失当的美国精英教育被遗忘的荒地

2014-09-24 17:41:04来源：可可英语

　　But people in authority no longer feel compelled to define how they think moral, emotionaland spiritual growth happens, beyond a few pablum words that no one could disagree withand a few vague references to community service. The reason they don’t is simple. Theydon’t think it’s their place, or, as Pinker put it, they don’t think they know.

　　但当权者已经不再认为自己必须说清楚他们认为道德、情感和精神的成长是如何发生的，他们只会说一些所有人都同意的平淡无奇的话语，或者偶尔模糊地提起社区服务的例子。他们这样做的理由很简单。他们不认为这是他们的职责，或者，正如平克所说，他们不认为自己知道答案。

　　The result is that the elite universities are strong at delivering their commercial mission. Theyare pretty strong in developing their cognitive mission. But when it comes to the sort ofgrowth Deresiewicz is talking about, everyone is on their own. An admissions officer might biasher criteria slightly away from the Résumé God and toward the quirky kid. A student mayprivately wrestle with taking a summer camp job instead of an emotionally vacuous butrésumé-padding internship. But these struggles are informal, isolated and semi-articulate.

　　结果就是，精英学府十分擅长完成它们的商业使命。它们也相当擅长发展认知上的使命。至于德雷谢维奇提到的那种成长，所有人都只能靠自己。一名招生负责人自己的标准可能稍稍倾向于古怪的学生，而不是拥有完美简历的人。一名学生可能私下里经过一番挣扎后，选择了一份夏令营的工作，而不是情感上空洞无物但能够为简历增色的实习。但这些挣扎都是非正式的、孤立的、不太说得清的。

　　I’d say Deresiewicz significantly overstates the amount of moral decay at elite universities. Butat least he reminds us what a moral education looks like. That is largely abandoned ground.

　　在我看来，德雷谢维奇严重高估了精英学府道德衰退的程度。不过，他至少提醒了我们，道德教育是怎样的。现在来看，那基本上是一块被遗弃的荒地。

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