College just isn't special any more

1?"If you can remember anything about the 1960s, you weren't really there,"?so the saying goes.?It may be true for those who spent their college years in a?haze?of?marijuana?smoke.?But there is one thing everyone remembers about the 1960s: Going to college was the most exciting and?stimulating?experience of your life.

2?In the 1960s,?California's?colleges and universities had transformed the state into the world's seventh largest?economy.?However,?Berkeley, the University of California's main?campus, was also well-known for its student?demonstrations?and strikes, and its atmosphere of political?radicalism.?When?Ronald Reagan?ran for office as?governor?of California in 1966,?he asked if Californians would allow "a great university to be brought to its knees by a noisy,?dissident?minority."?The?liberals?replied that it was the ability to tolerate noisy, dissident minorities which made universities great.

3 On university campuses in Europe,?mass socialist or communist movements gave rise to increasingly violent?clashes?between the?establishment?and the college students, with their new and?passionate?commitment to freedom and justice.?Much of the?protest?was about the Vietnam War.?But in France, the students of?the?Sorbonne?in Paris managed to form an?alliance?with the trade unions and to?launch?a general strike,?which?ultimately?brought about the?resignation?of President?de Gaulle.

4 It wasn't just the?activism?that?characterized?student life in the 1960s.?Everywhere, going to college meant your first taste of real freedom, of late nights in the dorm or in?the Junior Common Room,?discussing the meaning of life.?You used to have to go to college to read your first forbidden book, see your first?indie?film,?or find someone who shared your passion for?Jimi Hendrix?or?Lenny Bruce.?It was a moment of unimaginable freedom, the most?liberating?in your life.

5 But where's the passion today??What's the matter with college??These days political, social and?creative?awakening?seems to happen not because of college, but in spite of it.?Of course, it's true that higher education is still important.?For example, in the UK,?Prime?Minister?Blair?was close to achieving his aim of getting 50 percent of all under thirties into college by 2010 (even though a?cynic?would say that this was to keep them off the unemployment statistics).?Yet college education is no longer a topic of great national importance.?Today, college is seen as a kind of small town from which people are keen to escape.?Some people drop out, but the most?apathetic?stay the course because it's too much effort to leave.

6 Instead of the?heady?atmosphere of freedom which students in the 1960s discovered, students today are much more serious.?The British Council has recently done research into the?factors?which help international students decide where to study.?In?descending?order these are: quality of courses,?employment?prospects,?affordability, personal security?issues, lifestyle, and?accessibility.?College has become a means to an end,?an?opportunity?to increase one's chances on the employment market, and not an end in itself, which gives you the chance to imagine, just for a short while, that you can change the world.

7 The gap between childhood and college has shrunk, and so has the gap between college and the real world.?One of the reasons may be financial.?In an uncertain world, many children rely on their parents' support much longer than they used to.?Students leaving university in the 21st century simply cannot afford to set up their own home because it's too expensive.?Another possible reason is the communications revolution.?Gone are the days when a son or daughter rang home once or twice a term.?Today students are?umbilically?linked to their parents by their cell phones.?And as for finding like-minded friends to share a passion for?obscure?literature or music,?well, we have the Internet and chat rooms to help us do that.

8?"Bliss?was it in that dawn to be alive,
But to be young was very heaven!"

9?Wordsworth?may have written these lines about the French Revolution, but they were also true for the students of the 1960s.?So why aren't they true for the students of today?

