初中生英语写作模板精品20篇

As the drawing presents, there is a man walking across the street absorbedly focusing on his cell phone without noticing the surroundings. This sort of phenomenon is not uncommon and rare in some metropolis, especially among the youngsters.

What the picture illustrates is the prevailing situation that has long existed in todays China. That is the mobile phone obsession. With the advent of information age, people are becoming increasingly fascinated on the electronic products, especially the cell phones. Not surprisingly, you could easily notice that most of us are obsessed in sending messages, playing online games with their mobile phones. It cannot be denied that this phenomenon may negatively impact the relationship among people, and therefore they will become estranged and isolated.

Personally, in view of the overuse of mobile phones, I hold that we individuals should raise the necessary awareness that good relationship are reinforced by sincere and face-to-face communication.

考研英语应用文写作范文之感谢信感谢信

结构要点感谢信是就某事向收信人表示感谢的信件，分为三个部分：

1． 指出对方帮助自己的事情，表示感谢；

2． 展开叙述这件事；

3． 再次感谢，并可表示希望回报对方。

Suppose your were recommended by Professor Sun to get further education in Yale University last June and now you have been admitted by that university. Write a letter to Professor Sun to express your gratitude in about 100 words. Do not sign your own name, using “Li Ming” instead.Dear Professor Sun,

I am writing to extend my gratitude to you—without your help I would not have been a postgraduate student of Applied Mechanics Department of Yale University.

Last June, you helped me with no reservation when I applied for Yale University. You wrote a recommendation letter for me to Professor W, the dean of the department. You gave me instructions on how to fill the application forms and write the application letters. Whats more, you also taught me how to take care of myself and get along with others, which I believe are lifes great lessons.

Your help enabled me to fulfill my dream to pursue my studies in a great university. In the following days I will remember what you have told me and work and study hard to be a capable, conscientious and responsible person.

Yours truly,

Li Ming

感谢信

语言注意点感谢信应充分表达自己的谢意，切不可给对方草率的印象。可借助谈对方的帮助来进一步表达感激之情。言辞应真挚、得体。

Suppose you were taken good care of by Aunt Sun when you pursued your studies in Los Angels where Sun lived. Write a letter in about 100 words to extend your appreciation. Do not

sign your own name, using “Li Ming” instead.Dear Aunt Sun,

It is a great pleasure to extend my sincere gratitude to you for your hospitality and consideration while I pursue my bachelors degree at University of California.

As soon as I arrived in Los Angeles, you found me an apartment near my university. When I met with difficulties you often sent your daughter to help me and when I felt homesick you often talked to me patiently. You told me how to improve my efficiency in both work and study and how to get on well with teachers and schoolmates. Furthermore, you invited me to dinner on nearly every weekend.

Without your help, I would not have graduated with honors and found a satisfactory job back here in China. I know I can never repay you for everything you have done for me in the past four years, but you can be sure that I

Best regards.

Yours faithfully,

Li Ming ll never forget it.

In my hometown, the scenery is very beautiful, as I am so close to the nature, I can see the scenery clearly. The house I live in is in front of the mountain, so I can see the sunset every day, that is the scenery is like to appreciate most.

When the dusk comes, the sunset is going down the mountain, I will stand in my garden, watching the sunset going down.

The sunset will become more and more red as it goes down the mountain, when the dark comes, the sunset will disappear. I like to watch the sunset, I feel I am so close to the nature and I blend myself in it.

在我的家乡，景色非常的优美，由于我是如此的接近大自然，因此我能清楚地看到景色。我所住的房子就在山的前面，因此我能每天看到日落，那也是我最喜欢欣赏的风景。当黄昏到来的时候，太阳就会下山，我会站在花园前，看着日落下山。日落在下山的时候会变得越来越红，当天黑了，日落就会消失。我很喜欢看日落，我觉得自己是如此的接近大自然，也融进了大自然。

[初中英语作文：傍晚的景色

描写家乡的变化初中英语范文篇一

Changes in My Hometown

My hometown used to be a backward place, because it was deep in the mountains, where there were no nice buildings and the roads were so narrow and dirty. People lived a poor life.

我的家乡过去是一个落后的地方，因为它在深山里面，那里没有漂亮的建筑物，公路也是又小又脏的。人们的生活都很贫苦。

While in recent years, with the development of society, my hometown has been greatly changed. Now the roads are getting much wider. There are many different cars and buses running on the roads. Trees and flowers are planted on the two sides of the roads. They can provide us with oxygen and fight against the pollutants. So the sky becomes cleaner and brighter. Whats more, you can see many modern and beautiful buildings everywhere, and the living conditions are improving. People are enjoying a comfortable life now.

近年来，随着社会的发展，我的家乡发生了很大的变化。现在的路是越来越大了。有许多不同的汽车和公交车在道路上运行。道路两边种满了树木和鲜花。他们可以为我们提供氧气，与污染物抗争。现在天空变得更清洁、更明亮。更重要的是，你随处可见到许多现代和美丽的建筑，人们的生活条件也得到了改善。现在人们在享受舒适的生活。

描写家乡的变化初中英语范文篇二

Great changes have taken place in my hometown for recent years.big department stores and factories are everywhere. Different kinds of cars and buses are running in the big streets.with the development of the society，The life of the us is greatly improved.

I used to live in a small house and small houese surround the whole city. the qaulity of our life is very low,people were always worried that they would have no money for using or they can not get what they like. we could seldom see any foreign tourists.

But now, with the support of the government . My hometown has developed quickly and has changed a lot.people are living in a rich and high quality society,almost each person has a car,the transportation is convinient,meanwhile. more and more high buildings are being built which brings our hometown a new look. many wonderful places have been opened up that attracts many tourists.

Also,the people in my hometown are getting busier, everywhere you can see peoples footprints.

描写家乡的变化初中英语范文篇三

In recent years, my hometown has changed greatly, because of new road and railway has been built. Previously, my hometown was closed to the outside world. Several years ago, the government paid much money on changing the basic equipment of my hometown. Building new roads is the biggest project. It took about half a year to build the new road. After finish, people have more methods to make money. And we have more communication with other places, which is a good way to develop ourselves. About two years latter, the railway was built. After that, there have been more and more changes happened in my hometown. Now, my hometown has developed into a big and rich town. People live a happy life.

最近几年，由于建成新的公路和铁路，我的家乡发生了很大的变化。以前，我的家乡与外界隔绝。几年前，政府花了大量资金改变家乡的基本设备。新建公路是最大的工程。新建公路大约花了半年时间。公路建成后，人们找到了更多赚钱的方法。而且，我们可以与其他地方互通，这是我们发展自己的好方法。大约两年后，铁路修好了。从那以后，我的家乡发生了越来越多的变化。现在，我的家乡已经变成一个富裕的大城镇。人民过着幸福的生活。

The teacher set up the summer homework. Good guy, that damned language

teacher actually call us to the 4th grade the old poem famous quote to copy 8

times! By this time, the roof of the classroom was "overturned". The students

were Shouting at each other. I myself comfort myself: nothing, dont copy 8

times, the big deal I make quick, still do not change plan.

Another day after that, my classmate xiao sheng called me to study

taekwondo with her. After the family discussed, I decided to let me go to

school. Then the cousin called again and said, "hello, yueyue, stay for a few

days during the summer vacation! I will teach you to draw pictures, by the way!"

"Really? Thats great! I must come!" By this time, I had forgotten to plan and

threw it out of the clouds.

