1.Most of the people who appear most often and most gloriously in the history books are great conquerors and generals and soldiers, whereas the people who really helped civilization forward are often never mentioned at all. We do not know who first set a broken leg, or launched a seaworthy boat, or calculated the length of the year, or manured（施肥）a field; but we know all about the killers and destroyers. People think a great deal of them, so much so that on all the highest pillars in the great cities of the world you will find the figure of a conqueror or a general or a soldier. And I think most people believe that the greatest countries are those that have beaten in battle the greatest number of other countries and ruled over them as conquerors. It is just possible they are, but they are not the most civilized. Animals fight; so do savages (野蛮人); hence to be good at fighting is to be good in the way in which an animal or a savage is good, but it is not to be civilized. Even being good at getting other people to fight for you and telling them how to do it most efficiently --- this, after all, is what conquerors and generals have done --- is not being civilized. People fight to settle quarrels. Fighting means killing, and civilized peoples ought to be able to find some way of settling their disputes other than by seeing which side can kill off the greater number of the other side, and then saying that that side which has killed most has won. And it not only has won, but, because it has won, has been in the right. For that is what going to war means; it means saying that might is right. That is what the story of mankind has on the whole been like. Even our own age has fought the two greatest wars in history, in which millions of people were killed or disabled. And while today it is true that people do not fight and kill each other in the streets --- while, that is to say, we have got to the stage of keeping the rules and behaving properly to each other in daily life --- nations and countries have not learnt to do this yet, and still behave like savages.
2. During the early years of this century, wheat was seen as the very lifeblood of Western Canada. When the crops were good, the economy on city streets watched the yields and the price of wheat with almost as much felling as if they were growers. The marketing of wheat became an increasingly favorite topic of conversation.
War set the stage for the most dramatic events in marketing the western crop. For years, farmers mistrusted speculative grain selling as carried on through the Winnipeg Grain Exchange. Wheat prices were generally low in the autumn, but farmers could not wait for markets to improve. It had happened too often that they sold their wheat soon after harvest when farm debts were coming due, only to see prices rising and speculators getting rich. On various occasions, producer groups asked for farmer controls, but governments had no wish to become involved, at least not until wartime wheat prices threatened to run wild.
Anxious to check inflation and rising living costs, the federal government appointed a board of grain supervisors to handle deliveries from the crops of 1917 and 1918. Grain Exchange trading was suspended, and farmers sold at prices fixed by the board. To handle the crop of 1919, the government appointed the first Canadian Wheat Board, with full authority to buy, sell and set prices
3. In economics the value added by a manufacturing firm to its products is the difference between the price of a finished product and the cost of raw materials, parts supplies, fuel, and electrical energy used in the production of that product. When computed in this manner, the value added by manufacture is a useful index of the manufacturing firm??s contribution to the national economy. It
is a more realistic index, of course, than gross sales, a figure that is misleading because it tells nothing about production costs and whether the manufacturing firm is operating at a profit or at a loss.
In education there is now a spirited quarrel as to whether such a concept would not be most appropriate for college graduates is evidently reflected in the salaries they can command upon receipt of a college degree. Engineers, accountants, and computer specialists command impressive salaries upon graduation and by implication, there must be an appreciable value added to their marketability by the education and training they received in college. When looked at more closely, however, the missing factor is obviously the difference between learner capabilities prior to their educational experiences and graduate capabilities after earning a college degree. In brief, how much does the student benefit from the instruction he or she has received
4. Today， there are many avenues open to those who wish to continue their education. However， nearly all require some break in one‘s career in order to attend school full time. Part-time education， that is， attending school at night or for one weekend a month， tends to drag the process out over time and puts the completion of a degree program out of reach of many people. Additionally， such programs require a fixed time commitment which can also impact negatively on one’s career and family time. Of the many approaches to teaching and learning， however， perhaps the most flexible and accommodating is that called distance learning. Distance learning is an educational method， which allows the students the flexibility to study at his or her own pace to achieve the academic goals， which are so necessary in today‘s world. The time required to study many be set aside at the student’s convenience with due regard to all life‘s other requirements. Additionally， the student may enroll in distance learning courses from virtually any place in the world， while continuing to pursue their chosen career. Tutorial assistance may be available via regular airmail， telephone， facsimile machine， teleconferencing and over the Internet. Good distance learning programs are characterized by the inclusion of a subject evaluation tool with every subject. This precludes the requirement for a student to travel away from home to take a test. Another characteristic of a good distance-learning program is the equivalence of the distance-learning course with the same subject materials as those students taking the course on the home campus. The resultant diploma or degree should also be the same whether distance learning or on-campus study is employed. The individuality of the professor/student relationship is another characteristic of a good distance-learning program. In the final analysis， a good distance learning program has a place not only for the individual students but also the corporation or business that wants to work in partnership with their employees for the educational benefit， professional development， and business growth of the organization. Sponsoring distance learning programs for their employees gives the business the advantage of retaining career-minded people while contributing to their personal and professional growth through education.
