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
2024-04-22
8
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/3565928.html
相关试题推荐
Americanstodaydon’tplaceaveryhighvalueonintellect.Ourheroesarea
Americanstodaydon’tplaceaveryhighvalueonintellect.Ourheroesarea
Americanstodaydon’tplaceaveryhighvalueonintellect.Ourheroesarea
MillionsofAmericansareenteringtheir60sandaremoreconcernedthaneve
MillionsofAmericansareenteringtheir60sandaremoreconcernedthaneve
MillionsofAmericansareenteringtheir60sandaremoreconcernedthaneve
MillionsofAmericansareenteringtheir60sandaremoreconcernedthaneve
MillionsofAmericansareenteringtheir60sandaremoreconcernedthaneve
MillionsofAmericansareenteringtheir60sandaremoreconcernedthaneve
DespicableCharactersAreNewHeroesA)InfilmsandTVshows
随机试题
[originaltext]Moderator:Hello,ladiesandgentlemen.Itgivesmegreat
申请专利的发明创造在申请日前六个月内不丧失新颖性的情形包括()A.在中国政府
决定一个人社会地位的最重要的因素是()。A.教育程度 B.家庭背景 C.种
反映人口更替水平的指标包括A.人口出生率 B.总和出生率 C.终生出生率
仪器仪表应有明显的编号、校验标志,禁止使用未校验以及校验不合格的仪器仪表。
地区质量竞争力指数处在较高水平(80以上)的省份是:A.8个
从所给的四个选项中,选择最合适的一个填入问号处,使之呈现一定的规律性: A.如
肾周脓肿患者的X线表现包括A.患侧膈肌抬高,且活动受限 B.患侧腰大肌阴影消失
在A案中,甲、乙是普通共同诉讼人,在B案中,丙、丁是必要共同诉讼人,人民法院在
30岁初产妇,孕期定期检查正常,现妊娠39周,最近感冒,咳嗽2天,今晨排便后自觉
最新回复
(
0
)