哈佛是一所失去灵魂的大学

哈佛是一所失去灵魂的大学EXCELLENCE WITHOUT A SOULHow a Great University Forgot EducationHARRY LEWISA Harvard professor and former Dean of Harvard College offers his provocative analysis of how America's great universities are failing students and the nationAmerica's great research universities are the envy of the world—and none more so than Harvard. Never before has the competition for excellence been fiercer. But while striving to be unsurpassed in the quality of its faculty and students, Universities have forgotten that the fundamental purpose of undergraduate education is to turn young people into adults who will take responsibility for society. In Excellence Without a Soul, Harry Lewis, a Harvard professor for more than thirty years and Dean of Harvard College for eight, draws from his experience to explain how our great universities have abandoned their mission. Harvard is unique; it is the richest, oldest, most powerful university in America, and so it has set many standards, for better or worse. Lewis evaluates the failures of this grand institution—from the hot button issue of grade inflation to the recent controversy over Harvard's handling of date rape cases—and makes an impassioned argument for change. The loss of purpose in America's great colleges is not inconsequential. Harvard, Yale, Stanford—these places drive American education, on which so much of our future depends. It is time to ask whether they are doing the job we want them to do.Harry Lewis, Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science and Harvard College professor, has been on the Harvard faculty for thirty-two years. He was Dean of Harvard College between 1995 and 2003 and chaired the College's student disciplinary and athletic policy committees. He has been a member of the undergraduate admissions and scholarship committee for more than three decades. Lewis lives in Brookline, Massachusetts.ExcerptAre universities doing what America wants them to do? What a question! First of all, the universities I am talking about are private institutions, and the government has no say in their curricula. Second, these universities have plenty of customers, so why worry about whether they are offering what people want? And third, isn't a point of academic freedom to insulate universities from the twists and turns of society's short-term demands? But this is a serious question. The great universities, the universities that educate a disproportionate share of the nation's future industrial, political, and judicial leaders, have a very hard time explaining the overall point of the education they offer. Anything resembling moral principles or suggestions of greater values has been isolated within the curriculumif not removed from it entirely. And, with the universities' eyes focused on lands beyond American borders, the democratic freedoms that have protected and nurtured them are barely acknowledged in what they teach. If the country is depending on Harvard to produce another Supreme Court nominee thirty years from now, the freshman class of 2009 is not off to a good start. The great universities are respected and certainly prized in America, but the public regards with increasing skepticism the values they represent and their failure sometimes to represent any values at all. As their cost zooms towards $50,000 per year and their intellectual content becomes more estranged from anything comprehensible to ordinary citizens, they will be regarded as sources of economic security for their graduates but not of intellectual or personal inspiration. And the critical judgments of educational quality and the downward pressure on costs that have been applied so vigorously to K-12 education may find their way to the university marketplace as well. Private universities have long been free from meddling by American society. But that freedom is part of a social contract. Universities are given freedom—and tax exemptions—because they serve American society. In a time of war, a war that seems much more real in most of America than it does in the 02138 zip code, will America continue to believe that the universities are holding up their end of the deal?A Note from HARRY LEWISEducation is not the same thing as classroom teaching. Over the years I have been at Harvard—nearly forty, if my student years are included—the quality of everything at the University has improved, except the most important thing. The students are smarter, the faculty more distinguished, even the pedagogy is better—but students are less challenged than ever to grow in wisdom and to become the responsible leaders on whom the fate of the nation will depend. The faculty and the student body have been on diverging paths for some time. The professors have become more and more narrow in expertise in order to secure tenure, and the student body is increasingly representative of all of America and beyond. In recent years the university has had its head turned ever more by consumerism and by public relations imperatives, to the detriment of its educational priorities for its students. In short, money and prestige rule over principle and reason. The anecdotes, examples and historical background in this book focus on Harvard, but the same broad trends exist at the other great research universities. Harvard is a case study of how the greatest universities have lost their educational souls at the same time as they have achieved dazzling excellence.Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:A Harvard professor and former Dean of Harvard College offers his provocative analysis of how America's great universities are failing students and the nation.America's great research universities are the envy of the world — and none more so than Harvard. Never before has the competition for excellence been fiercer. But while striving to be unsurpassed in the quality of its faculty and students, Universities have forgotten that the fundamental purpose of undergraduate education is to turn young people into adults who will take responsibility for society.In Excellence Without a Soul, Harry Lewis, a Harvard professor for more than thirty years and Dean of Harvard College for eight, draws from his experience to explain how our great universities have abandoned their mission. Harvard is unique; it is the richest, oldest, most powerful university in America, and so it has set many standards, for better or worse. Lewis evaluates the failures of this grand institution — from the hot button issue of grade inflation to the recent controversy over Harvard's handling of date rape cases — and makes an impassioned argument for change. The loss of purpose in America's great colleges is not inconsequential. Harvard, Yale, Stanford — these places drive American education, on which so much of our future depends. It is time to ask whether they are doing the job we want them to do.Review:"Lewis, former Dean of Harvard College, presents a biting, scattershot indictment of undergraduate education at America's flagship university. The curriculum, he contends, is a crazy quilt of courses that leaves students clueless as to what they should learn and why. Professors are ivory tower eggheads fixated on their narrow subspecialties and incapable of offering guidance about academics, career or character. And students, coddled by parents and plied by administrators with parties, pubs and concerts, remain dependent and infantilized instead of growing up. Lewis spares no one-least of all recently ousted Harvard President Lawrence Summers, a 'bully' whose administration combined 'arrogance' with 'lack of candor' and 'chaotic lurching'-and probes rarely-examined academic fundamentals (his comments on the meaninglessness of grades are especially incisive). Unfortunately, his remedies, like a sketchy proposal for general education courses, are vague at best. And while he deplores Harvard's failure to articulate 'what it means to be a good person,' his discussion of date rape-concluding that women should be encouraged to 'move on' and 'rise above severe trauma'-is an ethical muddle. Provocative and insightful, Lewis's call for an intellectually and morally coherent education does a much better job of raising important questions than answering them." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)Review:"Few universities face the negative publicity that Harvard does when recruiting students. Books and magazine articles abound with titles such as 'Harvard, Schmarvard' and 'Who Needs Harvard?,' urging students to resist being blinded by prestige and to find a college that better fits their own distinct social and intellectual profile.It doesn't matter. Year after year, no other university..." Washington Post Book Review (read the entire Washington Post review)Review:"Parents preparing to shell out a small fortune for their children's education will want to read Mr. Lewis's book as they ask themselves: What exactly are we paying for?" Wall Street JournalReview:"The Harvard Lewis shows us in Excellence Without a Soul is tone-deaf to the American Republic, whose liberties it relies on yet whose virtues it no longer nurtures." Boston Globeback to topAbout the AuthorHarry Lewis, Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science and Harvard College professor, has been on the Harvard faculty for thirty-two years. He was Dean of Harvard College between 1995 and 2003 and chaired the College's student disciplinary and athletic policy committees. He has been a member of the undergraduate admissions and scholarship committee for more than three decades. Lewis lives in Brookline, Massachusetts.。