When I look at the schedule, I have found that I am completely filled with

the schedule and time is not enough. How to do? Only a little bit of time... But

in comparison, none of them are free. That how to do? Can only be changed. What

better? Well, I only had a three-hour nap to learn taekwondo... That way, my

summer vacation will be "ample". What a bad summer!

My bedroom is not big but it is bright. Becauseeveryday the sunshine will come in. my bedroom is very simple. There just is abed, a desk and a wardrobe.

But I never feel my bedroom is empty, because it isthe place belongs to myself and full of my passion.

When I feel happy, I canlaugh in my bedroom. When I am sad, I can cry in it. I know that no one willbother me, as it is my private place. And every morning the sunshine comes in, Ifeel warm in my heart just seems that I see my promising future. I like mybedroom.

我的卧室不大但是很明亮。因为每天的阳光会照射进来。我的卧室很简单。这只有一张床，一张桌子和一个衣柜。但我从不觉得我的卧室是空的，因为它是属于我自己的地方，充满了我的喜怒哀乐。当我感到高兴，我可以在我的卧室大笑。当我感到伤心时，我可以在我的卧室里面哭。我知道没有人会来打扰我，因为这是我的私人地带。每天清晨的阳光照射进来时，我感到我的心都暖起来了，就像看到了我充满了希望的未来。我喜欢我的卧室.

[初中英语作文：我的卧室

English is one of my best subjects and I started learning English when I

was ten years old.

But at the very beginning, listening seemed a little difficult for me. So I

have been doing a lot of listening practice, such as listening to tapes,

watching English TV programs. And I found it really helped a lot. In fact, there

are some more helpful ways to learn English well. For example, I enjoy singing

English songs and I want to join an English club or find a pen pal from

English-speaking countries.

I believe that nothing is impossible if you put your heart into it.

As the world gets smaller with the development of technology, people

between different countries can learn different culture. They can find the

information from the Internet and most people learn the culture from media. But

the fact is that most media report the events in their perspective, which is not

showing the truth. So the best way for people to learn culture is to come to the

local place, staying for some time and talking to the local people, then they

will find what they learn is different from before. So the opinions from other

people and the media are just references. The truth is waiting for you to

find.

Happy summer vacation is coming, von teacher (tutor) gave me an essay:

"summer fun".

Filed a summer vacation, I will be very excited, because the summer can be

more happy, in retrospect, they like the movie playback in my head.

Photos, I looked at my to hainan emerge previous scenario in your mind:

that day, we will go to hainan! I was excited and happy, can fly again! That

night we came to the resort yalong bay, sanya in hainan, by plane arrived at the

hotel cooked cooked.

The next day, I to the sun, against the wind and the beauty of the scenery

beautiful had a stretch. I observed a look, my dad is still sleeping, but I

cant wait to go to dinner to the beach. I call my father. After dinner, we came

to the seaside. Im more comfortable sea breeze, waves.

We begin our "engineering", I took a shovel to dig a small hole and then

just center, because the water of the sea fall to dig around for me. And get a

shovel to give him one layer built a wall, tired of the sand can be high. Very

tired ah, look at me "big project" my heart very happy.

Oh, what a wonderful memory. I found that life is not good thing is much,

but to myself.

January 21

It was cooler than yesterday. One of my father’s friends invited me to eat red bayberries. You must know it is unusual. Because we will climb the hill to eat red bayberries. There is no chance to eat red bayberries in the hill for the people who don’t live in Beijing. On the hill, you can breathe the fresh air, you can listen birds singing and you can eat red bayberries. It was enjoyable. It is said there are wild pigs in the hill. What a beautiful natural.

January 22

Today I found time was a cruel thing. Whatever man is, time always goes on. It won’t stay to wait for somebody. You can’t use anything to exchange time. Time is also a fair thing. Although you have a lot of money or you enjoy high reputation, time won’t leave them more. Today I found I hadn’t enough time. Although I have 50-day holiday, but I found I had a lot of things to do. I had a lot of homework to do and I had something necessary to do.

January 23

I have rested for 10 days. In these days, I felt very bored. I didn’t know to do what. Although I had a lot of things to do, I felt uncomfortable. I was ill because of the cold weather. I was tired, sleepy and had no strength. My parents are worried about my health. in fact, it didn’t matter. I was always in the room with air-conditioner and opened it in a low temperature. So when I went out, the high temperature disagreed to me. Finally, I was ill.

what should we thank?

the thankful great universe provides the environment of existence for us and give us sunlight, air, water and everything in keeping with we existence of space, bring storm to let us accept to toughen for us, bring to us mysterious let us look for.

the thankful parents give us the life, make us feel the merriment of the human life, feel the genuine feeling of the human life, feel the comity of the human life, feel happiness of the human life, also feel hardships and pain and sufferings of the human life!

the thankful teacher works with diligence and without fatigue everyday of teach, give us knowledge ability, put on the wing which flies toward the ideal for us.

the thankful classmate and friend grows up road of, let i no longer standing alone in the itinerary of life; the with gratitude is frustrated and let us become in a time the failure stronger.

[感恩节英语作文写作

Childrens day is coming. I decided to do many things on that day.

First of all. That day we will get up early, came to the school, because we now is a junior high school student, so the school wont for us as the primary that give us after 61, although just top junior high school of time, but a little habits, half year after will probably already accustomed to junior middle school life. 61 will be here soon, and now we are facing tests sports add try. Also is in the June 1 day, I hope we can take an examination of teenager years is a good grades.

[儿童节初中英语作文

My plan for may day

On May 1sh, Im going to my grandmothers home.I think that must be very significative.Because she is too old to visit me and my parents, and she must be very have in mind our.

I will go for a walk with my grandmother and buy she some summer wears.they must fit her like best. Of course , I dont think that is a easy work! So it must takes me many time.

After shopping, we will have a good rest and have lunch in my grandmothers home.

And then, I will clean the home with my grandmother.

At last, I go home.

Of course, I must finish my homewolk.

[初中英语作文之我的五一计划

and I believe I can be successful.  How time flies! Today was the forth day since I came here. Everyday was different. Today Mr. Brodie let us Wtch a movie. It’s called “pride and prejudice”. The heroine was very beautiful and clever. The environment was beautiful too. The movie was interesting but I thought our teacher was more lovely than it. Miss Zhang taught us grammer. It was difficult but important. So we must learn it. It was important for us to learn English. It helped us to talk with foreigners. In the night， one day。

too. She’s a chemist and often works very late. Nevertheless， My family includes three people and a pet. These three people are my father。

and I can mostly understand her， she is always there to take care of me. Though her expectations for me are very high. I know she only wants what’s best for me. My cat， Pyramid and so on. How beautiful they are!for this reason。

if you want to walk with them side by side， we will have an exam about vocabulary. Our teacher said it was easy so I am sure I can do it well. 杨琳辉 A good day begins from the morning. In the whole morning， we watched “pride and predudice”. One is lovely and the other is lyrical. They enlarged my idea. I liked them very much. The afternoon was wonderful， and please feel free if you want to have fun with your classmates! There are only just 16 days left， though a few words are not known. I’ll try my best to follow my teacher and classmates and someday I can walk with them side by side， he can also be playful and funny. My mother is caring and hardworking。

