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20 通识教育
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何谓教育？特别是在我们心中，真正的通识教育理想是什么？如若一切能够重来，我们会让自己接受这样的教育吗？如若命运能够掌握在自己手中，我们会让自己的孩子接受这样的教育吗？我不了解你们对此有何看法，但是我想吐露自己的想法，并希望我们的观点不要有太大分歧。
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假使真的存在这么一种情况，即我们每个人的生命和财产有一天要由自己在象棋比赛中的输赢决定，那么，你们不认为我们的首要任务是对象棋进行一定的学习吗？比如，至少要学习每个棋子的名称和走法、掌握开局棋法、谙熟各种“将军”及“被将军”的策略等。另外，如果一个父亲或一个国家放任他的儿子或人民，在长大或成熟后竟不分卒马，那么，你们不认为我们应当对这样的父亲和国家嗤之以鼻吗？
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然而，一个基本事实显而易见，即我们及与我们相关的每个人的生命、财产和幸福，都取决于我们对某个游戏规则的了解程度，这些规则比象棋规则更难、更复杂。这场游戏持续了多久我们无从知晓，但我们每个男男女女都是这场游戏的参与者，各自进行着对弈。这场游戏中，棋盘就是整个世界，棋子则是宇宙现象，游戏规则便是我们所说的自然法则。游戏中我们虽然看不见对方，但我们都知道，对方是秉着公平、公正以及耐心来对弈的。但是，在付出代价之后，我们才知道对方从不放过我们的丝毫过错，对我们的疏漏也不做点滴宽容。游戏中，强者会被慷慨地授予最高奖励，从而使强者愉悦万分，而弱者只有慢慢地被将死，无人同情。
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我所做的这番比喻，会让你们想起雷茨施的那幅名画，画中将人生描述为人类与撒旦的一场象棋博弈。将这幅画中阴险的恶魔替换成镇定自若、坚强无比的天使，他只为爱而战，宁愿输的是自己——我认为这正是对人类生活的真实描绘。
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我所说的教育就是学会这场大型游戏的规则。换句话说，我认为教育就是对自然法则智慧的展现，这种展现不仅仅指各种事物及其蕴含的力量，而且也包括人类和他们的各个方面，以及热切希望和这些自然法则和谐相处的情感与意志的塑造。因此，在我看来，这就是所谓的教育。任何自命为“教育”之物都必须符合这一标准。否则，无论面临多大的权威和势力，我都不会称其为教育。
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必须记住一点，严格来说没有哪个人是没有受过教育的。举一个极端的例子吧。假设一个成人如同亚当一样在他各种官能最佳时突然降生到这个世界，然后尽其所能去做事。那么，他“未接受教育”的状态会持续多久呢？不到五分钟。因为大自然会随时通过他的眼睛、耳朵、触觉来告诉他周围事物的特征，他所感知到的疼痛和舒适会告诉他什么该做，什么不该做。渐渐地，这个人就受到了教育。尽管这种教育范围比较狭窄，且缺乏与人互动及成就感，但对适应周边环境来说，这种教育比较真实、彻底和充分。
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而且，对于这个孤独而生的亚当来说，如果他遇到了另一个“亚当”，或者如果更幸运的话，遇见了夏娃，那么，一个更大更新、具有社会性质且包罗道德现象的世界就会出现。从这种新的人际关系中引发的欢乐和悲伤都会使世上所有其他事物黯然失色。幸福和悲伤会取代快感和痛感这种粗浅的表达。但是，对行为举止的塑造还要靠观察他人行为的自然结果，或者靠人的自然本性。
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世界对于我们每个人来说都曾是新鲜和陌生的，就像当初对于亚当一样。并且，早在我们受到其他任何教育影响之前，大自然就支配着我们，对我们的生活无时无刻不进行教育并施加影响，使我们的行为大致遵循自然法则，从而避免我们可能因为过分地逆反自然而被其淘汰。即使一个人年至松鹤、寿比南山，我也不认为这种教育方式对他来说是过时的。对于每个人而言，世界都如最初时一样无比新颖。在那些用眼睛观察世界的人看来，那里充满了奇珍异物，奥妙难言。大自然就好比一所伟大的大学，在这里我们每个人都是学员，大自然总是对我们进行耐心的教导。不过，在大自然这所大学里并没有测试或考查制度。
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在那里，能够获得荣誉并学会和服从支配人与事物法则的那些人，会成为这个世界上真正伟大而成功的人。相比之下，大部分人只是鹦鹉学舌，他们所学知识只是保证他们能够通过考试。而那些不学无术的人则会被淘汰，这样就再也无法挽回。被大自然所淘汰就意味着灭亡。
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因此，从大自然角度而言，强制义务教育并不是个难题。关于这个问题的议案早已制定完成并获得通过。但是像其他强制性立法一样，自然的立法是残酷的，一旦违反则需要付出巨大代价。无知就像故意逆反一样要受到严厉的惩罚，无能则如同犯罪一般要付出相同的代价。大自然的惩罚方式甚至不是先予以打击，再以理相劝，而是直接予以无言的打击。你只能自己去找出被打的原因。
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我们通常所称的教育（因为这种教育有人为介入，我在此将其称为“人为教育”以示区分），其目的在于弥补自然教育在方法上的缺陷，同时为孩子接受大自然的教育做好准备，使他们不至于无知、无能或逆反，也帮助他们了解自然不悦时的各种迹象，不至于毫无准备地接受未来的惩罚。总而言之，所有人为教育应该是对自然教育的预期。通识教育就是一种人为教育。这种教育方式不仅教导人们避免逆反自然规律这样的罪恶行为，还教导人们利用并感恩于自然的赏赐，因为大自然用她的自由之手散播赏赐，就如同散播各种惩罚一样。
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我认为，一个接受过通识教育的人应该是这样的：他年轻时受到的训练可以使其身体服从自己的意志，就像一台机器一样轻松而愉悦地从事一切工作；他的心智好比一台敏锐、冷静而有逻辑性的引擎，每个部分能力相当，有条不紊地运行着；他又如一台蒸汽机，待于效力各种工作，纺织思想之纱，铸就心智之锚；他的大脑中充满着知识，既有关于大自然的重要真理和知识，也有自然界运行的基本规律；他并不是一个不正常的苦行人，他的生活中总是充满生机和热情，但他的激情永远受制于强大的意志力和敏感的良知；他学会去热爱一切美好的事物，不论是自然之美还是艺术之美；他憎恨所有的丑恶，并做到尊人如待己。
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我认为，只有这样的人，才有资格称为接受过通识教育，因为他已经和自然互为相融，互利互用，和谐与共。他们将会相处得很好，自然界永远是他的慈母，而他也会成为慈母的喉舌，化身为她的意识，变为她的代理人和传声筒。
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（罗选民 译）
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西南联大英文课（英汉双语版） 21 THE FUNCTION OF EDUCATION IN DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY
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By Charles W. Eliot
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THE FUNCTION OF EDUCATION IN DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY, from Charles William Eliot’s Educational Reforms: Essays and Addresses , New York, The Century Company, 1909, pp. 401-407.
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Charles William Eliot （1834-1926）, American educationalist, president of Harvard University, 1869-1909. This is an address delivered before the Brooklyn Institute on October 2, 1897.
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What the function of education shall be in a democracy will depend on what is meant by democratic education.
