What can education bring us?

引言: 

笔者一位语言和数学方面都很有天赋的学生问我: "老师，我们读书是为了什么啊？我们学校老师说好好读书目的是为了拿高分，进好学校。我觉得这样不对，因为我们现在学校教的东西我们将来不一定能真正用到，在这些科目里拿高分没有什么意义，并且那些所谓的好学校我并不觉得多么的好。 那我们读书的目的到底是什么呢？” 这已经是一位很有独立思想的孩子，她不会轻易被周围人影响，但还是迷茫于读书的目的。 

国内呼吁素质教育已经很多年了，但真正实施却很困难。不管是受文化商业还是其他因素影响，国内不少学校(尤其是基础教育)还是以学习成绩考试分数来评价一个学生。而事实上 (正如我那位学生说的) 我们学校科目和内容的设置是否真的适合学生认知发展和将来社会需求呢？教育的目的是什么呢？ (这类话题频繁出现在雅思托福等写作考试中，其实成年人用中文也不一定能很合理地回答。)

下面一篇文章能稍微多角度地回答What can education bring us?

What can education bring us?

What can education bring us? Is ‘high mark’ the real destiny of education? As researchers and scholars are investigating this subject, the accurate definition of education begins to have slight difference from what was in people’s mind before. Education, the bridge between teachers and students, the mediator between individual and society, means more than knowledge transmit, but being a wholly developed person in the society.

First, the education brings us basic knowledge and skill to survive. From primary school on, students learn subjects like Math, Physics, English, or in other words, academic subjects to gain initial knowledge of the nature and world, which are extremely useful for our future career. Upon this, students also learn skills like sewing, cooking, and mending bicycles, which help them a lot in their future family life. To this extent, education provides us with fundamental concepts of living.

Second, education can cultivate our sentiment. Apart from academic subjects, art subjects such as music and art seems more interesting towards students. From these subjects, one can enjoy the pleasure of listening to music, try to guess a composer’s emotion when writing a music chapter, or understand the meaning of a piece of drawing, from which process they themselves are edified and assimilated, and finally have their own clear opinion on what is beauty.

Third, education makes an individual adapted to the society. Being innocent and naive, young people always find it hard to immerge into the complicated environment, and feel frustrated. Through education like communication skill, students may know the essence of getting on with other people. This kind of education influences our personality and views of everyone as a whole individual in the big family of society.

Above all, knowledge, emotion, and personality form the most important part of the content of education. The aim of education is to teach a person become a completely developed individual.

虽然教育的目的远远不是两三百字能说清楚的，但以上所提到从知识，情感，个性方面培养孩子，让孩子成为一个独立完整的个体，确实能给我们一些启示。 

继续教育话题--- 高等教育(college education)

The myth of the college dropout.

Mark Zuckerberg，脸谱(facebook)创始人, 应邀将在2017年5月25日参加哈佛大学第366届毕业演讲。他和微软创始人比尔盖茨都从哈弗大学辍学，未能完成学业。在哈佛大学官方新闻网上最近出现了Mark Zuckerberg请教Bill Gates关于Harvord演讲的视频。

When Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg was asked to give this year’s commencement address at Harvard, he asked for advice from Bill Gates.

Zuckerberg said, “They know we didn’t actually graduate, right?”

To which Gates replied, “Oh, that is the best part! They actually give you a degree!”

This recent exchange between two famous Harvard dropouts might lead you to think college doesn’t matter. Numerous media stories and even famous billionaires are glamorizing dropouts or encouraging kids to skip college entirely.

”

我们期待2017.5.25 Mark Zuckberge哈佛讲演，同时有人觉得, 既然这么多著名成功人士大学辍学，成功与大学学历没有关系。然后并非如此。 一个研究调查了11745位美国领导人，包括首席执行官、联邦法官、政治家、百万富翁和亿万富翁、商界领袖和全球最有权势的男性女性。结果显示，他们中94%大学毕业，50%毕业于精英大学。大学辍学生成功只是小众和特殊群体。

1. We found about 94 percent of these U.S. leaders attended college, and about 50 percent attended an elite school.

2. our data show that for students with talent and motivation to make it to the top of U.S. society, an elite college might just help you get there – whether it’s the networks you acquire or the brand on your resume.

While it’s true there are successful college dropouts, statistically speaking, they are not the norm. As researchers in education and talent, we found that the vast majority of the country’s success stories are college graduates, such as Sheryl Sandberg (Harvard), Jeff Bezos (Princeton) and Marissa Mayer (Stanford).

The myth 

of the mega-successful college dropout

In a recent study, we investigated how many of the wealthiest and most influential people graduated college. We studied 11,745 U.S. leaders, including CEOs, federal judges, politicians, multi-millionaires and billionaires, business leaders and the most globally powerful men and women.

We also examined how many people graduated from an “elite school.” (Our definition included the eight Ivy League schools, plus many of the top national universities and liberal arts colleges consistently high in the U.S. News rankings for both undergraduate and graduate education.)

Image: Wai & Rindermann, Get the data

We found about 94 percent of these U.S. leaders attended college, and about 50 percent attended an elite school. Though almost everyone went to college, elite school attendance varied widely. For instance, only 20.6 percent of House members and 33.8 percent of 30-millionaires attended an elite school, but over 80 percent of Forbes’ most powerful people did. For whatever reason, about twice as many senators – 41 percent – as House members went to elite schools.

For comparison, based on census and college data, we estimate that only about 2 to 5 percent of all U.S. undergraduates went to one of the elite schools in our study. The people from our study attended elite schools at rates well above typical expectations.

Do elite schools matter?

This year, elite schools saw an increase in applications and selectivity. Research suggests there is no difference in adult income between students who attended highly selective schools and students with similar SAT scores who attended less selective schools. At least for long-term earnings, where you go may not be critical, as long as you attend and graduate.

Yet, our data show that for students with talent and motivation to make it to the top of U.S. society, an elite college might just help you get there – whether it’s the networks you acquire or the brand on your resume.

While looking at over 11,000 successful leaders, we rarely encountered people who came from extremely poor or disadvantaged backgrounds. Helping disadvantaged talented students enter elite schools could promote diversity among future leaders.

Admittedly, the educational path of the cream of the crop may not apply to most people. So, going to college may not be the right or even the best path for everyone. However, if you’re a student thinking about not going to college or considering dropping out, remember that even Gates and Zuckerberg got into college. Even if you’re not aiming for mega success, doing the work to get into and graduate from college today may open important doors.

Perhaps in the future, college may not be as important to employers. But for now, college dropouts who rule the world are rare exceptions – not the rule.

2007年

在Bill Gates哈佛毕业典礼演讲上，主持人调侃到, ‘Imagine what this man could have achieved if he had stayed in Harvard for another two years.’ 意思是, ‘如果Bill Gates当时没有辍学再在哈佛读两年毕业, 他的成就更不可想象 了’(当然这只是个玩笑)。从以上教育意义和美国对于一万多人调查结果来看，教育对我们至关重要，拥有一个大学文凭是进入顶端人才圈的前提条件。  

对于国内基础教育，我们(甚至可能政府都)无法迅速改变国内所有地区的教育现状，但每位家长老师学生的正确认识会慢慢把整个教育体系推向正确的方向。也许最近四川学而思事件意味着国内教育在往好的方向发展。