Sumerian and Egyptian Education
Shortly after 3000 ВС, both0 the Sumerians and the Egyptians established schools to teach boys the newly invented arts of reading and writing. The schools were taught by temple priests. Only exceptionally talented boys could attend the schools. Girls were not allowed to attend school, but some girls learned reading and writing in their homes.
A boy's training, which lasted from about the age of 5 to 17, was strict and monotonous. He learned to write by copying the same literary selections again and again. He learned arithmetic by copying business accounts. Boys who completed their education formed a separate social class called "scribes." Scribes were hired for any task that required a knowledge of reading, writing, or arithmetic.
Other Middle Eastern Education
Civilization spread from Sumer and Egypt to the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea.** Certain tribes in this region each spoke one of the closely related Semitic languages. Between about 1500 ВСand 1000ВС, these tribes developed the world's first alphabet and so gave education another valuable tool. Alphabetic systems make writing easier than picture systems because they require far fewer symbols.
Certain Hebrew*** Semitic tribes developed a remarkably democratic educational system. Other educational systems had been designed mainly for the sons of upper-class families. But the Hebrews required boys of every social class to attend school. The Hebrew schools were religious -schools conducted by priests called scribes. They taught boys to read the sacred writings of the Hebrew people, which were collected in a volume called the Tarah. Hebrew girls did not attend school but were taught at home by their mothers.
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* awkward 
– неудобный, затруднительный
** the MediterraneanSea –Средиземноеморе
*** Hebrew 
– иудей; (древне)еврейский
Ancient Greek Education
Greek civilization flourished from about 700 ВСto about 330ВС. During this period, the Greeks made the greatest educational advance of ancient times. In fact, Western education today is based on the ancient Greek model.
Ancient Greece was divided into independent city-states. The educational system of each city-state aimed to produce good citizens. Athens and Sparta, two of the most powerful city-states, had different ideals of citizenship. In Sparta, a citizen was judged largely by his political and military service. The government controlled education. Boys received physical and military training, but few learned to read and write. In Athens, unlike Sparta, a citizen was judged more by the quality of his mind. But Athenian citizens were also expected to develop their bodies and to serve the state.
Athens made the greatest educational advances of any Greek city-state. But Athenian education was far from democratic. Education was limited to the sons of Athenian citizens. Only about a fifth of the Athenians were citizens. Most of the rest were slaves, who were not considered worthy of an education.
Athenian boys started their education at about age 6. But they did not go to schools as we think of schools today. A trusted family slave simply took them from teacher to teacher, each of whom specialized in a certain subject or certain related subjects. Boys studied reading, writing, arithmetic, music, dancing and gymnastics. As the boys advanced, they memorized the words of Homer and other Greek poets. Boys continued their elementary education until they were about 15 years old. From about ages 16 to 20, they attended a government sponsored gymnasium. Gymnasiums trained young men to become citizen-soldiers. They emphasized such sports as running and wrestling and taught civic duty* and the art of war. Students held discussions to improve their reasoning and speaking ability.
Some Athenian gymnasiums became centres of advanced learning. By the 400s ВС, advanced learning in Athens consisted of philosophy and rhetoric. Philosophy included the study of logic, mathematics, morals, and science. Rhetoric included the study of government, history, and public speaking.
During the 400s and 300s ВС, Athens produced such great philosophers and teachers as Aristotle, Plato, and Socrates. About 387ВСPlato founded a school of philosophy that became known as the Academy.
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* civic duty – обязанностиграждан
Some scholars believe the Academy was the Western world's first institution of higher learning. Aristotle founded a similar school called the Lyceum* about 330 ВС.
Most young Athenian women received no formal education. The Greeks believed girls could learn all they needed to know from their mothers – that is, how to prepare food, make clothing, and care for infants. However, some women belonged to religious organizations through which they developed skills in music, poetry, and dancing.
