单选题 During the height of the anti-schooling movement in the middle 1960s, a new educational concept swept the land. Traditionally organized schools in both cities and suburbs seemed grossly inadequate to meet the needs of students. The "thunder on the left" mounted. Moderates who suggested adjustments and alternatives were shouted down. In the midst of a heady revolutionary atmosphere, new voices called for the destruction for schooling in its present form. The heroes of the new revolution were many. Jonathan Kozol"s account of life in an urban school system titled Death at an Early Age seared the conscience of the country. Herbert Kohl"s poignant account of Thirty-six Children electrified educators and laypersons alike with a grim and guilt-inducing portrait of the slow and painful destruction of schoolchildren. Similarly, Ivan Illich issued pronouncements that shook the very foundations of public education. Society, Illich declared, must be deschooled. Schools as we know them need to be eliminated. As institutions originally designed to educate, schools have failed and have become instead institutions of oppression. As a result, freedom is circumscribed rather than promoted.
On the basis of these ideas, some educators began to propose a new form, Free Schools. With A. S. Neill"s famous Summerhill school as a model, and Neill himself as a combination guru and patron saint, the new format began to spread like wildfire. Abandoned storefronts in central cities became mini-meccas for the new approach. The hills of rural countrysides sprouted tittle Summerhills. At one point, a cynic commented that if any more Free Schools were established in Vermont, they would soon have more pupils than cows. Even somewhat reserved suburban systems, which had traditionally seemed more like corporations than schools, set up small but nevertheless genuine Free Schools. Of course, such school systems did have to recruit a noticeably different faculty: those who would be at ease in overalls, surrounded by potter"s wheels, and physically capable of canoe trips. However, there was no dearth of applicants. Many of the factories of teacher education retooled and began recruiting and training a new breed of teacher in the spirit of the Peace Corps and the New Frontier. Young, idealistic college graduates largely from well-to-do backgrounds were attracted to the cause.
And a cause it was. Rhetoric and ideology abounded. The tough, ubiquitous, and almost unsolvable problems of education were miraculously solved. Throw out structure, lesson plans, schedules, textbooks, assignments, and, most of all, tests. Replace them with freedom. Teaching was seen as a process at the exclusive control and behest of the pupils. In this view, the adult never suggests and never, never coerces . Rather, the teacher waits, in some cases as long as two years, Neill noted, for pupil initiative. Then learning is organized by the pupils around their needs and desires.
So much for history. Where are we now? Is the Free School movement doomed? Some think so, including major rhetoricians like Kozol, who now travels the country with speeches filled with despair and pessimism. Others might say the movement itself was bound to fail, since it was a revolution without substance. In other words, the Free Schools know what was wrong but not what to do about it. The requisite educational theory was simply nonexistent. Thus, proclaiming the benefits of freedom was not the same as the educator"s task. To say was easy, to do was not. Extolling the virtues of a Che Guevara, the folk hero of the Cuban revolution, does grab one"s attention, but then what?
On the other hand, is the movement really dead? Free Schools are clearly in retreat, but could they simply be suffering a temporary setback? After all, the history of all revolutionary movements indicates that progress is never linear. Even the mighty French Revolution was followed by the Thermadorian reaction. Are we merely experiencing a temporary pause or short-term setback? The ideas are still in place and potentially just as compelling in the i980s as they were in the 1960s. Humans still yearn for freedom. The vision of pupils leading self-directing lives cannot help but remain attractively humanistic. Perhaps next time, the new leadership for Free Schools will have learned something from the failures of the recent past-namely, that effective education is something of a paradox, a balance between support and challenge. If Free School men and women are willing to forgo some of the excesses of rhetoric and genuinely grapple with the educator"s basic paradox, we may yet witness a rebirth. Then Free Schools may once again move to center stage as a controversial challenge to traditionally organized schooling.
单选题 Why did new voices call for the destruction of schooling in its present form?
【正确答案】 B
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单选题 Which of the following sentences is right?
A. With
【正确答案】 B
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单选题 In the third paragraph, the underlined coerce means ______.
【正确答案】 C
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单选题 Why do some people consider the Free School movement to be doomed?
【正确答案】 A
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单选题 The writer"s attitude toward Free School movement is ______.
【正确答案】 C
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