首页
登录
职称英语
Americans today don’t place a very high value on intellect. Our heroes are a
Americans today don’t place a very high value on intellect. Our heroes are a
游客
2024-03-12
77
管理
问题
Americans today don’t place a very high value on intellect. Our heroes are athletes, entertainers, and entrepreneurs, not scholars. Even our schools are where we send our children to get a practical education—not to pursue knowledge for the sake of knowledge. Symptoms of pervasive anti-intellectualism in our schools aren’t difficult to find.
"Schools have always been in a society where practice is more important than intellect", says education writer Diane Ravitch. "Schools could be a counterbalance". Ravitch’ s latest book, Left Back: A Century of Failed School Reforms, traces the roots of anti-intellectualism in our schools, concluding they are anything but a counterbalance to the American distaste for intellectual pursuits.
But they could and should be. Encouraging kids to reject the life of the mind leaves them vulnerable to exploitation and control. Without the ability to think critically, to defend their ideas and understand the ideas of others, they cannot fully participate in our democracy. Continuing along this path, says writer Earl Shorris, "We will become a second-rate country. We will have a less civil society".
"Intellect is resented as a form, of power or privilege", writes historian and Professor Richard Hofstadter in Anti-intellectualism in American Life, a Pulitzer Prize winning book on the roots of anti-intellectualism in U.S. politics, religion, and education. From the beginning of our history, says Hofstadter, our democratic and populist urges have driven us to reject anything that smells of elitism. Practicality, common sense, and native intelligence have been considered more noble qualities than anything you could learn from a book.
Ralph Waldo Emerson and other Transcendentalist philosophers thought schooling and rigorous book learning put unnatural restraints on children, "We are shut up in schools and college recitation rooms for 10 or 15 years and come out at last with a bellyful of words and do not know a thing". Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn exemplified American anti-intellectualism. Its hero avoids being civilized—going to school and learning to read, so he can preserve his innate goodness.
Intellect, according to Hofstadter, is different from native intelligence, a quality we reluctantly admire. Intellect is the critical, creative, and contemplative side of the mind.
Intelligence seeks to grasp, manipulate, re-order, and adjust, while intellect examines, ponders, wonders, theorizes, criticizes and imagines.
School remains a place where intellect is mistrusted. Hofstadter says our country’ s educational system is in the grips of people who "joyfully and militantly proclaim their hostility to intellect and their eagerness to identify with children who show the least intellectual promise". [br] What contributes to the citizens’ active participation in democracy?
选项
A、Self-evaluation.
B、Critical thinking.
C、Social environment.
D、Law enforcement.
答案
B
解析
细节题。题干问,公民积极参与民主的原因是什么?根据关键词“democracy”定位于第三段“Without the ability to think critically…they cannot fully participate inour democracy.”可知答案是选项B,批判性思维。
转载请注明原文地址:https://tihaiku.com/zcyy/3526282.html
相关试题推荐
Americanstodaydon’tplaceaveryhighvalueonintellect.Ourheroesarea
Americanstodaydon’tplaceaveryhighvalueonintellect.Ourheroesarea
[originaltext]In2014,onein16Americansvisitedthehospitalemergencyro
[originaltext]In2014,onein16Americansvisitedthehospitalemergencyro
[originaltext]DidyouknowthatAmericanshaveapproximatelythreetimestheam
Everyfiveyears,thegovernmenttriestotellAmericanswhattoputintheir
Everyfiveyears,thegovernmenttriestotellAmericanswhattoputintheir
Everyfiveyears,thegovernmenttriestotellAmericanswhattoputintheir
Everyfiveyears,thegovernmenttriestotellAmericanswhattoputintheir
[originaltext]Americanssufferfromanoverdoseofwork.Regardlessofwhothey
随机试题
Scientistsresearchinghypnosishaveuncoveredevidencethatcounterssomeo
IagreetosomeextentwithmyimaginaryEnglishreader.Americanliteraryhi
设备工程进度管理的最终目的是实现其()。A.进度优化 B.时间目标 C.
下述麻醉前病情评估错误的一项是A.麻醉前要重要脏器的功能状态 B.ASA分
长期以来,我国居民偏爱的理财方式是( )。A.货币储蓄 B.投资 C.融资
电流互感器有什么作用?
编制招标采购项目管理方案的注意事项不包括()。A、设定适当的质量标准B、经济性
学生享有的合法权利包括().A.人身权 B.受教育权 C.身心健康权 D
下列属于初步设计深度要求的是( )。A.项目单项工程齐全,有详尽的主要工程量清
(2015年真题)某类建筑材料本身的价值不高,但所需的运输费用却很高,该类建筑材
最新回复
(
0
)