单选题
The healthy adolescent boy or girl likes to do the real
things in life, to do the things that matter. He would rather be a plumber's
mate and do a real job that requires doing than learn about hydrostatics sitting
at a desk, without understanding what practical use they are going to be. A girl
would rather look after the baby than learn about child care. Logically we
should learn about things before doing them and that is presumably why the
experts enforce this in our educational system. But it is not the natural
way—nor, I venture to think, the best way. The adolescent wants to do things
first for only then does he appreciate the problems involved and want to learn
more about them. They do these things better in primitive life,
for there the adolescent boy joins his father in making canoes and going out
fishing or hunting. He is serving his apprenticeship in the actual
accomplishments of life. It is not surprising that anthropologists (人类学家) find
that the adolescents of primitive communities do not suffer from the same
neurotic (神经质的) "difficulties" as those of civilized life. This is not, as some
assume, because they are permitted more freedom, but because they are given more
natural outlets for their native interests and powers and allowed to grow up
freely into a full life of responsibility in the community. In
the 19th century this was recognized in the apprenticeship system, which allowed
the boy to go out with the master carpenter or thatcher, to engage in the actual
work of carpentry or roof-mending, and so to learn his trade. In some
agricultural colleges at the present time young men have to do a year's work on
a farm before their theoretical training at college. The great advantage of this
system is that lets the apprentice see the practical problems before he sets to
work learning how to solve them, and he can therefore take a more intelligent
interest in his theoretical work. Since more knowledge of more
things is now required in order to cope with the adult world, the period of
growing-up to independence takes much longer than it did in a more primitive
community, and the responsibility for such education, which formerly was in the
hands of the parents, is now necessarily undertaken by experts at school. But
that should not make us lose sight of the basic principle, namely the need and
the desire of the adolescent to engage responsibility in the real pursuits of
life and then to learn how to learn through responsibility, not to learn before
responsibility.
单选题
According to the author, what is the natural way of education?