B2U1综合 Learning, Chinese-Style.pptVIP

Cultural Background Harvard Harvard College was established in 1636 by vote of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and was named for its first benefactor, John Harvard of Charlestown, a young minister who, upon his death in 1638, left his library and half his estate to the new institution. Motto: “Amicus Plato, Amicus Aristotle, sed Magis Amicus VERITAS.”（拉丁文） “与柏拉图为友，与亚里士多德为友，更要与真理为友。” “VERITAS”刻在校徽上，意为“与真理为友”。. John Harvard Statue The John Harvard Statue, located in front of University Hall (designed by Charles Bulfinch and completed in 1815), was cast in 1884 by Daniel Chester French (sculptor of the Lincoln Memorial) and is known as The Statue of Three Lies. Although the inscription reads John Harvard, Founder, 1638, none of these three statements is true. The seated figure is not really John Harvard, since no authentic pictures of Mr. Harvard existed; John Harvard was not the founder of Harvard College; and the College was founded in 1636. The statue is an immensely popular draw for tourists, and thousands of visitors a year rub John Harvards shoe for luck. Education in the West: There is no common agreement in the West concerning the best method of education. A variety of views can be found among parents, teachers and students. Indeed, it might be argued that it is this very existence of contending points of view that is characteristic of Western education. This can be seen as far back as in the work of the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates，who encouraged his students to question everything, even their most fundamental beliefs. Yet even then there was no general agreement that this was the best way to teach. Socrates, after all, was condemned to death by his fellow citizens for corrupting the morals of the young by his way of teaching. Many later periods of Western history were no more tolerant of encouraging students to challenge traditional beliefs: Darwin’s theory of evolution, for example, was for a time banned from schools