大学英语综合教程 第二册 unit 1A

[00:00.00]Howard Gardner,a professor of education at Harvard University,
[00:05.09]reflects on a visit to china and gives his thoughts on different approaches to learning in china and the West．
[00:14.08]LEARNING,CHINESE-STYLE          by Howard Gardner
[00:20.64]For a month in the spring of 1987,my wife Ellen and I lived in the bustling eastern Chinese city of Nanjing
[00:30.59]with our 18-month-old son Benjamin while studying arts education in Chinese kindergartens and elementary schools.
[00:40.57]But one of the most telling lessons Ellen and I got in the difference between Chinese and American ideas of education
[00:49.32]came not in the classroom but in the lobby of the Jinling Hotel where we stayed in Nanjing.
[00:56.82]The key to our room was attached to a large plastic block with the room number on it.
[01:03.63]When leaving the hotel,a guest was encouraged to turn in the key,
[01:09.22]either by handing it to an attendant or by dropping it through a slot into a box.
[01:16.09]Because the key slot was narrow,the key had to be positioned carefully to fit into it.
[01:23.75]Benjamin loved to carry the key around,shaking it vigorously.He also liked to try to place it into the slot.
[01:34.35]Because of his tender age and incomplete understanding of the need to position the key just so,he would usually fail.
[01:44.78]Benjamin was not bothered in the least.He probably got as much pleasure out of the sounds the key made
[01:53.03]as he did those few times when the key actually found its way into the slot.
[01:59.85]Now both Ellen and I were perfectly happy to allow Benjamin to bang the key near the key slot.
[02:07.50]His exploratory behavior seemed harmless enough. But I soon observed an interesting phenomenon.
[02:16.41]Any Chinese staff member nearby would come over to watch Benjamin and, noting his lack of initial success,
[02:25.58]attempt to assist. He or she would hold onto Benjamin's hand and,gently but firmly,guide it directly toward the slot,
[02:36.84]reposition it as necessary,and help him to insert it. The "teacher" would then smile some what expectantly at Ellen or me,
[02:47.47]as if awaiting a thank you-and on occasion would frown slightly,as if considering us to be neglecting our parental duties.
[02:58.02]I soon realized that this incident was directly relevant to our assigned tasks in China:
[03:05.78]to investigate the ways of early childhood education (especially in the arts),
[03:12.73]and to throw light on Chinese attitudes toward creativity.
[03:18.45]And so before long I began to introduce the key-slot anecdote into my discussions with Chinese educators.
[03:27.88]TWO DIFFERENT WAYS TO LEARN
[03:30.96]With a few exceptions my Chinese colleagues displayed the same attitude as the staff at the Jinling Hotel.
[03:39.72]Since adults know how to place the key in the key slot, which is the ultimate purpose of approaching the slot,
[03:47.89]and since the child is neither old enough nor clever enough to realize the desired action on his own,
[03:56.56]what possible gain is achieved by having him struggle?He may well get frustrated and angry-
[04:04.45]certainly not a desirable outcome.Why not show him what to do? He will be happy,
[04:11.92]he will learn how to accomplish the task sooner,and then he can proceed to more com- plex activities,
[04:19.66]like opening the door or asking for the key-
[04:24.36]both of which accomplishments can(and should)in due course be modeled for him as well.
[04:31.41]We listened to such explanations sympathetically and explained that,first of all,
[04:38.99]we did not much care whether Benjamin succeeded in inserting the key into the slot.
[04:45.36]He was having a good time and was exploring, two activities that did matter to us. But the critical point was that,in the process,
[04:56.07]we were trying to teach Benjamin that one can solve a problem effectively by oneself.
[05:03.65]Such self-reliance is a principal value of child rearing in middle-class America.So long as the child is shown exactly