Ancient Roman Education
By 100ВС,the Romans had built the most extensive educational system of that time. Their system was patterned after** that of ancient Athens. But unlike the Athenians, the Romans provided schooling for girls as well as boys. The children of wealthy citizens were taught by a ludus (elementary-school teacher) from about the age of 7 to 10. They learned to read and write both Greek and their native language, Latin. Girls received only an elementary education. Boys from about 10 to 15 years old attended a secondary school run by a grammaticus (teacher of grammar). In secondary school, they continued their study of Greek and Latin grammar and literature. The Romans also established institutions of higher learning. These institutions were schools of rhetoric, which prepared young men for careers in law and government.
Assignments:
1. Give the English for:
происходить, изобретать, ученичество, приобретать, узы, связывать, иметь отношение к, сложный, включать, устно, запоминать, доступный, поведение, возникать, священник, переписывать, задача, племя, родственный, ценный, требовать, процветать, успехи, древний, основываться на, ограничивать, раб, делать упор на, рассуждения, предоставлять.
2. Form nouns from the following verbs:
invent, communicate, educate, perform, imitate, know, behave, calculate, discuss, develop, govern.
3. Form adjectives from the following nouns:
history, religion, emotion, east, west, value, education, alphabet, power, policy, democracy.
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* the Lyceum – лицей
** to be patterned after – бытьсозданнымпообразцу
4. Join A andВin pairs of synonyms;
A. adults, to establish, talented, to arise,, hard, task, to complete, advances, ancient, to prepare.
B. difficult, gifted, elders, to appear,success, to found, to finish, aim, old, to train.
5. Complete the following sentences:
1) Young people in prehistoric societies were educated through...
2) The invention of writing was the second major milestone in...
3) Scribes were hired for any task that required a knowledge of ...
4) The Hebrew schools were religious schools conducted by
5) The educational system of each city-state aimed to produce ...
6) Gymnasiums emphasized such sports as ...
7) Students held discussions to improve their ...
8) Unlike the Athenians, the Romans providedschoolingfor ...
9) The Romans also established institutions of ...
10) These institutions were schools of rhetoric which prepared...
6. Ask 10–15 questions about the text. Be ready to answer them.
7. Prove the following statements:
1) Today, in all societies, young people still learn through apprenticeship, imitation and ritual.
2) As a society grows increasingly complicated, teachers and schools take on more and more responsibility for educating the young.
3) Alphabetic system makes writing easier than picture system.
4) Athenian education was far from democratic.
5) By 100 ВС, the Romans had built the most extensive educational system of that time.
8. Speak on the major milestones in the history of education. Give the advantages and disadvantages of each of the discussed educational systems.
9. Say what elements of ancient educational system you'd like to introduce in our system of education and why.
2. THE PEN STORY
A sharp flint... a finger dipped in blood or plant juice,.. these were the tools used by primitive man to record his experiences on cave walls and rocks. As he became more intelligent, man developed more complex writing systems – pictures, symbols' alphabets ... and more efficient writing instruments.
Twoof the earliest implements were the brush, employed in China, and the stylus. The stylus, a sharp instrument made of bone or metal, was used by the ancient Greeks and Romans to inscribe signs and words on wax-covered tablets.
Meanwhile, the ancient Egyptians were writing on papyrus with pen and ink. The ink was basically a mixture of bamboo, soot, water and gum; the pens were made from the hollow tubular stems of reeds, split and sharpened.
Papyrus and parchment spread to other countries. So did the reed pen. The Romans made their version from bamboo but instead of splitting it, they cut one end t« a nib-shape, filled the hollow stem with ink; then squeezed it to force the ink onto the nib. That was one of the very first fountain pens.
The stylus was in fashion for some three thousand years; the reed pen for only three hundred because, with the introduction of paper, a much finer instrument was needed. It came in the form of a quill feather taken from the wings of swans, crows or, more often, geese. The new implement inspired the word "pen" (taken from "penna," the Latin term for feather).
From the sixth to the eighteenth century, the quill was the writing instrument of the western world.