I have grown up. I have ever seen many places of interests in the picture， is a member of my family， and I usually know what she wants us to do， and spread my happiness to everyone. At the age of 8， as the first word the teacher said to me。

such as I don’t know a lot of words。

but he always s firnds the time to cook dinner and help me with homework. Although he is strict at times。

my mother took me home. So I dreamt to open up a park and let many children play in it while day. But now， cookie， and I always do things slowly. My ears are not good， you should do it today! ， Great Wall。

but I’ve tried to catch every word the teacher says， that I couldn’t catch up with others，。

my mother 。

as the first smile appeared on my face， I felt a little afraid and uncomfortable. I was afraid that I wouldn’t be accepted here， including White House， and that I couldn’t understand new teachers and classmates. Now I know I was wrong. Just as the first class begin， that I would have problems getting on well with others， I went to an amusement park with my parents. There were many interesting and exciting things. I played happily. When I wanted to play another one， I always sang a song to my neighbours. When I finished， I realized I had been a ‘real’member of this class. But there are things I’m not yet used to， well， too. We read an article about hurricane. There were many new words in it. But we guessed their meaning from the context. I learned a new way to know new words. Today is great. Today I went to a new class.Here I met many new faces. At first， and I. I also have a cat named cookie. My father is hardworking and playful. He rus a small business at home. He is very busy。

I dreamt to be a traveller and travel round world. But I know “too many dreams stands for no dream”. So I must try my best to achieve one dream， I believe.

Mothers Day

Mothers Day comes on the second Sunday in May each year. On that day this year, I bought a sweater and some flowers for my mother to thank her for her hard work for me. Receiving my gift, my mother was very happy.

作文翻译：

母亲节是五月的第二个星期日。今年母亲节那天，我为母亲买了一件毛衣和一束鲜花作为礼物，感谢母亲为我付出的辛苦。母亲收到礼物后，非常高兴。

考辅P42

1. I gave Tom the book. ／／

2. He bought his mother some flowers. ／／

3. The bridge was built by workers last year.／／

4. We have to finish the work today. ／／5. He will do his homework tomorrow. ／／

6. We clean the rooms every day. ／／7. The writer spent 3 years on the book. ／／

8. It is a book with a lot of beautiful pictures.／／

9. The book sold very well during the first week. ／／first week.

10. Mary was the only one in the office. ／／

11. She finished her work at 10 o’clock. ／／She didn’12. She had to take a taxi home because it was too late.

13. Liza and Mike arrived at the Great Wall in two hours.

14. They were happy to get to the top.／／

15. They enjoyed themselves on the Great Wall.／／

16. The postman sent Susan and Tommy a paper box.

17. They opened it and found a present from their friend.

18. They both liked the present and felt very happy.

19. Alice didn’t feel well today, so she went to the hospital.

20. The doctor asked her some questions. ／／

21. The doctor didn’t give her any medicine in the end.

（全真１）

1. The capital Airport has been in use for 20 years. ／／

2. The capital Airport is the largest one in China. ／／

3. I have never taken a plane. My friend Li Ping , either. ／／

（全真２）

1. Father gave $20 for me to buy some books. ／／

2. I was excited when I saw so many good books in the bookstore.

3. But some books would cost more than I have. ／／

But I didn’／／（全真3）

1. Many Chinese friends went to the party. 2. Tony was given a lot of presents by his friends. ／／Tony’

3. Seeing his Chinese teacher at the party made Tony very happy. ／／（全真4）

1. I want to eat something. ／／2. The refrigerator is empty.／／3. Bob spent fifteen yuan on the hamburger. ／／／（全真5）

1. Mr.Wang doesn’t work in that factory any longer. ／／

2. Mr. Wang left home earlier in order to catch the bus. 3. Mr. Wang finds it not easy to get along with that young guy. ／／（专家1）

1. Many people went shopping yesterday.

2. Jane spent 4 hours to buy New year gifts. ／／

3. She was so tired that she couldn’t walk any longer. ／／

（专家2）

1. My friends said to me, “Are you free?”

2. She wanted me to go shopping with her.

3. She thinks it a pleasure to go shopping with a friend.

在学习英语写作之前先来看下练习写作对你的英文有什么样的帮助：

好处1、辅助提升口语语言组织力

好处2、提升语法

好处3、帮助背单词和句型。

了解到联系英语写作带来的好处后让我们来看看学习英语写作有哪些方法：

零基础英语写作入门方法一：背单词

单词是英语写作的基本构成之一，拥有大量的词汇才能写出你想要的文章，背单词有很多方法用mp3在零碎的时间边听边背边写，还有单词前后缀记忆法等众多方法，只要掌握其中一种适合你的方法，就开始大量的充实你的词汇吧。

零基础英语写作入门方法二：语法

语法是将单词串联在一起变成文章的那根线，学习好语法是整个英语阅读的重中之重。推荐熟读语法俱乐部，同时搭配大量的阅读自己感兴趣的文章，在大量的语境中去领受感悟本书的妙处。

零基础英语写作入门方法三：长时间的练习

写日记，这是最简单最长久的写作练习你不需要有任何的准备，这是你会接触到最基础的写作练习，你可以写任何你感兴趣的事情，你要做的就是拿起笔和本子把自已生活上的点点滴滴用英文记录下来。下面就是我的第一篇英文日记！

"today i rest,i stayed at home.sister call me go to the mother.i want not go there,because i must go to the company .去领 clothes.刚刚上完课come back.at home i find my 皮 shoes.now 要穿皮shoes了,write 日记好搞笑，还可以写点english了,i believe 以后 i sure i会更好。”

大家可能会看不懂这篇文章。你可能会觉得很好，说老实话当我现回过头去看我以前的日记我看了也觉得很好笑。但这就是我的第一篇英文日记，我的英文写作就是从这里开始的。你会发现写得非常直白，简直就是中文翻译毫无语法可言。但没有关系每个人开始都是这样的。

在写日记的开始阶段，你可能会像我这样不知道怎么去写或跟本无法组织语言，你可以像我这样按自已大脑里中文的想法去写，把会的单词都写上去不会的就用中文代替。在这个阶段你更多的是在使用你所学的词汇，有时候你会觉得这样很好玩。每天坚持写一篇，慢慢的你会发现你用的中文越来越少了有时候整篇文章都可以用英文写出来，随着你英语学习的进度不断推进，你在写句子的时候你不会直译了，你开始吧语法考虑到你的语言组织里面去。

当你要表边一个句子又找不到这个单词的时候，这种映像会深深的印在你的脑海里，当你在收集单词时候你就会注意收集那些非常实用的单词了。你会背更多的单词因为你想终有一天我的整篇文章是用英文写的。对于初期的写作，我认为就是这样写吧，请注意兴趣的培养。

初中英语写作技巧书面表达，首先要抓住所给的提示，然后运用所学词汇、语法及句型，避繁就简，简明表达要讲的内容。小编整理了初中英语写作技巧，欢迎阅读。

一、充分准备。打好基础。

为了提高书面表达水平，平时应加强阅读，应背诵一些句型、段落甚至短文。只要读得多、背得多，就能出口成章，下笔成文。其实，用英文写信，记日记等都是学生力所能及且行之有效的练习写作的好方法。

二、仔细审题，明确要求。

对题目所提供的信息要认真分析，明确要求，做到心中有数。要对所提供的信息加以分析、整理，使之更加具体化、条理化，为开始动笔做好准备工作，还要搞清题目的要求，以便根据不同的题材、体裁，写出不同格式，风格各异的文章，此外，还要注意人称、时态、地点等信息，避免出错。

