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AN EDUCATION FOR LIFE?
There is a problem that will touch us all -men, women and children – in the not too distant future, a problem that resolves itself into a question: what is education for? At the moment most of us can answer that fairly practically and without too much soul-searching. On the lowest level education is for enabling us to cope in an adult world where money must be added up, tax forms filled in, numbers looked up in telephone directories, maps read, curtains measured and street signs understood. On the next level it is for getting some kind of job that will pay a living wage. But we are already peering into a future so different from anything we would now recognize as familiar that the last of these two educational aims may become as obsolete as a dodo. Basic skills (reading, writing and arithmetic) will continue to be necessary but these, after all, can be taught to children in from one to two years during their childhood. But education with a view to working for a living, at least in the sense of earning daily bread, may well be on its way out right now for the majority of us. Then the question 'what is education for?' becomes much more complex. Because what the future proclaims is: an education is an education. In other words, our grandchildren may well spend their lives learning as, today, we spend our lives working. This does not simply involve a straightforward substitution of activity but a complete transformation of motive. We work for things basically unconnected with that work – usually money, prestige, success, security. We will learn for learning's sake alone: a rose is a rose because it is and not what we can get out of it. Nor need any cynic doubt that we shall not wish to work without there being any obvious end in view. Nevertheless, we still live in a very competitive society and most of us will need to reshuffle the furniture of our minds in order to gear our children towards a future in which outer rewards -keeping up with the Joneses – become less relevant than inner and more individual spurs. The existence of competition has always meant doing things because they win us some essentially unconnected advantage but the aim of the future must be to integrate the doing with its own reward, like virtue. Oddly enough it is in America, that citadel of competitiveness, that the first experiments in this change of mind are taking place. In that New World, there are already organizations set up to examine ways in which competitiveness can be replaced by other inner-directed forms of rewards and pleasures. Take one interesting example in a Foundation whose aim is to transform competitive sport. A tug-of-war, as we all know, consists of one team pitting its strength against another team. The aim is to tug the opposing team over a line and, by doing so, win. In the brand-new non-competitive version, things are very different. There are still two teams on either end of a rope but now the aim is not to win but to maintain the struggle. …because victory is not the aim and the tug-of-war is ended only by defeat of those judgments and skills. What's more, I think most people would get more pleasure out of the neo-tug than the old winners-take-all concept. So could it be for learning. Most of us, at some time or another, have glimpsed one of the real inner pleasures of education – a sort of one-person chase after an elusive goal that pits. You only against You or, at the very most, against the discoveries of the greatest minds of other generations. On a more humble level, most of us have already got some pleasurable hobby that we enjoy for its own sake and become expert in for that enjoyment. In my own stumbling efforts, since last year, to learn the piano, I have seen the future and it works. Abridged from The Guardian 5.b Find words or phrases in the text which mean the same as: a) can be converted b) deep examination of the mind c) manage d) out-of-date e) rearrange f) our ideas g) prepare ... for h) competing socially i) motives j) combine k) setting... against 5.c Now complete statements 1-5 by choosing the answer (a–d) which you think fits best. 1. In the future envisaged by the writer, a)there would be no need to deal with money b) there would be no need to communicate in writing c)there would be few employment prospects d)there would be few educational prospects 2. According to the writer, the most difficult adjustment for us to make will be a)getting used to having more free time b)working without the hope of material reward c) seeing education as being its own reward d)learning essentially impractical subjects 3. Our duty towards our children will be to a)prepare them to set their own goals b)encourage them to be more ambitious c) improve their chances of employment d)teach them basic moral values in life 4. According to the writer, future learning will resemble the new-style tug-of-war in that a)there will be no possibility of failing b) the object will be to avoid winning c) it will depend on operating as a team d) it will involve a personal challenge 5. The reason for the writer's optimistic conclusion is that she has a) discovered how satisfying learning can be b) shown a new talent for playing the piano c) found how easy it is to develop a new skill d) taken up a hobby for the first time
6.a There are quite a few types of education. Read short texts 1-6 below and label them using the terms from the box.
6.b Give the definitions of the following types of education.Which of the terms below are applicable to the higher education system? a) liberal education b) general education c) broad education d) further education e) special education f) adult education g) cooperative education h) self-education i) in-service education j) compulsory education k) free education l) safety education m) business education n) continuing education 7. Fill in the gaps with the following words from the box
HIGHER EDUCATIONis ___ ___various types of education given _____ postsecondary institutions ___ learning and usually affording, ___the end ____a course of study, a named degree, diploma, ____ certificate ______higher studies. Higher-educational institutions include____ _____universities ____ colleges ______ _______ various professional schools _____ provide preparation ____ _____fields ____ law, theology, medicine, business, music, and art. Higher education ______ includes teacher-training schools, junior colleges, and institutes of technology. The basic entrance requirement ________ most higher-educational institutions is the completion of secondary education, ____ the usual entrance age is _____18 years. The system ______ higher education had ____ origin in Europe of the Middle Ages, ____the first universities were established. ______ modern times the nature of higher education _______the world has been largely determined ____ the models established ______ influential countries ________ ________ France, Germany, and the United States. _________, in France an examination called the baccalauréat is given ____the end of secondary education. Success _____ this examination allows students to attend universities ____ another three or four years ______ they have attained the first university degree. _______, there are higher-educational institutions known ______ grandes écoles, _____provide advanced professional and technical training. _______ ______these schools are not affiliated ________ the universities, ______ they too recruit their students _____ giving competitive examinations _______ candidates who possess a baccalauréat. France's grandes écoles have been especially copied _______ models of technical schools. Sometimes their diplomas are ranked higher _______ Master’s Degree. The Germans were the first ______stress the importance of universities _______research facilities, and they _______created a sense of them ____emblems _______ a national mind. The doctoral degree, _____Ph.D., invented in Germany, has gained popularity _____systems _______ the world. 8. What is your vision of the university of the 21st century? Think in terms of a) democratic tendencies that are underway in higher education; b) strategies that universities are to develop to match the information society and survive in the competitive world.
9.a Read the article about the new concept of the university of the 21st century and be ready to answer the questions contributing your own ideas.
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