大學已經(jīng)不再特別了

1 有這么一種說法：“要是你能記得20世紀60年代的任何事情，你就沒有真正經(jīng)歷過那段歲月。”對于在**煙霧中度過大學時光的那些人，這話可能是真的。但是，20世紀60年代有一件事人人都記得，那就是：上大學是你一生中最激動人心、最刺激的經(jīng)歷。

2 20世紀60年代，加州的高校把本州變成了世界第七大經(jīng)濟實體。然而，加州大學的主校園伯克利分校也以學生示威、罷課以及激進的政治氛圍而著名。1966年，羅納德?里根競選加州州長，他問加州是否允許“一所偉大的大學被喧鬧的、唱反調(diào)的少數(shù)人征服”。自由派人士回答說，大學之所以偉大正是因為它們有能力容忍喧鬧的、唱反調(diào)的少數(shù)人。

3 在歐洲的大學校園里，大學生以新的姿態(tài)和激情投入到爭取和正義的事業(yè)中去，大規(guī)模的社會主義或共產(chǎn)主義運動引發(fā)了他們與當權者之間日益升級的暴力沖突。許多抗議是針對越南戰(zhàn)爭的。可是在法國，巴黎大學索邦神學院的學生與工會聯(lián)盟發(fā)動了一場大罷工，最終導致戴高樂總統(tǒng)下臺。

4 20世紀60年代大學生活的特點并不僅僅是激進的行動。不論在什么地方，上大學都意味著你初次品嘗真正自由的滋味，初次品嘗深更半夜在宿舍或?qū)W生活動室里討論人生意義的滋味。你往往得上了大學才能閱讀你的第一本禁書，看你的第一部獨立影人電影，或者找到和你一樣癡迷吉米?亨德里克斯或蘭尼?布魯斯的志同道合者。那是一段難以想象的自由時光，你一生中最無拘無束的時光。

5 可如今那份激情哪兒去了？大學怎么了？現(xiàn)在，政治、社會和創(chuàng)造意識的覺醒似乎不是憑借大學的助力，而是沖破其阻力才發(fā)生的。當然，一點不假，高等教育仍然重要。例如，在英國，布萊爾首相幾乎實現(xiàn)了到2010年讓50％的30歲以下的人上大學的目標（即使憤世嫉俗的人會說，這是要把他們排除在失業(yè)統(tǒng)計數(shù)據(jù)之外）。不過，大學教育已不再是全民重視的話題了。如今，大學被視為人們急于逃離的一種小鎮(zhèn)。有些人輟學，但大多數(shù)已經(jīng)有些麻木，還是堅持混到畢業(yè)，因為離開學校實在是太費事了。

6 沒有了20世紀60年代大學生所發(fā)現(xiàn)的令人頭腦發(fā)熱的自由氣氛，如今的大學生要嚴肅得多。英國文化協(xié)會最近做了一項調(diào)查，研究外國留學生在決定上哪所大學時所考慮的因素。這些因素從高到低依次是：課程質(zhì)量、就業(yè)前景、學費負擔、人身安全問題、生活方式，以及各種便利。大學已變成實現(xiàn)目的的手段，是在就業(yè)市場上增加就業(yè)幾率的一個機會，上大學本身不再是目的，這給你提供一個機會，讓你暫時想象一下：你能夠改變世界。

7 童年與大學之間的距離已縮小了，大學與現(xiàn)實世界之間的距離也縮小了。其中的一個原因可能和經(jīng)濟有關。在一個沒有保障的世界里，現(xiàn)在的許多孩子依賴父母資助的時間比以前的孩子更長。21世紀的學生大學畢業(yè)后根本無法自立門戶，因為那太昂貴了。另一個可能的原因是通信革命。子女每學期往家里打一兩回電話的日子一去不復返了。如今，大學生通過手機與父母保持著臍帶式聯(lián)系。至于尋找癡迷無名文學或音樂的同道好友，沒問題，我們有互聯(lián)網(wǎng)和聊天室來幫助我們做到這一點。

8 “幸福啊，活在那個黎明之中，
年輕更是如進天堂！”

9 華茲華斯的詩句說的可能是法國大革命，但是對于20世紀60年代的大學生而言，這樣的詩句同樣真實生動。可是為什么對于如今的大學來說，它們就不真實了呢？

?

?

The post-everything generation

Frank Thomas?is a?sophomore?at?Princeton, majoring in literary theory.?He hopes to become a human rights lawyer.

