Lesson41
Education is one of the key words of our time. A man without an education, many of us believe, is an unfortunate victim of adverse circumstances deprived of one of the greatest twentieth-century opportunities. Convinced of the importance of education, modern states 'invest' in institutions of learning to get back 'interest' in the form of a large group of enlightened young men and women
who are potential leaders. Education, with its cycles of instruction so carefully worked out, punctuated by text-books--those purchasable wells of wisdom-- what would civilization be like without its benefits ?
So much is certain: that we would have doctors and preachers, lawyers and defendants, marriages and births--but our spiritual outlook would be different. We would lay less stress on 'facts and figures' and more on a good memory, on applied psychology, and on the capacity of a man to get along with his fellow-citizens. If our educational system were fashioned after its bookless past we
would have the most democratic form of 'college' imaginable. Among the people whom we like to call savages all knowledge inherited by tradition is shared by all; it is taught to every member of the tribe so that in this respect everybody is, equally equipped for life.
It is the ideal condition of the 'equal start' which only our most progressive forms of modern education try to regain. In primitive cultures the obligation to seek and to receive the traditional instruction is binding to all. There are no 'illiterates '--if the term can be applied to peoples without a script--while our own compulsory school attendance became law in Germany in 1642, in France
in 1806, and in England in 1876, and is still non-existent in a number of 'civilized' nations. This shows how long it was before we deemed it necessary to make sure that all our children could share in the knowledge accumulated by the 'happy few' during the past centuries.
Education in the wilderness is not a matter of monetary means. All are entitled to an equal start. There is none of the hurry which, in our society, often hampers the full development of a growing personality. There, a child grows up under the ever-present attention of his parents, therefore the jungles and the savannahs know of no 'juvenile delinquency.' No necessity of making a living away from home results in neglect of children, and no father is confronted with his inability to 'buy' an education for his child.
JULIUS E.LIPS The Origin of Thin
参考译文
教育是我们时代的关键词这一。许多人认为，未受教育的人是被逆境剥夺了二十世纪最伟大机会之一的不幸受害者。由于确信教育重要，现代国家向各级学校“投资”，并以获得大批可能
成为领导者的知识青年男女的形式回收“利息”。教育，以其教学周期如是仔细地予以安排，并以教科书——那些可买到的智慧的源泉——予以强化，如果不受其惠，文明又将会是怎样？
这些都能肯定：我们会有医生和牧师、律师和被告、婚姻和生育——但我们的精神面貌会不一样。我们将不那么强调“事实和数字”，而是更注重好记性、实用心理学以及人们跟周围的人
相处的能力。如果我们的教育体系是按其没有书本的过去来制订的话，我们将拥有能相象到的最民主的“学院”形式。在我们喜欢称之为野蛮人的人群中，通过传统继承的所有知识为所有的人
所共享；它将向部落的每个成员传授，因此多这方面来看，每个人为生存而接受的训练都是均等的。
这就是我们最进步的现代教育才试图恢复的“平等起步”的理想状况。在原始文化里，寻求和接受传统训练的义务人人都必须履行。那时没有“文盲”——如果这个词可用在没有文字
的民族身上的话——而我们的义务教育成为法律的时间在德是1642年，在法国是1806年，在英国是1876年，而且在一些“文明”国家里至今仍不存在。这表明，在我们认识到必须确保我们所有
的下一代能分享由过去千百年“少数幸运者”积累起来的知识之前，得经过多长的时间。
荒野里的教育不是一个钱的问题。所有的人都享有平等起步的权利。没有那种在我们社会里常常出现的阻碍成长中的人格全面发展的仓促之举，以那种社会里，孩子在父母无时不在的关怀下
成长；因此丛林和大草原里根本没有“少年犯罪”问题。人们无需外出谋生以致丢下孩子不管，也没有为人父者会遇上无力为子女“买”到教育的情况。
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