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Modern American Universities

Before the 1850’s, the United States had a number of small colleges, most of them dating from colonial days. They were small, church connected institutions whose primary concern was to shape the moral character of their students.
　　
Throughout Europe, institutions of higher learning had developed, bearing the ancient name of university. In Germany a different kind of university had developed. The German university was concerned primarily with creating and spreading knowledge, not morals. Between midcentury and the end of the 1800’s, more than nine thousand young Americans, dissatisfied with their training at home, went to Germany for advanced study. Some of them returned to become presidents of venerable colleges -- Harvard, Yale, Columbia -- and transform them into modern universities. The new presidents broke all ties with the churches and brought in a new kind of faculty. Professors were hired for their knowledge of a subject, not because they were of the proper faith and had a strong arm for disciplining students. The new principle was that a university was to create knowledge as well as pass it on, and this called for a faculty composed of teacher-scholars. Drilling and learning by rote were replaced by the German method of lecturing, in which the professor’s own research was presented in class. Graduate training leading to the Ph.D., an ancient German degree signifying the highest level of advanced scholarly attainment, was introduced. With the establishment of the seminar system, graduate students learned to question, analyze, and conduct their own research.
　　
At the same time, the new university greatly expanded in size and course offerings, breaking completely out of the old, constricted curriculum of mathematics, classics, rhetoric, and music. The president of Harvard pioneered the elective system, by which students were able to choose their own courses of study. The notion of major fields of study emerged. The new
goal was to make the university relevant to the real pursuits of the world. Paying close heed to the practical needs of society, the new universities trained men and women to work at its tasks, with engineering students being the most characteristic of the new regime. Students were also trained as economists, architects, agriculturalists, social welfare workers, and teachers.

全文翻譯：現代美國大學

19 世紀 50 年代以前美國有一些小的學院，大多數成立于殖民時期。 它們是與教會掛鉤的小機構，主要目的是培養學生的道德品行。 當時在歐洲各地，高等教育機構已經發展 起來，用的是一個古老的名稱--大學。
　　
德國已經發展出一種不同類型的大學。 德國大學關 心的主要是創造知識和傳播知識，而不是道德教育。 從世紀中葉到世紀末，有 9000 多名美 國青年因不滿國內所受的教育而赴德深造。 他們中的一些人回國后成為一些知名學府--哈 佛、耶魯、哥倫比亞的校長并且把這些學府轉變成了現代意義的大學。
　　
新校長們斷絕了和 教會的關系，聘請了新型的教職員，聘用教授根據的是他們在學科方面的知識，而不是正確 的信仰和約束學生的強硬手段。
　　
新的原則是大學既要傳播知識也要創造知識。 這就需要由 學者型老師組成教工隊伍。 靠死記硬背和做練習來學習的方法變為德國式的講解方法。 德國式的講解就是由教授講授自己的研究課題。 通過研究生性質的學習可以獲得表明最高學 術造詣的古老的德國學位--博士學位。
　　
隨著討論課制度的建立，研究生們學會了提問、分 析以及開展他們自己的研究。 同時，新式大學學校規模和課程設置完全突破了過去那種只 有數學、經典著作、美學和音樂的狹窄課程表。 哈佛大學的校長率先推出選課制度，這樣 學生們就能選擇自己的專業。主修領域的概念也出現了。新的目標是使大學對實際社會更有 用。
　　
密切關注著社會上的實際需求，新的大學著意培養學生解決問題的能力。 工程系學生 成為新式教育體制下最典型的學生。學生們還被培訓成為經濟學家、建筑師、農學家、社會 工作人員以及教師。