The next major step in the pen story was taken in 1809 by Joseph Bramah, an English engineer. He invented a machine for manufacturing quill nibs which were then inserted into holders. Soon this type of pen was in common use. Within twenty years quill nibs had been replaced by steel ones.
The next chapter in the pen saga begins in 1884 in America... A young insurance agent, Lewis Waterman, tipped his inkwell over a contract just at the moment of signing and consequently lost a sale worth one hundred thousand dollars. This misfortune determined Waterman to design a pen containing its own supply of ink – the fountain pen.
While the fountain pen was gaining in popularity, another invention hit the writing public. The ballpoint. Although patents on ball-point pens date back to the 1880s, the world's first workable version was developed in 1943 by Lazlo Joseph Biro, a Hungarian living in Argentina.
Assignments:
1. Translate the text using a dictionary.
2. Give a summaryof the text.
3. THE MIRACLE OF WRITING
Among all the achievements of human beings, the invention of writing is one of the greatest. But perhaps the time will come during our lives when reading and writing become out of date.
Writing was not invented once, but perhaps, six different times, in places as far apart as China and America. Each time it started with simple pictures and lines or dots – these were good enough to record objects or numbers. But something more flexible was needed to record language.
A kind of writing which had this flexibility was invented in Mesopotamia, in about 3000 ВС. The writing was made of triangular shapes* and we now call it "cuneiform"** writing. Like picture writing, it was used in trade, but it was also important for recording ideas about religion and philosophy. Though we don't know what the language these people spoke sounded like, we know a lot about them from their writing.
Meanwhile the Egyptians had developed another kind of writing – "hieroglyphics."*** These were a mixture of pictures and signs which were used by the kings and priests, Egyptian hieroglyphic writing is one of the most beautiful and complicated ways of writing that has been invented. But it was too complicated to become as widely used as cuneiform writing.
Around 1200 ВСwriting began to make the last and most important step in its development; the beginning of the alphabet, signs which stand for sounds and which can be used to write any of the words we speak. Nobody knows when, where or by whom the first alphabet was invented. But by 1000ВСPhoenician traders, from the area we now call Lebanon, were spreading their alphabet writing throughout the Mediterranean world. The Greeks, and later the Romans, changed it, and it grew into the alphabet of letters you can see on this page.
With the alphabet it was possible to write down anything that was said. There were all sorts of stories, myths and traditions waiting to be written down. The invention of paper and ink helped the alphabet to spread quickly, and many more people learned to read and write, though trie vast majority of people were illiterate until long after printing was invented. However, there was one great problem that lasted from Greek and Roman times until the Middle Ages– everything was written by hand. So it was slow and expensive to produce copies of books.
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* of triangular shapes – вформетреугольников
** cuneiform 
– клинопись
*** hieroglyphics 
– иероглифы
Assignments:
1. In a few sentences give a short survey of the history of writing.
2. Translate the text using a dictionary.
4. CHILD PSYCHOLOGY DETERMINES TEACHING METHODS
(From "Invitation to Psychology" by J. Houston, H. Bee, D.C. Rimm)
A knowledge of the child is the most fundamental and important of the teacher's preparation. Many teachers with thorough knowledge of their subjects fail because they do not understand the boys and girls who are to be taught. Many assume that children are like plastic clay and can be moulded at the will of the teacher. Any observing parent or any intelligent teacher of experience knows better. Boys and girls are not passive lumps of clay; they are living, pulsating, developing, mysterious beings who must be studied and understood before they can be taught in the true sense.
