“The Heart of the Matter,” the just-released report by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences(AAAS), deserves praise for affirming the importance of the humanities and social sciences to the prosperity and security of liberal democracy in America. Regrettably, however, the report’s failure to address the true nature of the crisis facing liberal education may cause more harm than good.
In 2010, leading congressional Democrats and Republicans sent letters to the AAAS asking that it identify actions that could be taken by “federal, state and local governments, universities, foundations, educators, individual benefactors and others” to “maintain national excellence in humanities and social scientific scholarship and education.” In response, the American Academy formed the Commission on the Humanities and Social Sciences. Among the commission’s 51 members are top-tier-university presidents, scholars, lawyers, judges, and business executives, as well as prominent figures from diplomacy, filmmaking, music and journalism.
The goals identified in the report are generally admirable. Because representative government presupposes an informed citizenry, the report supports full literacy, stresses the study of history and government, particularly American history and American government; and encourages the use of new digital technologies. To encourage innovation and competition, the report calls for increased investment in research, the crafting of coherent curricula that improve students’ ability to solve problems and communicate effectively in the 21st century, increased funding for teachers and the encouragement of scholars to bring their learning to bear on the great challenges of the day. The report also advocates greater study of foreign languages, international affairs and the expansion of study abroad programs.
Unfortunately, despite 2.5 years in the making, “The Heart of the Matter” never gets to the heart of the matter, the illiberal nature of liberal education at our leading colleges and universities. The commission ignores that for several decades America’s colleges and universities have produced graduates who don’t know the content and character of liberal education and are thus deprived of its benefits. Sadly, the spirit of inquiry once at home on campus has been replaced by the use of the humanities and social sciences as vehicles for publicizing “progressive,” or left-liberal propaganda.
Today, professors routinely treat the progressive interpretation of history and progressive public policy as the proper subject of study while portraying conservative or classical liberal ideas—such as free markets and self-reliance—as falling outside the boundaries of routine, and sometimes legitimate, intellectual investigation.
The AAAS displays great enthusiasm for liberal education. Yet its report may well set back reform by obscuring the depth and breadth of the challenge that Congress asked it to illuminate.
The author implies in Paragraph 5 that professors are _____.
篇章理解题。定位到第五段，文章说道“教授们将那些激进的对历史和政策的解读看作是合理的学科”，然后用while引出对比关系“把保守的或者经典的人文思想看作是研究领域之外的东两（outside the boundaries of routine）. 有时还把它们看作是合理的智力探索。”换句话说，经典的人文思想被教授们忽视了，没有得到很好的研究，所以选D项“对经典人文思想的偏见”。A项的free markets是对经典人文学科的举例，不是教授们重视的东西，故教授不可能对其supportive（支持的）；第五段最后谈到了经典人文思想有时被认为是智力探索，但B项的cautious （谨慎的）在文中未提及；C项是利用conservative（保守的）制造的干扰项，文中没有说对公共政策持保守态度，故排除此项。
成人腰椎结核X线片常见
门静脉高压症食管胃底静脉曲张破裂大出血病人的治疗包括
急性弥漫性腹膜炎的临床表现有
急性脓胸常用的排脓方法正确的有
乳腺癌临床可表现为
下列应该优先抢救的急症包括
关于各种局麻方式的应用，正确的是
类风湿因子可能出现在
尿糖阳性，除糖尿病外尚有下列哪些可能？
关于血尿描述正确的是
