué)能為社會(huì)所做的最重要的貢獻(xiàn)之一。
Abraham Lincoln once said that in the face of political divisions, it is beholden upon all of us to come together by invoking the “better angels of our nature.” I hope that some of our graduates will be leaders in these debates and will devote some part of their professional lives to public service.
How does college foster these attributes of good citizenship? There are three things that matter deeply here: knowledge, public orientation, and human understanding. Colleges do this not only through what we teach but also through who we admit.
大學(xué)應(yīng)該怎樣培養(yǎng)優(yōu)秀公民呢?有三個(gè)關(guān)鍵因素:知識(shí)、公眾意識(shí),和人文意識(shí)。大學(xué)不僅通過“教”來(lái)實(shí)現(xiàn)這些,也通過所招學(xué)生的素質(zhì)來(lái)呈現(xiàn)這些。
In my college, more than a tenth of the freshman class grew up outside the United States. We have students at Cornell from every state in the country, and every class, religious, or social background imaginable. That uncommon diversity can create challenges at times in competing understandings of what constitutes justice, opportunity or social good, or when religious differences spill over into foreign policy debates. But learning to navigate discussions that entail deep, passionate, and sometimes opposing commitments is an essential skill for all of us — not just in the public sphere, but in our work lives and home lives as well. In all of these ways, a commitment to the role of college in fostering good citizenship correlates to the view that knowledge and human understanding provide us with a pathway to a better future.
在康奈爾大學(xué),超過十分之一的大一新生是國(guó)際學(xué)生,這種文化背景的多樣性使學(xué)生對(duì)于正義、機(jī)遇等的理解也不盡相同,那么能夠正確地引導(dǎo)輿論就是一種很重要的能力了??傊?,大學(xué)的重要責(zé)任之一就是培養(yǎng)合格的公民,讓學(xué)生知道知識(shí)和人文意識(shí)能引導(dǎo)他們擁有一個(gè)更好的未來(lái)。
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