We have come to realize that the most difficult factor in education to understand is the mind of the child to be taught. A knowledge of children's minds and the way they work is certain to convince one that in order to teach efficiently we must get the child's point of view. Many well-conceived aims in education do not bear fruit, simply because the teacher does not understand the workings of children's minds. The teaching is done in terms of adult thinking and means nothing to the child. The 'child's mind understands concrete things rather than abstractions. We must appeal to the child through his everyday experiences and on the plane of his stage of development. Instead of beginning with definitions, abstract principles and laws, the meanings of the things should first be made clear. Otherwise the statements are empty words. Every concept should have its concrete examples to which the mind can turn for illustrations at any time. Instruction of children should begin with experiences personally familiar to the particular children, and make the teaching radiate from those. The teacher's knowledge should be broad and thorough that if the pupils cannot understand one illustration, others can be given immediately. In addition to the knowledge of formal subjects the teacher should know their relation to the life outside the classroom, so the pupils must see the significance of the things they do at school.
Assignments:
1. Look through the text and briefly say what it is about.
2. Translate the text using a dictionary.
5. LET KIDS BE KIDS
(by Stephen R.C. Hicks)
The newspaper in Indiana town ran a contest for schoolchildren. The students were to create a picture on any topic; the best would be published in the paper.
A second-grader drew a sad-faced earth with the caption "I am weary. I am tired. Please quit wasting me!"* A third-grade girl depicted animals crying near a house under construction, with smokestacks in the distance; the caption read "We want our home back!"
Apparently many children are coming home from school frightened that the world is cold and inhospitable. All the furry animals are being killed and the nice green trees being chopped down. Even breathing air is dangerous.
Motivated by the best of intentions, most teachers want their students to become informed and independent thinkers. But in trying to convey a sense of urgency about such problems, they become frustrated and frightened. They begin to realize that we are living in a hostile world whose problems are too big to handle. And that's an attitude children often acquire early in life.
This does not mean educators and parents should pretend that problems do not exist. We need to take pains** to help children confront them on a scale they can grasp.
Frightened children are not going to grow into adults who can solve the world's problems. That requires a confidence in one's ability to find solutrons. And such healthy self-esteem*** requires nurturing**** over a long period, on a great number of small, day-to-day matters. Too much, too fast, can only destroy it.
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* «Ябольшенемогу.Я устала. Пожалуйста, перестаньте зря растрачивать меня!»
** to take pains – прилагать огромные усилия
*** self-esteem –самооценка
**** nurturing – (зд.) воспитание
Assignments:
1. In 3–5 short sentences give the main idea of the article.
2. Translate it using a dictionary.
6. THE FIRST DAY AT SCHOOL
Can you remember your first day at school? It was probably rather confusing. Now to avoid this confusion many primary schools have a special teacher who welcomes new pupils. In England she is called a reception-class teacher. On the first day it is her responsibility to "settle" the newcomers. The difficulty is that a lot of people give their children the wrong idea about going to school. The children are threatened with the idea of school, and if they have been good, they can't understand why they have to go to school. They imagine that school is optional.
When the child goes to school, on his first day, he has to watch his mother leaving. Often he thinks that she is deserting him. The teacher must convince him that at the end of the day his mother and his home will still be there. The children are not the only people that are disturbed by going to school. The teacher sometimes has just as much difficulty in coping with the mothers. They are just as upset as their children. They hang around and dislike leaving the child to his fate. All day they stay at home, wondering what is happening and how their son Or daughter is managing.
The best way to deal with the situation is to get the child used to the idea of school. Before the beginning of term the mother should take her child to see the teacher and to look round the school. The first day should be something to emphasize the regularity of school, and although the first day is difficult, the mother must remember that her child must be encouraged for a whole term at least.
Assignments:
1. Find in the text the English for:
суматошный (полный неразберихи), приветствовать, ответственность, новичок, давать неправильное представление о, пугать, представлять (себе), необязательный, покидать (бросать), убедить, справиться с чём-л., расстроенный, судьба, приучить кого-л. к чему-л., с нетерпением ждать чего-л., подчеркнуть (сделать упор на), ободрить.
2. Choose the best answer:
1) On the first day a reception-class teacher ... a) is a newcomer. b) teaches in a special way. c) establishes the children in the class.
2) A lot of people ... a) tell their children that school is wrong. b) misinform the children about theschool. c) have bad ideas about school.
