英语四级阅读200篇:Unit 47 passage 1_大学英语阅读

英语四级阅读200篇:Unit 47 passage 1

　　It may be useful to recall the way the U. S. school system developed. Fifty years ago our high schools were almost carbon copies of their European counter parts. They offered a narrow selection of strictly academic subjects.

　　Modern America change that. This was the land of equality. The schools began taking not only those who once would have fallen by the wayside for social or economic reason but also those who would formerly have been excluded for lack of academic aptitude or desire. It was pointed out that even the least intelligent youngster can learn something, A new dream was born in America.

　　Instead of trying to find students to fit a rigid curriculum, the schools decided to hand-tailor a course of instruction for each child. If Johnny could not learn mathematics they would teach him woodworking, adjust him to life, make him a better citizen. And they would give him a diploma as fancily lettered as anyone elses.

　　There was a basic humanity in these changes, and common sense too. Johnny undoubtedly was a better person and a more useful citizen after his four years of high school, even if the did not learn much in academic terms. And the destruction of social and economic barriers to education profited the nation enormously. The schools released a flood of energy and talent such as the world had never seen.

　　To run the new schools a new breed of educator appeared. Such men as John Dewey and his disciples invented some of the silliest language ever heard . But they emphasized some things that good teachers have known for centuries that children learn quicker when they are led to understand and enjoy their studies than when they are made to learn by rote , and that teachers should take the childs entire environment and nature into account in deciding how to teach him.