Higher Education in the USA

UNIT 1

I. Before You Read

1 . Wise People Talk

Authors of the following quotations have different views on the system of education in America.

Discuss the quotations in groups. What is the goal of education in your view?

• Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day.

Thomas Jefferson

• Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of real education.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

• Educate the heart. Let us have good men.

Hiram Powers, American sculptor (1805-1873)

• The object of education is to prepare the young to educate themselves throughout their lives.

Robert Hutchins

• Education makes machines which act like men and produces men who act like machines.

E rich Fromm, American psychoanalyst

Phrase Bank

• I’d like us to talk briefly about…

• It’s no accident that…

• The dilemma may be even larger than that.

• You’re certainly correct to say that…

• What matters more, however, is that…

2. How knowledgeable are you in the history of the USA? Do the American History Quiz to find out.

1. The continent of America was discovered in …

1. 1571

2. 1776

3. 1812

4. 1492

2. The largest state in the USA is…

1. California

2. Texas

3. Alaska

4. New York

3. The number of stripes alternately red and white on the flag of the US is equal to the number of the original states. How many are there?

1. 50

2. 23

3. 13

4. 48

4. What city is the largest in the USA?

1. New York

2. Chicago

3. Los Angeles

4. Washington

5. The place where the US congress meets is called…

1. The Pentagon

2. Hollywood

3. The Capitol

4. The White House

6. On the list of the US presidents the incumbent head of the country G.W. Bush bears the number...

1. 27

2. 43

3. 57

4. 19

II. Read the text with an eye for the vocabulary units in bold; come up with their explanations and translations.

Higher education in the usa: the roots

liberal arts

higher education

minister

at public expense

the Ivy League

guideline

publicly supported and controlled

secular vs. religious

curriculum

alternative courses

vocationally oriented

state-maintained

graduate student

tuition

Americans have shown a great concern for education since early colonial times. Among the first settlers, in fact, there was an unusually high proportion of educated men. In the early 17^th century, colonist brought to North America their conceptions of higher education shaped by the liberal arts tradition of the medieval universities of Europe. In 1636 the Puritans established Harvard College to prepare ministers for the community. From 1640s on, Massachusetts required all towns with more than 50 families to provide a schoolmaster at public expense. Gradually, other colleges were established: Yale in Connecticut in 1701, Princeton in New Jersey in 1746. Nowadays, these institutions form the core of the Ivy League.

After the United States won its independence from England in 1783, the states that made up the new country began to establish state colleges: the University of Georgia was founded in 1785, the University of North Carolina in 1789.

The University of Virginia, founded under the leadership of Thomas Jefferson in 1819, marked the beginning of the modern style of state university. Following Jefferson’s guidelines, the university (1) was publicly supported and controlled, (2) was a secular rather than religious institution, (3) featured a modern and scientific curriculum while also offering traditional or classical programs, and (4) offered students the opportunity to follow several alternative courses of study rather than one prescribed curriculum.

In the mid-19th century, rather vocationally oriented state-maintained agricultural and mechanical colleges or universities emerged. In the late 19th century some universities in the United States were influenced by German research universities: professors highly trained in their academic specialties conducted original research in seminars with their graduate students.

In the early decades of the 20th century, the higher education system extended. The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, popularly known as the GI Bill, required the federal government to provide funds for tuition, fees, books, and supplies for veterans. More than 50,000 former servicemen and servicewomen used benefits from this program to attend colleges and universities. Today the pillars of higher education in the US are

• limited government control,

• equal opportunities,

• competitiveness,

• social mobility.