1 I never hoped to understand the nature of my generation or how American colleges are changing by going to Literary Theory classes.?This is the class where you look cool, a bit sleepy from too many late nights and wearing a T-shirt with some?ironic?comment on it.?That's how I spent my time on the course, struggling through difficult subjects like?gender?theory and?post-colonialism, and at the same time checking my iPod for something good to listen to.?But when I started to study?postmodernism, something clicked?and made me sit up and take a fresh look at college life.

2 So what is postmodernism??Hard to say, almost by definition it can't be defined …?it's just kind of negative and against everything that came before it.?And that makes it difficult to see what it is.?The term was first used in 1949, but no one has yet decided what?postmodern?attitudes mean for the future of culture or society.?Yet for me, it made me curious, because "postmodern" seemed to describe my cool, sleepy and ironic, T-shirt wearing friends.

3 We're "post" in so many ways:?post-Cold War,?post-industrial,?post-baby boom,?post-9/11.?We're a generation that comes from what has been called the short century (1914–1989),?at the end of a century of war and revolution which changed civilizations,?overthrew?repressive?governments, and left us with extraordinary opportunities and privilege, more than any generation before.

4 And yet what do we do??Do we revolt and?rebel, like all students of generations before??Do we take to the streets?and?chant, "We're not leaving until we see change"??No, we do the opposite, we go to war, and we don't ask why, we give up our civil liberties, and we watch death and?destruction?on the evening news every day.

5 At college, we sign?petitions, join organizations, sign up for mailing lists, wear our?Live Strong?bracelets, and watch?Live Aid?and?Live Earth?on the television – go to the concerts even, if we can get the tickets.?But what do we stand for??Like a true postmodern generation, we have no way to describe our political commitment, we have no?inspirational?characters, we have no?philosophy, we have no direction or theme.?We're only defined by what came before us,?we're the generation of the?Che Guevara?T-shirt.

6 We belong to a movement which appears to encourage individuals to?assert?themselves?collectively.?It seems to be waiting for the revolution.?And as young people, we're expected to be angry because that's what young people do.

7 But how do we rebel against our parents' generation which is?nostalgic?for revolution??How do we rebel against parents who sometimes want revolution more than we do??We don't.?We rebel by not rebelling.

8 The real energy is not on the campus, it's on the Internet.?It provides us with a developing opportunity to communicate ideas and?frustrations.?We don't do demonstrations any more, we go onto Facebook and Twitter, instead of going onto the streets.

9 The American college as we used to know, with its radical activism and demonstration, is coming to an end.?To my generation, radicalism is associated with?Al-Qaeda,?not the?Weathermen?.?"Campus?takeover" sounds less like students?invading?campus buildings and taking staff?hostage, more like one of those school shootings which happen too often these days.?The?resonance?of the words belongs to another?era?and doesn't reflect the realities of today.

10 But the?technological?revolution is just as real and just as?profound?as the revolution of the 1960s – it's just not as obvious.?It's work in progress, but it's there.?Perhaps when our parents stop pointing out everything they were and everything we're not, maybe they'll see that the post-everything generation is speaking a language which makes sense.?We're writing the revolution, and we're using our own words to do so.

后一切的一代

弗蘭克?托馬斯是普林斯頓大學二年級學生，主修文學理論專業(yè)。他希望當人權律師。

1 我從沒指望通過上文學理論課來了解我這一代人的特征，或了解美國大學在如何變化。這門課是讓你在課堂上扮酷的——帶著一絲熬夜太多的困勁兒，穿著一件印有揶揄意味俏皮話的T恤衫。我是這樣在課上消磨時間的：一邊費力地聽著性別理論和后殖民主義這樣艱深的話題，一邊用我的iPod檢索著好聽的音樂?？墒钱斘议_始學習后現(xiàn)代主義的時候，我突然咔嗒一聲開了竅。我提起精神，開始重新審視大學生活。

