The Purpose of school

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The Purpose of school
    Have you ever asked yourself why children go to school? You will probably say that they go to learn their own language and other languages,arithmetic, geography, geometry,history, science and all the other subjects. That is quite true. but why do they learn these things? And are these things all that they learn at school?
    We send our children to school to prepare them for the ,time when they will be big and will have to work for themselves. They learn their own language so that they will be able to tell others clearly what they want and what they know, and understand what others tell them. They learn foreign languages in order to be able to benefit from what people in other countries have written and said, and in order to make people from other countries understand what they themselves mean. They learn arithmetic in order to be able to measure and count things in their daily life, geography in order to know something about the world around them, and history to know something about human beings they meet every day. Nearly everything they study at school has some practical use in their life, but is that the only reason why they go to school?
    No. There is more in education than just learning facts. We go to school, above all, to learn how to learn, so that, when we have left school, we can continue to learn. A man who really knows how to learn will always be successful, because whenever he has to do something new which he has never had to do before,he will rapidly teach himself how to do it in the best way. The uneducated person, on the other hand, is either unable to do something new, or does it badly. The purpose of schools, therefore, is not just to teach languages, arithmetic, geography, etc., but teach pupils the way to learn.
    上學(xué)的目的
    你是否問過自己為什么孩子要上學(xué)?你可能會說他們上學(xué)是去學(xué)習(xí)母語和其他語言、數(shù)學(xué)、地理、幾何、歷史、科學(xué)及其他學(xué)科。此話不假,但他們?yōu)槭裁匆獙W(xué)這些?這些東西是他們在校學(xué)習(xí)的全部內(nèi)容嗎?
    我們送孩子上學(xué)是為了讓他們?yōu)樽约洪L大后工作做準備。學(xué)習(xí)母語是為了使他們明確告訴別人自己要什么,自己知道什么并理解別人的話。學(xué)習(xí)外語是為了從其他國家人士的著作和言語中獲益并讓他國人士了解自己說話的含義。學(xué)數(shù)學(xué)是為了日常計量和算數(shù),學(xué)習(xí)地理是為了了解周圍的世界,學(xué)習(xí)歷史是為了了解他們每天遇見的每個人。在學(xué)校里學(xué)的一切在他們的日常生活中都有實際應(yīng)用,但這就是他們上學(xué)的惟一理由嗎?
    當(dāng)然不是。教育不僅僅是學(xué)習(xí)本身。首先,我們上學(xué)是為了學(xué)會如何學(xué)習(xí),這樣,當(dāng)我們離開學(xué)校時,我們能繼續(xù)學(xué)習(xí)。一個懂得學(xué)習(xí)的人總是一個有成就的人,因為不管他何時做以前從未做過的事,他都會快速地教自己如何以的辦法來做。相反地,一個未受過教育的人不是無法做好新事情,就是做得很糟。因此,學(xué)校的目的不僅僅是教語言、數(shù)學(xué)、地理等知識,也教會學(xué)生學(xué)習(xí)的方法。