三、抓住重点。寻求思路。

根据题目所提供的信息，草拟提纲，寻求逻辑次序，确定如何下手，否则，语无伦次的文章将不会被人接受，也不可能得到高分。

四、遣词造句，表达规范。

用词要适当，不可逐句把提示汉译英，亦不可生拼硬凑，不要硬拿英语单词到中文句子里去对号，否则写出中文式英语，闹出笑话。一般来讲，写作时，应尽量选出你有把握的词，尽量使用短句(简单句)。如果有的单词不会写，有的思想不会用英语表达，你可以设法绕开，最好找一个同义词、同义句，或近义词、词组短语来代替。要正确使用关联词，如and，or，but，so，because，since等，以便行文自然流畅。

五、修改润色，锦上添花。

作文写完之后，应注意检查修改，修改时先从全局修改。首先要检查主题是否明确，表达方式是否恰当，接下来检查所写内容是否切题，该交待的内容是否交待了，最后检查所用时态、人称是否符合要求，最后是否一致。

写完后，还应仔细校阅1—2遍。校阅要逐词逐句进行，注意检查语法、拼写、标点、大小写等方面的错误。校阅是自检的最后一关，应严肃认真的进行，尽可能地消灭一切差错，增强文章的效果。

因此，要写好一篇作文，不仅需要具有丰富的思想内容，掌握扎实的词汇、语法及修辞等方面的语言基本功，而且还需要掌握因不同思维方式和文化背景而形成的英语特有的篇章机构模式 惟有这样才能进行最有效的书面交际活动。

下面的材料旨在丰富学生在是非问题写作方面的思想和语言，考生在复习时可以先分类阅读这些篇章，然后尝试写相关方面的作文题。

对于素材中用黑体字的部分，特别建议你熟读，背诵，因为它们在语言和观点上都值得吸收。学习语言的人应该明白，表达能力和思想深度都靠日积月累，潜移默化。从某种意义上说，提高英语写作能力无捷径可走，你必须大段背诵英语文章才能逐渐形成语感和用英语进行表达的能力。这一关，没有任何人能代替你过。

因此，建议你下点苦功夫，把背单词的精神拿出来背诵文章。何况，并不是要求你背了之后永远牢记在心：你可以这个星期背，下个星期忘。这没有关系，相信你的大脑具有神奇的能力。背了工具箱里的文章后，你会惊讶的发现：I can think in English now！

1.?????? Proverbs

1. A graduation ceremony is an event where the commencement speaker tells thousands of students dressed in identical caps and gowns that individuality is the key to success.

2. The primary purpose of a liberal education is to make one’s mind a pleasant place in which to spend one’s time.

3. Next in importance to freedom and justice is popular education, without which neither freedom nor justice can be permanently maintained.

4. The classroom--not the trench--is the frontier of freedom now and forevermore.

5. Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.

6. It is the purpose of education to help us become autonomous, creative, inquiring people who have the will and intelligence to create our own destiny.

7. You see, real ongoing, lifelong education doesn’t answer questions; it provokes them.

8. People will pay more to be entertained than educated.

9.the most important function of education at any level is to develop the personality of the individual and the significance of his life to himself and to others. This is the basic architecture of a life; the rest is ornamentation and decoration of the structure.

10. The essence of our efforts to see that every child has a chance must be to assure each as equal opportunity, not to become equal, but to become different-to realize whatever unique potential of body, mind, and spirit he or she possesses.

11. A great teacher never strives to explain his vision-he simply invites you to stand beside him and see for yourself.

12. If you can read and don’, you are an illiterate by choice.

2. Damaging Research

A study by National Parent-Teacher Organization revealed that in the average American school, eighteen negatives are identified for every positive that is pointed out. The Wisconsin study revealed that when children enter the first grade, 80 percent of them feel pretty good themselves, but by the time they get to the sixth grade, only 10 percent of them have good self-images.

3. Education and Citizenship

An important aspect of education in the United States is the relationship between education and citizenship. Throughout its history this nation has emphasized public education as a means of transmitting democratic values, creating equality of opportunity, and preparing new generations of citizens to function in society. In addition, the schools have been expected to help shape society itself. During the 1950s, for example, efforts to combat racial segregation focused on the schools. Later, when the Soviet Union launched the first orbiting satellite, American schools and colleges came under intense pressure and were offered many incentives to improve their science and mathematics programs so that the nations would not fall behind the Soviet Union in scientific and technological capabilities.

Education is often viewed as a tool for solving social problems, especially social inequality. The schools, t is thought, can transform young people from vastly different backgrounds into competent, upwardly mobile adults. Yet these goals seem almost impossible to attain. In recent years, in fact, public education has been at the center of numerous controversies arising from the gap between the ideal and the reality. Part of the problem is that different groups in society have different have different expectations. Some feel that children should be taught basic job-related skills; still others believe education should not only prepare children to compete in society but also help them maintain their cultural identity (and, in the case of Hispanic children, their language). On the other hand, policymakers concerned with education emphasize the need to increase the level of student achievement and to improve parents in their children’s education.

Some reformers and critics have called attention to the need to link formal schooling with programs designed to address social problems. Sociologist Charles Moscos, for example, is a leader in the movement to expand programs like the Peace Corps, Vista, and Outward Bound into a system of voluntary national service. National service, as Moscos defines it, would entail “the full-time undertaking of public duties by young people whether as citizen soldiers or civilian servers-who are paid subsistence wages” and serve for at least one year. In return for this period of service, the volunteers would receive assistance in paying for college or other educational expenses.

Advocates of national service and school-to-work programs believe that education does not have to be confined to formal schooling. In devising strategies to provide opportunities for young people to serve their society, they emphasize the educational value of citizenship experiences gained outside the classroom. At this writing there is little indication that national service will become a new educational institution in the United States, although the concept is steadily gaining support among educators and social critics.

4. The Teacher’s Role

Given the undeniable importance of classroom experience, sociologists have done a considerable amount of research on what goes on in the classroom. Often they start from the premise that, along with the influence of peers, students’ experiences in the classroom are of central importance to their later development. One study examined the impact of a single first-grade teacher on her students’ subsequent adult status. The surprising results of this study have important implications. It is evident that good teachers can make a big difference in children’s lives, a fact that gives increased urgency to the need to improve the quality of primary-school teaching. The reforms carried out by educational leaders like James Comer suggest that when good teaching is combined with high levels of parental involvement the results can be even more dramatic.

Because the role of the teacher is to change the learner in some way, the teacher-student relationship is an important part of education. Sociologists have pointed out that this relationship is asymmetrical or unbalanced, with the teacher being in a position of authority and the student having little choice but to passively absorb the information provided by the teacher. In other words, in conventional classrooms there is little opportunity for the students to become actively involved in the learning process. On the other hand, students often develop strategies for undercutting the teacher’s authority: mentally withdrawing, interrupting, and the like. Hence, much current research assumes that students and teachers influence each other instead of assuming that the influence is always in a single direction.

5. Education Philosophy

For the past fifty years our schools have operated on the theories of John Dewey (1859-1953), an American educator and writer. Dewey believed hat the school’s job was to enhance the natural development of the growing child, rather than to pour information, for which the child had no context, into him or her. In the Dewey system, the child becomes the active agent in his own education, rather than a passive receptacle for facts.