5. It would be interesting to discover how many young people go to university without any clear idea of what they are going to do afterwards. If a student goes to university to acquire a broader perspective of life, to enlarge his ideas and to learn to think for himself, he will undoubtedly benefit. School often have too restricting an atmosphere with its timetables and disciplines to allow him much time for independent assessment of the work he is asked to do. Students should have longer time to decide in what subject they want to take their degrees, so that in later life they
do not look back and say “I should like to have been an architect. If I hadn?t taken a degree in modern languages, I should not have ended up as an interpreter , but it?s so late that I couldn?t possibly go back and start all over again.” there is ,of course, another side to the question of how to make the best use of one?s time at university. This is the case of the student who excels in a particular branch of learning. He is immediately accepted by the University of his Choice, and spend his three or four years becoming a specialist, emerging with a first-class honor degree and very little knowledge of what the outside of the world is all about. it therefore becomes more and more important that if students are not to waste their opportunities, there will have to be very much detailed information about courses and more advice. Only in this median can we be sure that we are not to have. On the one hand, a band of specialists ignorant of anything without of their own subject, and on the other hand, and ever increasing number of graduates qualified in subject for which there is little or no requirement in the working world.
6. How should gifted children be identified？ Parents may not be able to identify gifted children； they do not have sufficient basis for comparison． Their observations may be distorted by their ambi－ tions． However， they may be able to furnish details about the child? s early development that Indicate to the discerning teacher or psychologist the presence of superior ability．
Teachers who are familiar with the characteristics of gifted children and who have a chance to observe children In an Informal and challenging environment can give evidence that Is valuable In identifying the gifted． Teachers have dally opportunity to observe how skillfully children use language， how quickly they see rela tlons， how sensitive they are to things In their nvironment， how readily they learn， how easily they remember． Moreover， gifted children usually show outstanding resourcefulness and imagination， sustained attention， and wide Interests．
Classroom and playground also offer opportunities to identify children who get along exceptionally Well With others and handle frustrating situations with exceptional maturity. It is most reward-ing to study children?s Interaction in groups． However， teachers have been given little help In using these dally opportunities to identify and educate the socially gifted． Like parental observation， teacher observation also has its pit falls． So me teachers have a tendency to overrate the abilities of docile， obedient， conscientious children． Others fail to recognize potential giftedness that Is suppressed by emotional conflicts or by boredom with dull， routinized， teacher．dominated situations．
7. Most London colleges have a library, with a full-time or part-time librarian, who will be able to give
students information on the facilities available for consulting of borrowing books. In addition, the Public Libraries give a valuable service to students attending colleges, evening classed or working on their own. Public Libraries are maintained by the City Corporation and the various London Borough Councils. They will be helpful to students who wish to further their studies by using the comprehensive library services available in the metropolitan areas. These libraries have over five million books in stock, the majority of which are for loan, and there is a system of inter-availability of lending-library tickets which extends throughout the metropolitan area. Reference Department are provided for the use of those who wish to consult books and periodicals in library, or heavy publications such as encyclopedias which cannot be
taken out on loan. Public Library stocks are of a general nature, covering all subjects, many of them to higher degree standard of beyond. In addition, each public library in the metropolitan area specializes in a group of interrelated subjects and, through the cooperation between various libraries, their combined resources are made generally available. Moreover, through the inter-lending system of the British Library, it is usually possible for books not available in London public libraries to be obtained from specialist libraries. Music stocks, for example, include music writing and frequently records. Full details of these various services can be obtained from the Central Library in each area. Addresses and telephone numbers are listed in the London telephone directory.
8. In the United States, the first day nursery was opened in 1854. Nurseries
were established in various areas during the latter half of the 19th century; most of them were charitable. Both in Europe and in the U. S., the day nursery movement received great impetus during the First World War, when shortage of manpower caused the industrial employment of unprecedented numbers of women. In some European countries nurseries were established even in munitions plants, under direct government sponsorship. although the number of nurseries in the U.S. also rose sharply , this rise was accomplished without government aid of any kind. During the years following the First World War, however , Federal State, and local governments gradually began to exercise a measure of control over the day nurseries, chiefly by formulating them.