2 那么，什么是后現(xiàn)代主義呢？很難說，從定義角度來說，后現(xiàn)代主義幾乎是無法定義的……就是有點兒否定和反對先前一切的意思。這就讓人很難看清它究竟指的是什么。這一術語于1949年被首次使用，可是迄今為止還沒有人能斷定，對于文化或社會的未來，后現(xiàn)代態(tài)度究竟意味著什么。但對我來說，它令我感到好奇，因為后現(xiàn)代似乎說的正是我那些酷勁十足、困兮兮的和冷嘲熱諷、穿T恤衫的朋友們。

3 我們在很多方面都是“后”的：后冷戰(zhàn)、后工業(yè)時代、后生育高峰、后9?11。我們這一代人來自所謂的短世紀（1914—1989），處于其末尾。這個世紀充滿了戰(zhàn)爭和革命，它改變了人類文明，推翻了強權政府，給我們留下了比從前任何一代人都多的非同尋常的機會和特權。

4 可是我們在干什么呢？像歷代大學生那樣去造反、叛逆嗎？在街上一遍又一遍地高喊“不看到變化，我們決不離開”嗎？不，我們做著相反的事情：我們?nèi)?zhàn)，根本不問為什么；我們放棄自己的公民自由權；我們每天在晚間新聞中觀看死亡和破壞。

5 在大學里，我們在請愿書上簽名，加入各種組織，把自己的名字添加到各種郵件通訊錄中，戴“堅強活著”的標志腕帶，觀看電視轉播的“拯救生命”和“拯救地球”明星義演音樂會——甚至去音樂會現(xiàn)場，假如能搞到票的話。可是我們代表什么呢？就像真正的后現(xiàn)代一代那樣，我們無法描述我們的政治抱負，我們沒有可以激發(fā)靈感、鼓舞斗志的領袖人物，我們沒有哲學，我們沒有方向或主題。我們只是被我們之前的一切所定義，我們是穿切?格瓦拉T恤衫的一代。

6 我們身處一場運動中，好像是鼓勵個人集體地表現(xiàn)自我，似乎是在等待革命。作為年輕人，人們期待我們憤怒，因為那是年輕人的正常行為。

7 但是，我們?nèi)绾畏磁褢涯罡锩母改敢淮?？我們?nèi)绾稳シ磁延袝r候比我們更想鬧革命的父母？我們不反叛。不反叛就是我們的反叛。

8 我們真正的精力不是放在校園里，而是放在互聯(lián)網(wǎng)上。它給我們提供了一個交流思想和受挫感的機會，使我們不斷成長。我們不再游行示威；我們不再到街上去，我們?nèi)ビ媚槙屯铺亍?/p>

9 我們以往所知的擁有激進行為和游行傾向的美國大學即將終結。對我這一代人來說，與激進主義相關的是“基地”組織，而不是“氣象員”組織?！靶@接管”聽起來不大像學生占領教學樓或挾持教務人員為人質(zhì)，更像近來頻繁發(fā)生的校園槍擊事件。這些詞語的寓意屬于另一個時代，并不反映當今的現(xiàn)實。

10 可是，科技革命就像20世紀60年代的革命一樣真實而深刻——只是不那么明顯而已。它是正在推進中的未完成的事業(yè)，但它實實在在地存在。也許等到我們的父母不再說他們樣樣都好而我們一無是處時，他們或許會明白，后一切的一代說的話也有一定的道理。我們在書寫革命，我們在用自己的語言書寫革命。

?

?

?

Student power

1 Dating from the 12th century, the University of?Bologna?in Italy is Europe's oldest university. By the early 13th century power over the university lay with the students. This power was based on their economic?grip?over their teachers. At that time most university lecturers depended for their academic incomes on teaching fees which they collected from their students. A lecturer was required to attract an audience of at least five students at every lecture. If he failed to do so, he was declared absent and given a fixed fine.

