UNIT 1? Education

Education over the past 100 years

A

The education of our young people is one of the most important aspects of any community, and ideas about what and how to teach reflect the accepted attitudes and unspoken beliefs of society. These ideas change as local customs and attitudes change, and these changes are reflected in the curriculum, teaching and assessment methods and the expectations of how both students and teachers should behave.

詞匯講解：

curriculum? n. 教學(xué)大綱；

reflect?? v. 反映；反射；

assessment? n. 評(píng)價(jià)；

B

Teaching in the late 1800s and early 1900s was very different from today. Rules for teachers at the time in the USA covered both the teacher's duties and their conduct out of class as well. Teachers at that time were expected to set a good example to their pupils and to behave in a very virtuous and proper manner. Women teachers should not marry, nor should they ‘keep company with men.' They had to wear long dresses and no bright colours and they were not permitted to dye their hair. They were not allowed to loiter downtown in an ice cream store, and women were not allowed to go out in the evenings unless to a school function, although men were allowed one evening a week to take their girlfriends out if they went to church regularly. No teachers were allowed to drink alcohol. They were allowed to read only good books such as the Bible, and they were given a pay increase of 25c a week after five years of work for the local school.

詞匯講解：

manner? n. 行為守則；

be expected to：被預(yù)期…

表示將來(lái)時(shí)：

be expected to

be predicted to

be perspective to

C

As well as this long list of ‘dos' and ‘don'ts,' teachers had certain duties to perform each day. In country schools, teachers were required to keep the coal bucket full for the classroom fire, and to bring a bucket of water each day for the children to drink. They had to make the pens for their students to write with and to sweep the floor and keep the classroom tidy. However, despite this list of duties, little was stipulated about the content of the teaching, nor about assessment methods.

D

Teachers would have been expected to teach the three ‘r’s—reading, writing and arithmetic, and to teach the children about Christianity and read from the Bible every day. Education in those days was much simpler than it is today and covered basic literacy skills and religious education. They would almost certainly have used corporal punishment such as a stick or the strap on naughty or unruly children, and the children would have sat together in pairs in long rows in the classroom. They would have been expected to sit quietly and to do their work, copying long rows of letters or doing basic maths sums. Farming children in country areas would have had only a few years of schooling and would probably have left school at 12 or 14 years of age to join their parents in farm work.

詞匯講解：

arithmetic：算數(shù)；

literacy：文學(xué)，閱讀；

religious：宗教的；

discrimination：歧視；

religious discrimination：宗教歧視。

E

Compare this with a country school in the USA today! If you visited today, you would see the children sitting in groups round large tables, or even on the floor. They would be working together on a range of different activities, and there would almost certainly be one or more computers in the classroom. Children nowadays are allowed and even expected to talk quietly to each other while they work, and they are also expected to ask their teachers questions and to actively engage in finding out information for themselves, instead of just listening to the teacher.

詞匯講解：

engage in：依靠，依賴，把精力放在…地方；

actively? adv. 主動(dòng)的；

F

　　There are no rules of conduct for teachers out of the classroom, and they are not expected to perform caretaking duties such as cleaning the classrooms or making pens, but nevertheless their jobs are much harder than they were in the 1900s. Teachers today are expected to work hard on planning their lessons, to teach creatively and to stimulate children's minds, and there are strict protocols about assessment across the whole of the USA. Corporal punishment is illegal, and any teacher who hit a child would be dismissed instantly. Another big difference is that most state schools in western countries are secular, so religious teaching is not part of the curriculum.

詞匯講解：

corporal：肉體的；

corporal punishment：體罰；

G

　　These changes in educational methods and ideas reflect changes in our society in general. Children in western countries nowadays come from all parts of the globe and they bring different cultures, religions and beliefs to the classroom. It is no longer considered acceptable or appropriate for state schools to teach about religious beliefs. Ideas about the value and purpose of education have also changed and with the increasing sophistication of workplaces and life skills needed for a successful career, the curriculum has also expanded to try to prepare children for the challenges of a diverse working community. It will be interesting to see how these changes continue into the future as our society and culture grows and develops.

詞匯講解：

Nigger：對(duì)黑人侮辱稱呼；

African-American：非洲裔美國(guó)人。

culture：文化；

religious：宗教；

belief：信念。

?

練習(xí)：Read the first sentence ONLY of each paragraph in the reading passage. Take NO MORE THAN FIVE minutes to do this.

　　Then, put these paragraph description into the same passage as the text itself. Write the letter of the paragraph, A — G, beside each one.

　　______ Teaching content in the past

　　______ Teaching in the present

　　______ Rules for teachers in the past

　　______ The importance of educational beliefs

　　______ Changes in teaching and in society

　　______ Teaching duties in the past

______ Rules for teachers in the present