Consequently, American schools are very enthusiastic about teaching “life skills” –logical thinking, analysis, creative problem--solving. The actual content of the lessons is secondary to the process, which is supposed to train the child to be able to handle whatever life may present, including all the unknowns of the future. Students and teachers both regard pure memorization as an uncreative and somewhat vulgar.

In addition to “life skills”, schools are assigned to solve the ever growing stoke of social problems. Racism, teenage pregnancy, alcoholism, drug use, reckless driving, and are just a few of the modern problems that have appeared on the school curriculum.

This all contributes to a high degree of social awareness in American youngsters.

6. Student Life

To the students, the most notable difference between elementary school and the higher levels is that in junior high they start “changing classes”. This means that rather than spending the day in one classroom, they switch classrooms to meet their different teachers. This gives them three or four minutes between classes in the hallways, where a great deal of the important social action of high school traditionally takes place. Students have lockers in these hallways, around which thy congregate.

Society in general does not take the business of studying very seriously. Schoolchildren have a great deal of free time, which they are encouraged to fill with extracurricular activities—sports, clubs, cheerleading, scouts—supposed to inculcate such qualities as leadership, sportsmanship, ability to organize, etc. those who don’t become engaged in such activities or have afterschool jobs have plenty of opportunity to “hang out”, listen to teenager music, and watch television.

Compared to other nations, American students do not have much homework. Studies also show that American parents have lower expectations for their children’s success in school than other nationalities do. (Historically, there has not been much correlation between American school success and success in later life.) “He’s just not a scholar”, the American parents might say, content that their son is on the swim team and doesn’t take drugs. (Some of the young do choose to study hard, for reason of their own, such as determining that the road to riches lies through Harvard Business School.)

What American schools do effectively teach is the competitive method. In innumerable ways children are pitted against each other—whether in classroom discussion, spelling bees, reading groups, or tests. Every classroom is expected to produce a scattering of A’s and F’s (teachers often grade A=excellent; B=good; C=average; D=poor; and F=failed). A teacher who gives all A’s looks too soft—so students are aware that they are competing for the limited number of top marks.

Foreign students sometimes don’t understand that copying from other people’s papers or from books is considered wrong and taken seriously. Here, it is important to show that you have done your own work and are displaying your own knowledge. It is more important than helping your friends to pass, whom we think do not deserve to pass unless they can provide their own answers. Group effort goes against the competitive grain, and American students do not study together as many Asians do. Many Asians in this country consider their group study habits a large contributor to their school success.

7. Adult Education

After complaining about many aspects of American life, a 40-year-old woman from Hong Kong concluded, “But where else could someone my age go back to school and get a degree in social work? Here you can change your whole life, start a new business, do what you really want to do.”

So at least to this person, school requirements weren’t inhibiting. And to millions of others, adult education is the path to a new career, or if not to a new career, to a new outlook. Schools generally encourage the older person who wants to start anew, and besides regular classes, schedule evening classes in special programs. Today there are so many people of retirement age in college that it is no longer remarkable.

8. Moral Relativism in American

Improving American education requires not doing new things but doing (and remembering) some good old things. At the time of our nation’s founding, Thomas Jefferson listed the requirements for a sound education in the Report of the Commissioners for the University of Virginia. In this landmark statement on American education, Jefferson wrote of the importance of education and writing, and of reading history, and geography. But he also emphasized the need “to instruct the mass of our citizens in these, their rights, interests, and duties, as men and citizens.” Jefferson believed education should aim at the improvement of both one’s “morals” and “faculties”. That has been the dominant view of the aims of American education for over two centuries. But a number of changes, most of them unsound, have diverted schools from these great pursuits. And the story of the loss of the school’s original moral mission explains a great deal.

Starting in the early seventies, “values clarification” programs started turning up in schools all over America. According to this philosophy, the schools were not to take part in their time-honored task of transmitting sound moral values; rather, they were to allow the child to “clarify” his own values (which adults, including parents, had no “rights” to criticize). The “values clarification” movement didn’t clarify values; it clarified wants and desires. This form of moral relativism said, in effect, that no set of values was right or wrong; everybody had an equal right to his own values; and all values were subjective, relative, and personal. This destructive view took hold with a vengeance.

In 1985 The York Times published an article quoting New York area educators, in slavish devotion to this new view, proclaiming, “They deliberately avoid trying to tell students what is ethically right and wrong.” The article told of one counseling session involving fifteen high school juniors and seniors. In the course of that session a student concluded that a fellow student had been foolish to return one thousand dollars she found in a purse at school. According to the article, when the youngsters asked the counselor’s opinion, “He told them he believed the girl had done the right thing, but that, of course, he would not try to force his values on them. ‘If I come from the position of what is wrong,’ he explained, ‘then I’m not their counselor.’”

Once upon a time, a counselor offered counselor, and he knew that an adult does not form character in the young by taking a stance of neutrality toward questions of right and wrong or by merely offering “choices” or “options”.

In response to the belief that adults and educators should teach children sound morals, one can expect from some quarters indignant objections (I’ve heard one version of it expressed countless times over the years): “Who are you to say what’s important?” or “Whose standards and judgments do we use?”

The correct response, it seems to me, is, is we ready to do away with standards and judgments? Is anyone going to argue seriously that a life of cheating and swindling is as worthy as a life of honest, hard work? Is anyone (with the exception of some literature professors at our elite universities) going to argue seriously the intellectual corollary, that a Marvel comic book is as good as Macbeth? Unless we are willing to embrace some pretty silly position, we’ve got to admit the need for moral and intellectual standards. The problem is that some people tend to regard anyone who would pronounce a definitive judgment as an unsophisticated Philistine or a closed-minded “elitist” trying to impose his view on everybody else.

The truth of the real world is that without standards and judgments, there can be no progress. Unless we are prepared to say irrational things—that nothing can be proven more valuable than anything else or that everything is equally worthless—we must ask the normative question. It may come, as a surprise to those who fell that to be “progressive” is to be value-neutral. But as Matthew Amold said, “the world is forwarded by having its attention fixed on the best things” and if the world can’t decide what the best things are, at least to some degree, then it follows that progress, and character, is in trouble. We shouldn’t be reluctant to declare that some things, some lives, books, ideas, and values are better than others. It is the responsibility of the schools to teach these better things.

At one time, we weren’t so reluctant to teach them. In the mid-nineteenth century, a diverse, widespread group of crusaders began to work for the public support of what was then called the “common school”, the forerunner of the public school. They were to be charged with the mission of school felt that the nation could fulfill its destiny only if every new generation was taught these values together in a common institution.

The leaders of the common school movement were mainly citizens who were prominent in their communities—businessmen, ministers, local civic and government officials. These people saw the schools as upholders of standards of individual morality and small incubators of civic and personal virtue; the founders of the public schools had faith that public education could teach good moral and civic character from a common ground of American values.

But in the past quarter century or so, some of the so-called experts became experts of value neutrality, and moral education was increasingly left in their hands. The commonsense view of parents and the publicthat schools should reinforce rather than undermine the values of home, family, and country, was increasingly rejected.

There are those today still that claim we are now too diverse a nation, that we consist of too many competing convictions and interests to instill common values. They are wrong. Of course we are a diverse people. We have always been a diverse people. And as Madison wrote in FederalistNo.10, the competing, balancing interests of a diverse people can help ensure the survival of liberty. But there are values that all American citizens share and that we should want all American students to know and to make their own: honesty, fairness, self-discipline, fidelity to task, friends, and family, personal responsibility, love of country, and belief in the principles of liberty, equality, and the freedom to practice one’s faith. The explicit teaching of these values is the legacy of the common schools, and it is a legacy to which we must return.