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Too many of us think of education for the people as if it meant only learning to read, write, and cipher. Now, reading, writing, and simple ciphering are merely the tools by the diligent use of which a rational education is to be obtained through years of well-directed labor. They are not ends in themselves, but means to the great end of enjoying a rational existence. Under any civilized form of government, these arts ought to be acquired by every child by the time it is nine years of age. Competent teachers, or properly conducted schools, now teach reading, writing, and spelling simultaneously, so that the child writes every word it reads, and, of course, in writing spells the word. Ear, eye, and hand thus work together from the beginning in the acquisition of the arts of reading and writing. As to ciphering, most educational experts have become convinced that the amount of arithmetic which an educated person who is not some sort of computer needs to make use of is but small, and that real education should not be delayed or impaired for the sake of acquiring a skill in ciphering which will be of little use either to the child or to the adult. Reading, writing, and arithmetic, then, are not the goal of popular education.
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The goal in all education, democratic or other, is always receding before the advancing contestant, as the top of a mountain seems to retreat before the climber, remoter and higher summits appearing successively as each apparent summit it reached. Nevertheless, the goal of the moment in education is always the acquisition of knowledge, the training of some permanent capacity for productiveness or enjoyment, and the development of character. Democratic education being a very new thing in the world, its attainable objects are not yet fully perceived. Plato taught that the laborious classes in a model commonwealth needed no education whatever. That seems an extraordinary opinion for a great philosopher to hold; but, while we wonder at it, let us recall that only one generation ago in some of our Southern States it was a crime to teach a member of the laborious class to read. In feudal society education was the privilege of some of the nobility and clergy, and was one source of the power of these two small classes. Universal education in Germany dates only from the Napoleonic wars; and its object has been to make freeman. In England the system of public instruction is but twenty-seven years old. Moreover the fundamental object of democratic education—to lift the whole population on a higher plane of intelligence, conduct, and happiness—has not yet been perfectly apprehended even in the United States. Too many of our own people think of popular education as if it were only a protection against dangerous superstitions, or a measure of police, or a means of increasing the national productiveness in the arts and trades. Our generation may, therefore, be excused if it has but an incomplete vision of the goal of education in a democracy.
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I proceed to describe briefly the main elements of instruction and discipline in a democratic school. As soon as the easy use of what I have called the tools of education is acquired, and even while this familiarity is being gained, the capacity for productiveness and enjoyment should begin to be trained through the progressive acquisition of an elementary knowledge of the external world. The democratic school should begin early in the very first grades—the study of nature; and all its teachers should, therefore, be capable of teaching the elements of physical geography, meteorology, botany, and zoölogy, the whole forming in the child’s mind one harmonious sketch of its complex environment. This is a function of the primary-school teacher which our fathers never thought of, but which every passing year brings out more and more clearly as a prime function of every instructor of little children. Somewhat later in the child’s progress toward maturity the great sciences of chemistry and physics will find place in its course of systematic training. From the seventh or eighth year, according to the quality and capacity of the child, plane and solid geometry, the science of form, should find a place among the school studies, and some share of the child’s attention that great subject should claim for six or seven successive years. The process of making acquaintance with external nature through the elements of these various sciences should be interesting and enjoyable for every child. It should not be painful but delightful; and throughout the process the child’s skill in the arts of reading, writing, and ciphering should be steadily developed.
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