2 To guarantee good teaching, at the beginning of each academic year the lecturer had to deposit a sum of money with a city banker who acted for the students. If a lecturer failed to meet the standards set out in the university?statutes, a student court would?authorize?the?deduction?of fines from this deposit. Lecturers had to agree to the arrangement since a lecturer who didn't pay his fines was not allowed to collect fees from the students, thus removing his source of university income.

3 A lecturer could be punished for a variety of reasons. He was fined if he started his lectures a minute late or if he went on beyond the approved time. If he failed to end the lecture?punctually, the students were?obliged?by the statutes to leave the room immediately. The lecturer was also fined if he failed to cover the?syllabus?according to an agreed timetable. At the beginning of the academic year the students and the lecturers decided which material was to be taught that year and when it was to be taught. A lecturer who passed over a difficult subject or who failed to?emphasize?each part of a difficult syllabus would be?penalized.

4 Student controls were not limited to what happened within the lecture hall; they also extended to the private lives of lecturers. For example, if a lecturer wished to leave Bologna for a few days during term, he had to obtain the?prior?permission of student officials. If he didn't return within an agreed time, he had to pay a fine.

5 All students were encouraged to?denounce?lecturers who were absent without leave or who?contravened?the statutes in any other way. In addition, there was an organized system of secret?denunciations. Four students were elected in secret to spy on lecturers. They were obliged to report?irregularities?such as bad lecturing technique, failure to cover the syllabus, or absence without leave. If denunciations were received from at least two students, the lecturers were punished.

6 Student power at Bologna lasted a little over 100 years, from the early 13th to the mid-14th century. As with its rise, its?demise?was linked directly to the subject of student fees. By 1350 almost all the lecturers were appointed and paid by the local town council. With changes in the payment of the lecturers, students effectively lost control of the university.

學生的權力

1 意大利的博洛尼亞大學創(chuàng)辦于12世紀，是歐洲最古老的大學。在13世紀早期，大學的管理權都掌握在學生手里。這種權力是基于他們對教師的經(jīng)濟控制。那時候，大多數(shù)大學教師的教學收入都依賴從學生那里收取的學費。教師每堂課必須吸引至少五名學生來聽講。如果做不到，學校就會宣布他曠課，并處以一定的罰款。

2 為了保證良好的教學質(zhì)量，每個學年之初，教師都要在為學生服務的市內(nèi)銀行預存一筆錢。如果教師沒有達到大學章程規(guī)定的標準，學生法庭就會判決從這筆存款中扣除罰款。教師不得不同意這樣的處理，因為不交罰款的教師不允許收學費，這就中斷了他的收入來源。

3 教師會因各種各樣的緣故而受到懲罰。如果晚一分鐘上課，或者拖堂，他就會被罰款。如果他不能按時下課，學生按照章程必須立刻離開教室。如果教師不能按照既定的進度講完教學大綱規(guī)定的內(nèi)容，他也要被罰款。每年開學的時候，學生和教師共同決定教材內(nèi)容和教學時間。跳過難點或沒有逐一重點講解難課的教師會被罰款。

4 學生的控制權不僅僅限于課堂，還延伸到教師的私生活。例如，假如一位教師希望在學期中間離開博洛尼亞幾天，他就得事先征得學生官員的許可。如果不按時返回，他就得繳納罰款。

5 學校鼓勵所有的學生告發(fā)不請假就缺課或以其他任何方式違規(guī)的教師。此外，還有一個有組織的秘密告發(fā)系統(tǒng)。有四名學生被秘密選舉出來監(jiān)視教師。他們有義務報告諸如教學技巧拙劣、未完成教學大綱規(guī)定的教學內(nèi)容或不請假就缺課之類的違規(guī)行為。如果有兩個以上的學生告發(fā)，教師就會受到懲罰。

6 從13世紀早期至14世紀中期，學生的權力在博洛尼亞持續(xù)了一百余年。與它的起始一樣，它的終結也直接與學費有關。到了1350年，幾乎所有教師都是由當?shù)氐氖姓d聘用和發(fā)薪。隨著教師薪酬支付方式的改變，學生實際上就失去了對大學的控制。

?