9. Schools Should Teach Values

People often said, “Yes, we should teach these values, but how do we teach them?” this question deserves a candid response, one that isn’t given often enough. It is by exposing our children to good character and inviting its imitation that we will transmit to them a moral foundation. This happens when teachers and principals, by their words and actions, embody sound convictions. As Oxford’s Mary Warnock has written, “You cannot teach morality without being committed to morality yourself; and you cannot be committed to morality yourself without holding that some things are right and others wrong.” The theologian Martin Buber wrote that the educator is distinguished from all other influences “by his will to take part in the stamping of character and by his consciousness that he represents in the eyes of the growing person a certain selection of what is, the selection of what is ‘right’, of what should be.” It is in this will, Buber says, in this clear standing for something, that the “vocation as an educator finds its fundamental expression.”

There is no escaping the fact that young people need as example principals and teachers who know the difference between right and wrong, good and bad, and who themselves exemplify high moral purpose.

As Education Secretary, I visited a class at Waterbury Elementary School in Waterbury, Vermont, and asked the students, “Is this a good school?” They answered, “Yes, this is a good school.” I asked them, “Why?” Among other things, one eight-year-old said, “The principal Mr. Riegel, makes good rules and everybody obeys them.” So I said, “Give me an example.” And another answered, “You can’t climb on the pipes in the bathroom. We don’t climb on the pipes and the principal doesn’t either.”

This example is probably too simple to please a lot of people who want to make the topic of moral education difficult, but there is something profound in the answer of those children, something education should pay more attention to. You can’t expect children to take messages about rules or morality seriously unless they see adults taking those rules seriously in their day-to-day affairs. Certain must be said, certain limits lay down, and certain examples set. There is no other way.

We should also do a better job at curriculum selection. The research shows that most “values education” exercises and separate courses in “moral reasoning” tend not to affect children’s behavior; if anything, they may leave children morally adrift. Where to turn? I believe our literature and our history are a rich quarry of moral literacy. We should mine that quarry. Children should have at their disposal a stock of examples illustrating what we believe to be right and wrong, good and bad—examples illustrating what are morally right and wrong can indeed be known and that there is a difference.

What kind of stories, historical events, and famous lives am I talking about? If we want our children to know about honesty, we should teach them about Abe Lincoln walking three miles to return six cents and conversely, about Aesop’s shepherd boy who cried wolf if we want them to know about courage, we should teach them about Joan of Arc, Horatius at the bridge, and Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad. If we want them to know about persistence in the face of adversity, they should know about the voyages of Columbus and the character of Washington during the Civil War. And our youngest should be told about the Little Engine That Could. If we want them to know about respect for the law, they should understand why Socrates told Crito: “No, I must submit to the decree of Athens.” If we want our children to respect the rights of others, they should read the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, the Gettysburg Address, and Martin Luther King, Jr.’ “Letter from Birmingham jail.” From the Bible they should know about Ruth’s loyalty to Naomi, Joseph’s forgiveness of his brothers, Jonathan’s friendship with David, the Good Samaritan’s kindness toward a stranger, and David’s cleverness and courage in facing Goliath.

These are only a few of the hundreds of examples we can call on. And we need not get into issues like nuclear war, abortion, creationism, or euthanasia. This may come as a disappointment to some people, but the fact is that the formation of character in young people is educationally a task different from, and prior to, the discussion of the great, difficult controversies of the day. First things come first. We should teach values the same way we teach other things: one step at a time. We should not use the fact that there are many difficult and controversial moral questions as an argument against basic instruction in the subject.

After all, we do not argue against teaching physics because laser physics is difficult, against teaching American history because there are heated disputes about the Founders’ intent. Every field has its complexities and its controversies. And every field has its basics, its fundamentals. So they are too with forming character and achieving moral literacy. As any parent knows, teaching character is a difficult task. But it is a crucial task, because we want our children to be healthy, happy, and successful but decent, strong, and good. None of this happens automatically; there is no genetic transmission of virtue. It takes the conscious, committed efforts of adults. It takes careful attention.

10. College Pressures

Mainly I try to remind that the road ahead is a long one and that it will have more unexpected turns than they think. There will be plenty of time to change jobs, change careers, change whole attitudes and approaches. They don not want to hear such liberating news. They want a map—right now – that they can follow unswervingly to career security, financial security, Social Security and, presumably, a prepaid grave.

What I wish for all students is some release from the clammy grip of the future. I wish them a chance to savor each segment of their education as an experience in itself and not as a grim preparation for the next step. I wish them the right to experiment, to trip and fall, to learn that defeat is as instructive as victory and is not the end of the world.

My wish, of course, is na?ve. One of the national gods venerated in our media—the million-dollar athlete, the wealthy executive—and glorified in our praise of possessions. In the presence of such a potent state religion, the young are growing up old.

I see four kinds of pressure working on college students today: economic pressure, parental pressure, peer pressure, and self-induced pressure. It is easy to look around for villains—to blame the colleges for charging too much money, the professors for assigning too much work, the parents for pushing their children too far, and the students for driving themselves too hard. But there are no villains: only victims.

“In the late 1960s.” one dean told me. “The typical question that I got from students was ‘Why is there so much suffering in the world’ or ‘how I can make a contribution?’ Today it’s ‘Do you think it would look better for getting into law school if I did a double major in history and political science, or just majored in one of them?’” many other deans confirmed this pattern. One said: “They are trying to find an edge—the intangible something that will look better on paper if two students are about equal.”

Note the emphasis on looking better. The transcript has become a sacred document, the passport to security. How one appears on paper is more important than how one appears in person. A is for Admirable and B is for Borderline, even though, in Yale’s official system of grading, A means “excellent” and B means “very good.” Today, looking very good is no longer good enough, especially for students who hope to go on to law school or medical school. They know that entrance into the better schools will be an entrance into the better law firms and better medical practices where they will make a lot of money. They also know that the odds are harsh. Yale Law School, for instance, matriculates 170students from an applicant pool of 3,700; Harvard enrolls 550 from a pool of 7,000.

It’s all very well for those of us who write letters of recommendation for our students to stress the qualities of humanity that will make them good lawyers or doctors. And it’s nice to think that admission officers are ready reading our letters and looking for the extra dimension of commitment or concern. Still, it would be hard for a student not to visualize these officers shuffling so many transcripts studded with As that they regard a B as positively shameful.

The pressure is almost as heavy on students who just want to graduate and get a job. Long gone are the days of the “gentleman’s C.” when students journeyed through college with a certain relaxation, sampling a wide variety of courses-music, art, philosophy, classics, anthropology, poetry, religion—that would send them out as liberally educated men and women. If I were an employer I would rather employ graduates who have this range and curiosity than those who narrowly pursued safe subjects and high grades. I know countless students whose inquiring minds exhilarate me. I like to hear the play of their ideas. I do not know if they are getting As or Cs, and I do not care. I also like them as people. The country needs them, and they will find satisfying jobs. I tell them to relax. They cannot.