3) The children think school ... a) is a punishment,b) is difficult to understand, c) is a good idea.
4) Often the children feel ... a) happy when their mothers leave. b) lonely, c) angry.
5) The teacher tells him that his mother ... a) has left. b) has deserted him. c) has left him temporarily.
6) The mothers are often ... a) as angry as their children, b) as difficult as their children, c) as nervous as their children.
7) They ... a) stay at the school for a long time. b) leave immediately. c) walk around the school.
8) The best solution is to ... a) get the child accustomed to school. b) use the school for some special purposes, c) give the child ideas about school.
9) The child should ... a) enjoy the thought of the first day. b) be frightened about the first day. c) prepare himself for the first day.
10) It is important to ... a) warn the child about the regularity. b) exaggerate the regularity, c) underline the regularity.
3. Say what should be done to avoid confusion on the first day at school.
4. Share your own suggestions as to what a teacher should do on the first day. Try to give some practical advice to a beginning teacher.
5. Say whether you remember your own first day at school and what you and your parents felt then.
7. HOW WELL DO OUR SCHOOLS PERFORM?
(From "Who Controls Our Schools?
American Values in Conflict" by Michael W. Kirst)
Our educational system, rooted in our history and our structure of values, has often been a source of justifiable pride. Whatever its limitations, the public educational system of the United States (including higher education) is the most egalitarian* systemin the world.
Thomas Jefferson had counted on education to develop only that "natural aristocracy" of the few whose talents justly deserved to be developed for the benefit of society. But Horace Mann and the common school advocates wanted universal education, to them education was to be the "balance wheel"** of society. Mann proclaimed in 1848: "If one class possess all the wealth and education, while the others are ignorant and poor; it matters not by what name the relation between them may be called; the latter will be the dependants and subjects of the former, but if education be equally diffused, it will draw property after it, by the strongest of all attractions, for such a thing never did happen, as that an intelligent and practical body of men should be permanently poor. Education is the great equalizer of the conditions of men, the balance wheel of the social machinery."
The public schools were thought to by their supporters as a secure system for moderating social inequalities. The egalitarism of the American system distinguishes it from the school systems of the European countries. About 75% of our students graduate from high school, and some 44% go on to higher education. In most other Western nations, students are diverted into vocational and technical programs at age 14 or 15 and only 15 to 30% graduate from a secondary school. Considering the large percentage of teenagers the US schools enrol, the level of attainment of these students is surprisingly high. Our schools system has grown steadily more egalitarian. As recently as 1940 fewer than 50% of the pupils in this country completed high school. By 1984, the access to higher education among those least represented in the past – the minority groups – has increased. While college enrollment of white students grew slightly, the proportion of blacks in college more than doubled in the same period. In 1981 the percentage of black high school graduates who went on to college exceeded that of whites for the first time. The fact, that many of those students come from lower socioeconomic groups makes this achievement all the more remarkable. Recent sociological studies from Russia indicate that an unexpectedly high share of the places in most of its elite postsecondary institutions go to children of white-collar workers.
Lately, the headlines have warned us that our schools are not competitive with those of our economic rivals West Germany and Japan, and that current graduates of our secondary schools cannot match the records set by their predecessors. Now, when the performance of our schools is source of widespread dissatisfaction, we need to consider carefully how we measure that performance.
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* egalitarian – поборникравноправия
** "balance wheel" – баланс
Assignments:
1. Find in the text the English for:
укоренившийся, могущий быть оправданным, ограничения, рассчитывать на, на благо общества, всеобщее образование, сторонники, провозгласить, невежественный, смягчать общественные неравенства, отличать что-л. от чего-л., представленные в меньшей степени, уровень знаний, превышать, указывать, служащие, быть неконкурентоспособным, подходить (соответствовать), предшественник, измерить что-л.
2. Give the derivatives from:
just, to depend, limit, to support, universe, to attain, equal, vocation, access, to enroll, sociology, to expect, to compete, to perform, surprise.