The outbreak of the Second World War was quickly followed by an increase in the number of day nurseries in almost all countries, as women were again called up on to replace men in the factories. On this occasion the U.S. government immediately came to the support of the nursery schools, allocating $ 6,000,000 in July, 1942, for a nursery school program for the children of working mothers. Many States and local communities supplemented this Federal aid. By the end of the war, in August, 1945, more than 100,000 children were being cared for in daycare centers receiving Federal subsidies .Soon afterward, the Federal government drastically cut clown its expenditures for this purpose and later abolished them, causing a sharp drop in the number of nursery schools in operation. However, the expectation that most employed mothers would leave their job at the end of the war was only partly fulfilled.
9. All Americans are at least vaguely familiar with the plight of the American Indian. Cutbacks in federal programs for Indians have made their problems plight more severe in recent years. Josephy reports， “even 1981 it was estimated that cutbacks in federal programs for Indians totaled about $500 million” or more than ten times the cuts affecting their by the end of fellow Americans. Additional cuts seem to be threatened in the future. This reduced funding is affecting almost all
aspects of reservation life，including education. If the Indians could solve their educational problems， solutions to many of their other problems might not be far behind. In this paper the current status of Indian education will be described and evaluated and some ways of improving this education will be proposed.
Whether to assimilate with the dominant American culture or to preserve Indian culture has been a longstanding issue in Indian education. After the Civil War full responsibility for Indian education was turned over by the government to churches and missionary groups. The next fifty years became a period of enforced assimilation in all areas of Indian culture， but especially in religion and education. John Collier， a reformer who agitated in favor of Indians and their culture form the early 1920s until his death in 1968， had a different idea. He believed that instead of effacing native culture， Indian schools should encourage and revitalize it.
Pressure to assimilate remains a potent force today，however . More and more Indians are graduating from high school and college and becoming eligible for jobs in the non-Indian society. “ When Indians obtain the requisite skills， many of them enter the broader American society and succeed. ”at present approximately 90 percent of all Indian children are educated in state public school systems. How well these children compete with the members of the dominant society，however，is another matter.
10. There is a general expectation that teachers can spot talented children and do something for them.
But studies have shown that teachers do not always recognize gifted children, even those with academic talent. In fact, they fail to identify from 10 to 50 percent of their gifted students.
The first step in identifying gifted students is determining the reason for finding them. If we want to choose a group of students for an advanced mathematics class, our approach would be different than if we are looking for students with high talent for a creative-writing program. Specific program needs and requirements, then, shape the identification process. Subjective evaluation-teacher judgment, parent referral--should be checked by standardized tests and other objective measures of ability. Any program for identifying gifted children in a school system should include both subjective and objective methods of evaluation Classroom behavior, for example, can point up children’’s ability to organize and use materials and reveal their potential for processing information better than can a test situation. Many aspects of creativity and verbal fluency are also best observed in a classroom or informal setting.
11. There are more than forty universities in Britain—nearly twice as many as in 1960s.During the 1960s eight completely new ones were founded, and ten other new ones were created by converting old colleges of technology into universities. In the same period the number of students more than doubled, from 70?000 to more than 200,000.By 1973 about 10% of men aged from eighteen twenty-one were in universities and about 5% of women. All the universities are private institutions. Each has its own governing councils, including some local businessmen and local politicians as well as a few academics(大学教师).The state began to give grants to them fifty years ago , and by 1970 each university derived nearly all its funds from state grants. Students have to pay fees and living costs, but every student may receive from the local authority of the place where he lives a personal grant which is enough to pay his full costs, including lodging and food unless his parents are rich. Most students takes jobs in the summer for about six weeks, but they do not normally do outside work during the academic year. The Department of Education takes responsibility for the payment which cover the whole expenditure of the universities , but it does not exercise direct control. It can have an important influence
on new developments through its power to distribute funds, but it takes the advice of the University Grants Committee, a body which is mainly composed of academics.
12. Urbanization and industrialization demanded new directions in education. Public
education， once a dream， now becomes a reality. Education was forced to meet new social changes. American society was getting much more complex； literacy became more essential. Secondary education， which had been almost totally in the hands of private individuals up to the time of the Civil War， gradually became a public concern. By the early 1900s there were over 7000 high schools， totaling an enrollment of over 1 million. Technological changes demand more vocational training. Subjects such as bookkeeping， typing， agriculture， woodworking， and metalworking were introduced into the curriculum. American education finally was becoming universal. Higher education also responded to the need for more and different education. The Morril Act of 1862 established state land grant colleges that taught agricultural methods and vocational subjects. While curriculums included a large number of required courses during the first two years of college， more elective subjects were added during the last two years. In 1876 Hopkins University instituted America‘s first graduate school for advanced study. In general， American education began to respond to the complexities of the industrial age and the need for a new focus in education.
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