Nor can I blame them. They live in a brutal economy. Tuition, room, and board at most private colleges now come to at least $7,000, not counting books and fees. This might seem to suggest that the colleges are getting rich. But they are equally battered by inflation. Tuition covers only 60 percent of what it costs to educate a student, and ordinarily the remainder comes from what college receives in endowments, grants, and gifts. Now, the remainder keeps being swallowed by the cruel costs—higher every year—of just opening the doors. Heating oil is up. Insurance is up. Postage is up. Health-premium costs are up. Everything is up. Deficits are up. We are witnessing in American the creation of a brotherhood of paupers—colleges, parents, and students, joined by the common bond of debt.

Today it is not unusual for a student, even if he works part time at college and full time during the summer, to accrue $5,000 in loans after four years—loans that he must start to repay within one year after graduation. Exhorted at commencement to go forth into the world, he is already behind as he goes forth. How could he not feel under pressure throughout college to prepare for this day of reckoning? I have used “he,” incidentally, only for brevity. Women at Yale are under no less pressure to justify their expensive education to themselves, their parents, and society. In fact, they are probably under more pressure. For although they leave college superbly equipped to bring fresh leadership to traditionally male jobs, society has not yet caught up with this fact.

Along with economic pressure goes parental pressure. Inevitably, the two are deeply intertwined.

I see many students taking pre-medical courses with joyless tenacity. They go off to their labs as if they were going to the dentist. It saddens me because I know tem in other corners of their life as cheerful people.

“Do you want to medical school?” I asked them.

“I guess so,” they say, without conviction, or “Not really.”

“Then why are you going?”

“Well, my parents want me to be a doctor. They are paying all this money and …”

Poor students, poor parents, they are caught in one of the oldest webs of love and duty and guilt. The parents mean will; they are trying to steer their sons and draughts toward a secure future. But the sons and daughter want to major in history or classics or philosophy—subjects with no “practical” value. Where’s the payoff on the humanities? It’s not easy to persuade such loving parents that the humanities do indeed pay off. The intellectual faculties developed by studying subjects like history and classics—an ability to synthesize and relate, to weigh cause and effect, to see events in perspective—are just the faculties that make creative leaders in business or almost any general field. Still, many fathers would rather put their money on courses that point toward specific profession—courses that are pre-law, pre-medical, pre-business, or, as I sometimes heard it put, “pre-rich.”

But the pressure on students is severe. They are truly torn. One part of them feels obliged to fulfill their parents’ expectations; after all, their parents are older and presumably wiser. Another part tells them that the expectations that are right for their parents are not right for them.

I know a student who wants to be an artist. She is very obviously an artist and will be a good one—she has already had several modest local exhibits. Meanwhile she is growing as a well-round person and taking humanistic subjects that will enrich the inner resources out of which her art will grow. But her father is strongly opposed. He thinks that an artist is a “dumb” thing to be. The student vacillates and tries to please everybody. She keeps up with her art somewhat furtively and takes some of the “dumb” courses her father wants her to take—at least they are dumb courses for her. She is a free spirit on a campus of tense students—no small achievement in it—and she deserves to follow her muse.

Peer pressure and self-induced pressure are also intertwined, and they begin almost at the beginning of freshman year.

“I had a freshman student I’ll call Linda,” one dean told me, “who came in and said she was under terrible pressure because her roommate, Barbara, was much brighter and studied all the time. I could not tell her that Barbara had come in two hours earlier to say the same thing about Linda.”

The story is almost funny—except that it is not. It is symptomatic of all the pressure put together. When every student thinks every other student is working harder and doing better, the only solution is to study harder still. I see students going off to the library every night after dinner and coming back when it closes at midnight. I wish they would sometimes forget about their peers and go to a movie. I hear the clacking of typewriters in the hours before dawn. I see the tension in their eyes when exams are approaching and papers are due: “Will I get everything done?”

Probably they won’t. They will get blocked. They will sleep. They will oversleep. They will bug out.

Part of the problem is that they are expected to do. A professor will assign five page papers. Several students will start writing ten page papers to impress him. Then more students will write ten page papers, and a few will raise the ante to fifteen. Pity the poor student who is still just doing the assignment.

“Once you have twenty or thirty percent of the student population deliberately overexerting,” one dean points out, “It’s bad for everybody. When a teacher gets more and more effort from his class, the student who is doing normal work can be perceived as not doing well. The tactic work, psychologically.”

Why cannot the professor just cut back and not accept longer papers? He can, and he probably will. But by then the term will be half over and the damage done. Grade fever is highly contagious and not easily reversed. Besides, the professor’s main concern is with his course. He knows his students only in relation to the course and does not know that they are also overexerting in their other courses. Nor is it really his business. He did not sign up for dealing with the student as a whole person and with all the emotional baggage the student brought along from home. That’s what deans, masters, chaplains, and psychiatrists are for.

To some extent this is nothing new: a certain number of professors have always been self-contained islands of scholarship and shyness, more comfortable with books than with people. But the new pauperism has widened the gap still further, for professors who actually like to spend time with students do not have as much time to spend. They are also overexerting. If they are young, they are busy trying to publish in order not to perish, hanging by their figure nails onto a shrinking profession.

If they are old and tenured, they are buried under the duties of administering departments—as departmental chairmen or members of committees—that have been thinned out by the budgetary axe.

Ultimately it will be the students’ own business to break the circles in which they are trapped. They are too young to be prisoners of their parents’ dreams and their classmates’ fears. They must be jolted into believing into themselves as unique men and women who have the power to shape their own future.

“Violence is being done to the undergraduate experience,” says Carlos Hortas. “College should be open-ended: at the end it should open many, many roads. Instead, students are choosing their goal in advance, and their choices narrow as they go along. It’s almost as if they think that the country has been codified in the type of jobs that exist-that they’ve got to fit into certain slots. Therefore, fit into the best paying slot.”

“They ought to take chances. Not taking chances will lead to life of colorless mediocrity. They’ll be comfortable. But something in the spirit will be missing.”

I have painted too drab a portrait of today’s students, making them seem a solemn lot. That is only half of their story; if they were so dreary I wouldn’t so thoroughly enjoy their company. The other half is that they are easy to like. They are quick to laugh and to offer friendship. They are not introverts. They are usually kind and are more considerate of one another than any student generation I have known.

Nor are they so obsessed with their studies that they avoid sports and extracurricular activities. On the contrary, they juggle their crowded hours to play on a variety of teams, perform with musical and dramatic groups, and write for campus publications. But this in turn is one more cause of anxiety. There are too many choices. Academically, they have 1,300 courses to select from; outside class they have to decide how much spare time they can spare and how to spend it.

This means that they engage in fewer extracurricular pursuits than their predecessors did. If they want to row on the crew and play in the symphony they will eliminate one; in the ‘60s they would have done both. They also tend to choose activities that are self-limiting. Drama, for instance, is flourishing in all twelve of Yale’s residential colleges, as it never has before. Students hurl themselves into these productions—as actors, directors, carpenters, and technicians—with a dedication to create the best possible play, knowing that the day will come when the run will end and they can get back to their studies.

They also cannot afford to be the willing slave of organizations like the Yale Daily News. Last spring at the one-hundredth anniversary banquet of that paper—who’s past chairmen include such once and future kings as Potter Stewart, Kingman Brewster, and William F. Buckley, Jr.—much was made of the fact that the editorial staff used to be small and totally committed and that “newsies” routinely worked fifty hours a week. In effect they belonged to a club; Newsies is how they defined themselves at Yale. Today’s students will one or two articles a week, when he can, and he defines himself as a student. I’ve never heard the word Newsie except at the banquet.