3. Arrange A andВin pairs of synonyms:
A. limitations, advocate, high school, vocational, share, intelligent, talent, to moderate, common school, permanently, attainment. B. to mitigate, clever, professional, drawbacks, supporter, proportion, secondary school, gift, constantly, ordinary school, achievement.
4. Answer the following questions:
1) How can you characterize the system of education in the United States in general?
2) What was T. Jefferson's point of view on the aims of education?
3) What did Horace Mann proclaim in 1848?
4) How were the public schools thought of by their supporters?
5) What distinguishes the American system from the systems of the European countries?
6) Is the level of attainment of US schools high?
7) What changes took place in 1984 in the field of higher education?
8) Who composed the majority of college students in 1981? Isn't the fact remarkable?
9) What do recent sociological studies in Russia indicate?
10) What is the source of widespread dissatisfaction of the press and public?
5. Compare the concepts of education of Thomas Jefferson and Mann.
6. From Mann's quotation choose one sentence to cover the main idea of it and translate it.
7. What can you say about the state of affairs in American educational system today as it is described in the text?
8. SCHOOLS OF THE FUTURE
(From "How American Business and Education Can Cooperate to Save Our Schools" by Dr Marvin Cetron)
The schools that will shape our nation's future in the 21st century – are being planned today, at a time when education is again in the national spotlight. Nearly 30 reports issued by commissions and individuals have made it clear to the American people that their nation will be "at risk" unless they pay attention to their schools. During the past several years dozens of panels, commissions and other experts have made recommendations on how schools can become more effective. Continuing to improve America's schools is the key to the United States' future. Schools must make their plans for the future with an understanding of the key issues that will affect education.
A major responsibility of schools in the future will be to prepare students to enter a rapidly changing job market. American workers will need to be more highly trained than at present.
Schools will be responsible for preparing students who are adaptable, who are able to respond quickly to the changing requirements of new technologies. Schools will train both youngandadults; adult workers will need reeducation and retraining.
In the future, schools and business will need to work closely in anew business/education partnership.
Emphasis on such "traditional" academic subjects as reading, writing and mathematics will increase.
New technologies, such as computers, videodiscs and cable television will change the look of the "schoolroom." In the future, students may spend 1 or 2 days each week studying at home. Increased and well-planned use of these new learning technologies will enable machines and humans each to teach what they teach best.
Because of the additional responsibilities that will be imposed on teachers, they will archive greater status in society. In the future, they will be paid salaries that are comparable with other professionals. They will work in schools that offer continuing opportunities for professional advancement and training. As a result, education will once again attract the nation's brightest and most qualified students.
Assignment:
Read the text and say:
a) what changes the Americans are planning to introduce in their schools;
b) which of the changes you would like to introduce in our educational system.
9. THE ILLITERACY EPIDEMIC
In 1889, a person was judged literate if he could sign his name. In the machine economy of 1939, it meant completing the sixth grade. Today, the Information Age of computers and high technology requires a bare minimum of reading and writing skills at the high-school-graduate level.* Changes in workplace needs are so dramatic and unpredictable that people must be ready to adapt to jobs that did not even exist when they were in school.
There are 25 million Americans who cannot read or write at all. An additional 45 million are functionally illiterate without the reading and writing skills to find work – and that number is growing by more than 2 million a year.
Illiteracy is compounded by the attack on English as a national language, yet civilizations rise by literacy and a common language. Knowledge becomes accessible to all.
America, above all, drew inspiration from that ancient tradition of liberty and knowledge. Yet, curiously, we also have an anti-intellectual tradition of those who give the impression that they "know better." But in the post-industrial era, when the majority of people in the work force make a living with their minds, not their hands, it is education – more than coal or steel or even capital – that is the key to our economic future.
How can we restore America to preeminence by having the most educated work force in the world by the year 2000?
The first requirement is to organize schools that address the realities of modern life. Today, 60 per cent of women with children over the age of 3 work outside the home. Single-parent households and dual-income families* need year-round schools providing an extended school day and enriched day care to teach their children and keep them safe.