If I have described the modern undergraduate primarily as a driven creature who is largely ignoring the blithe spirit inside who keeps trying to come out and play, it’s because that’s where the crunch is, not only at Yale but throughout American education. It’s why I think we should all be worried about the values that are nurturing a generation so fearful of risk and so goal-obsessed at such an early age.

I tell students that there is no one “right” way to get ahead—that each of them is a different person, starting from a different point and bound for a different destination. I tell neither them that change is a tonic and that all the slots are not codified nor the frontiers closed. One of my ways of telling them is to invite men and women who have achieved success outside the academic world to come and talk informally with my students during the year. They are heads of companies or ad agencies, editors of magazines, politicians, public officials, television magnates, labor leaders, business executives, Broadway products, artists, writers, economists, photographers, scientists, historians—a mixed bag of achievers.

I asked them to say a few words about how they got started. The students assume that they started in their present profession and knew all along that it was what they wanted to do. Luckily for me, most of them got into their field by a circuitous route, to their surprise, after many detours. The students are startled. They can hardly conceive of a career that was not pre-planned. They can hardly imagine allowing the hand of God or chance to nudge them down some unforeseen trail.

11. To Err Is Wrong

In the summer of 1979, Boston Red Sox first baseman Carl Yastrzemski became the fifteenth player in baseball history to reach the three thousand hit plateaus. This event drew a lot of media attention, and for about a week prior to the attainment of this goal, hundreds of reports covered Yaz’s every more. Finally, one reporter asked, “Hey Yaz, aren’t you afraid all of this attention will go to your head?” Yastrzemski replied, “I look at this way: in my career I’ve been up to bat over ten thousand times. That means I’ve been unsuccessful at the plate over seven thousand times. That fact alone keeps me from getting a swollen head.”?

Most people consider success and failure as opposites, but they are actually both products of the same process. As Yaz suggest, an activity that produces a hit may also produce a miss. It is the same with creative thinking; the same energy that generates good creative ideas also produces errors.

Many people, however, are not comfortable with errors. Our educational system, based on “the right answer” belief, cultivates our thinking in another, more conservative way. From an early age, we are taught that right answers are good and incorrect answers are bad. This value is deeply embedded in the incentive system used in most schools:

Right over 90% of the time = “A”

Right over 80% of the time = “B~”

Right over 70% of the time = “C~” Right over 60% of the time = “D~” Less than 60% correct, you fail.

From this we learn to be right as often as possible and to keep our mistakes to a minimum. We learn, in other words, that “to err is wrong.

Playing It Safe

With this kind of attitude, you aren’t going to be taking too many chances. If you learn that failing even a litter penalizes you (e.g., being wrong only 15% of the time garners you only a “B” performance), you learn not to make mistakes. And more important, you learn not to put yourself to situation where you might fall. This leads to conservative thought pattern designed to avoid the stigma our society puts on “failure”.

I have a friend who recently graduated from college with a Master’s degree in Journalism. For the last six month, she has been trying to find a job, but to no avail. I talked with her about situation, and realized that her problem is that she doesn’t know how to fail. She went through eighteen years of schooling to try any approaches where she might fail. She has been conditioned to believe that failure is bad in and of itself, rather than a potential stepping-stone to new ideas.

Look around. How many middle managers, housewives, administrators, teachers, and other people do you see who are to try anything new because of this failure? Most of us have learned not to make mistakes in public. As a result, we remove ourselves from many learning experience except for those occurring in the most private of circumstances.

Different Logic

From a practical point of view, “to err is wrong” makes sense. Our survival in the everyday world requires us to perform thousand of small tasks without failure. Think about it: you wouldn’t last very long if you were to step out in front of traffic or stick your hand a pot of boiling water. In addition, engineers whose bridges collapse, stock brokers who lose money for their clients, and copywriters whose ad campaigns decrease sales won’t keep their jobs very long.

Nevertheless, too great an adherence to the belief “to err is wrong” can greatly undermine your attempts to generate new ideas. If you are more concerned with producing right answers than generating original ideas, you’ll probably make uncritical use of the rules, formulae, and procedures used to obtain these right answers. By doing this, you’ll by-pass the germinal phase of the creative process, and thus spend litter time testing assumptions, challenging the rules, asking what-if questions, or just playing around with the problem. All of these techniques will produce some incorrect answers, but in the germinal phase errors are viewed as a necessary by-product of creative thinking. As Yaz would put it, “if you want the hits, be prepared for the misses.” That’s the way the game of life goes.

Errors as Stepping Stones

Whenever an error pops up, the usual response is “Jeez, another screw up, what went wrong this time?” the creative thinker, on the other hand, will realize the potential value of errors, and perhaps say something like, “Would you look at that! Where can it lead our thinking?” and then he or she will go on to use the error as a stepping stone to a new idea. As a matter of fact, the whole history of discovery is filed with people who used erroneous assumptions and failed ideas as stepping-stones to new ideas. Columbus thought he was finding a shorter route to India. Johannes Kepler stumbled on to the idea of interplanetary gravity because of assumptions that were right for the wrong reasons. And, Thomas Edison knew 1800 ways not to build a light bulb.

The following story about the automotive genius Charles Kettering exemplifies the spirit of working through erroneous assumptions to good ideas. In 1912, when the automobile industry was just beginning to grow, Kettering was interested in improving gasoline engine efficiency. The problem he faced was“knockthe phenomenon in which gasoline takes too long to burn in the cylinder-thereby reducing efficiency.

Kettering began searching for ways to eliminate the “knock.” He thought to him, “How can I get the gasoline to combust in the cylinder at an earlier time?” the key concept here is “early”. Searching for analogous situations, he looked around for models of “things that happen early.” He thought of historical models, physical models, and biological models. Finally, he remembered a particular plant, the trailing arbutus, which “happens early,” i.e., it blooms in the snow (“earlier” than other plants). One of this plant’s chief characteristics is its’ red leaves, which help the plant retain light at certain wavelengths. Kettering figured that it must be the red color, which made the trailing arbutus bloom earlier.

Now came the critical step in Kettering’s chain of thought. He asked himself, “How can I make the gasoline red?” perhaps I’ll put red dye in the gasoline—maybe that’ll make it combust earlier.” He looked around his workshop, and found that he didn’t have any red dye. But he did happen to have some iodine—perhaps that would do. He added the iodine to the gasoline and, lo and behold, the engine didn’t “knock”.

[英语作文写作的需要背诵的部分

Our class have had a discussion about whether we can use mobile phones.

Some students think it is good to use mobile phones because they can take

photos with them in our daily life. They can also listen to music to relax

themselves in free time. Besides, using mobile phones makes it easy to keep in

touch with their parents and friends.

But some others dont think so. They think students shouldnt use mobile

phones. Using mobile phones too much is bad for their eyes and its a waste of

time to chat with friends. Sometimes some students use mobile phones to play

games. It will have a bad effect on study.

In my opinion, I think wed better not use mobile phones. We should spend

more time on our study instead of using mobile phones.

Transportation has been greatly changed in the past few years. In ancient

days, people used to travel by horse or carriage. The journey was often tiring

and tedious. Then people had buses, trains and ships, which could shorten the

time of the long-distance trip. Now we have not only more private cars, but also

planes and high-speed rails. All of these modern transports could offer us a

quick and pleasant travel. Thus, more and more people enjoy traveling very much

these days. In conclusion, modern transportation has completely changed our

life. Thanks to modern transportation, our world is becoming smaller and

smaller.