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* high school– (амер.) старшие классы средней школы
America also must fund preschools on a massive scale. A human being is capable of learning more in the earliest years than in the rest of his or her lifetime.
The second requirement is to establish performance standards. Not enough is expected academically of American students, our most successful competitors, the Japanese, have much higher levels of educational achievement because they have a longer school day and school year and because more is required of students. As a result, Japanese high-school graduates academically are equivalent to the average American starting junior year at a good college.
America must set standards for a basic academic diploma. As an incentive to school districts, the federal government should underwrite a national test that would reveal a demonstrated mastery of a core body of knowledge, including the essential documents of citizenship, history and literature and the principles of science and mathematics. Using the test would be voluntary, but Washington might encourage its use through scholastic aid to schools and students who excel.
Finally, the federal government should vastly increase its funding of research and development in education. Given the introduction of computers and computerized teaching programs, only the federal government has the resources to determine which programs would work best to maximize teaching performance.
Assignments:
1. Find in the text the English for:
грамотный, поставить свою подпись, требовать, навыки, уровень, приспособиться к, нападать на, доступный всем, черпать вдохновение из, производить впечатление, зарабатывать на жизнь, ключ к, семья без отца (или без матери), группы продленного дня, ограждать от опасностей, финансировать, стимул к, выявлять, отличаться (превосходить), сильно повысить уровень преподавания.
2. Form the derivatives from the following words:
literate, computer, require, nation, inspire, industry, economy, organize, perform, achieve, know, introduce.
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* dual-income families – семьи, в которых работают и отец, и мать
3. Answer the following questions:
1)What kind of person was considered literate in 1889?
2) What did literacy mean in 1939?
3)What kind of skills does the presentage require?
4) America drew inspiration from that ancient tradition of liberty and knowledge, didn't it?
5) What is the key to America's economic future?
6) How can they restore America by theyear 2000?
10. CULTURAL LITERACY AND THE SCHOOLS
(From "Cultural Literacy" by E.D. Hirsch)
School is the traditional place for acculturating children into our national life. Family, church, and other institutions play an important role, but school is the only institution that is susceptible to public policy control. In the modern age, the role assigned to our schools is to prepare our children for the broader activities of society and to train them in the literate public culture. Our schools have played this role less well than they should, chiefly because they have followed faulty educational ideas. The practical importance of ideas in human affairs, while not a recent revelation, is one that is too easily forgotten.
The decline of American literacy and the fragmentation of the American school curriculum have been chiefly caused by the ever growing dominance of romantic formalism in educational theory during the past half century. We have too readily blamed shortcomings of American education on social changes (the disorientation of the American family or the impact of television) or incompetent teachers or structural flaws in our school systems. But the chief blame should fall on faulty theories promulgated in our schools of education and accepted by educational policy-makers.
Why have we failed to give our children the information they lack? Chiefly because of educational formalism, which encourages us to ignore the fact that identifying and imparting the information a child is missing is most important in the earliest grades, when the task is most manageable. At age six, when a child must acquire knowledge critical for continuing development, the total quantity of missing information is not huge. The technical reading skills of disadvantaged children at age six are still on a par with those of children from literate families. Supplying missing knowledge to children early is of tremendous importance for enhancing their motivation and intellectual self-confidence, not to mention their subsequent ability to learn new materials. Yet schools will never systematically impart missing background information as long as they continue to accept the formalistic principle that specific information is irrelevant to "language arts skills."
Education formalism holds that reading and writing are like baseball and skating; formalism conceives of literacy as a set of techniques that can be developed by proper coaching and practice.
The trouble is that reading for meaning is a different sort of game entirely. Every text, even the most elementary, implies information that it takes for granted and doesn't explain. Knowing such information is the decisive skill of reading.
Assignments:
1. Translate the text using a dictionary.
2. Say whether you agree with the reasons for the decline of literacy the author gives.