How to realize the publicity of Sino-foreign cooperation in running schools in colleges and universities

There were higher education in ancient Greece and Rome, which achieved good teaching results in law, rhetoric and philosophy, but there were no universities. Great tutors like Socrates don't issue diplomas, and people who go there to study seek wisdom instead of diplomas. Charles Homer haskins wrote in the book The Rise of Universities, "Today, if a student has studied there for three months, he will definitely ask for a certificate, something tangible and external that can prove this learning experience." The propaganda of university education is not to issue diplomas to students and send them to the labor market to die. University education has the responsibility of "educating people", so that they not only become more knowledgeable, but also know how to be useful and beneficial intellectuals in society.

Useful knowledge is not the only useful knowledge.

One argument Socrates put forward for himself in Apology is that he did not seek wisdom with the Athenians for money, nor was he the kind of "wise man" who sold knowledge for a living that the Athenians did not like. The "wise men" in ancient Greece can be said to be one of the earliest "teaching" practitioners, who were engaged in selling "useful knowledge" to the society. The wise initially refer to those who are good at divination and prophecy, then generally refer to those who have outstanding skills because they are familiar with God's will, and then generally refer to those professional teachers who teach political skills (mainly public speaking and argumentative writing) for a living. The appearance of teachers in the school of virtuous talents is related to the political democracy of the city-state. The political activities of the city-state take the competition of citizens in the same place-the debate in court and the speech in the square-as the main means, and every citizen has the right to speak. The problem is how to say and what to say. Wise people pay attention to the former, that is, speaking skills; Philosophers pay attention to the latter, that is, whether the content conforms to the truth.

The difference between "skill" and "reason" can be said to be the difference between "occupation" and "ambition" of the earliest intellectuals. The former is "skill" in learning, while the latter is "wisdom" in learning. The professionalization of humanities and social sciences is developed in the university system as a part of modern society, which inevitably includes the knowledge market (knowledge occupation) factors of modern society.

In the study of modern professional structure, M. S. Sarson found that the "professional process" of "knowledge" or "learning" contains two factors, one is relatively abstract and practical knowledge, and the other is market. Among them, the market is not only influenced by economic and social development, but also controlled by power ideology. [i] That is to say, the marketization of education and academics involves not only monetary interests, but also monetary interests dominated by an ideological power structure. Sassen pointed out that in the competition of knowledge market share, there will be "new fields", that is, new majors. "Creating new fields or sub-fields can solve the problem of crowded fields. These fields are controlled by conservative elders and it is difficult for newcomers to enter."

2. Knowledge and labour market

The two elements of academic professionalism are "monopoly" and "standardization". Professionalization provides institutionalized "talents" training for the labor market and produces "specialized professionals" (referred to as "professionals" for short) in a centralized and standardized way. The academic and educational system of universities monopolizes those "majors" with high economic returns and relatively decent in the labor market, and organizes and dominates this expanded and competitive market. The finer the university major, the more specialized the "talents" in the labor market. For example, in the past, people who graduated from Chinese department could easily enter the news and newspaper industry, but since the establishment of "news" and "media" majors, the diploma of Chinese department is not so professional. In the past, the ability to be a reporter was gained by being an "apprentice" in a newspaper or by self-study. Nowadays, no matter how good a person is at writing and how keen he is on observing real events, it is difficult for him to compete with those with "professional diplomas" for journalism jobs. Even the "cadre" profession that didn't need a diploma before is now linked to diplomas and degrees (many of them are real fake diplomas and real fake degrees).

Because the university has the special permission of "monopoly and standardized production of professional professionals", it is not a simple academic place, and the school is the yamen of knowledge. Imagine, what other occupations are there that schools can't issue diplomas? Even the "five elements and eight achievements" in traditional society (five elements: car, boat, shop, foot and house; Eight types of work: goldsmith, silversmith, coppersmith, blacksmith, carpenter, bricklayer, stonemason), as long as an industry has not completely disappeared, which line and type of work does not have a special department in today's universities?

However, people generally pursue "good jobs". Those occupations with particularly rich and stable economic returns (such as being an official or a civil servant, half of whom have doctoral degrees in China are civil servants) need not only diplomas, but also "arrangements" from "organization" and "personnel" departments. In this case, the knowledge gate of the university cooperates with the gate of the power system, effectively controlling the most profitable career opportunities in society. It has become an inevitable trend that there are more schools and more civil servants.

Three university professors are a profession, but also a career.

Because universities monopolize the knowledge market, university professors themselves have become an enviable profession. University teachers themselves have changed from "poor practitioners" in the 1980s and early 1990s to "middle class" with rich income today, not to mention those star professors, academic celebrities and academic rich people with high income. At the beginning of 1990s, it seemed that it was still a matter of immediate concern for university teachers to give up their academic career, but now university teaching has become a job with good income that young students yearn for, and it is impossible to get it without a high degree (doctorate). The identity change from "intellectuals" to "professionals" (experts, scholars, professors) took place under such an economic background.

The main function of China University today is to provide "professional" producers for the labor market, that is, so-called professionals. Many studies that originally belonged to vocational training have become "higher education" because they entered universities, which has changed the meaning of higher education. "Vocational education" was originally a kind of secondary education. Due to the accumulation of occupation and high technology, it is not unreasonable for vocational education to transfer to universities. But the question is, what are the characteristics of college vocational education and general secondary vocational education in order to become a relative "higher education"?

The characteristics of "higher education" should be humanistic education besides imparting professional knowledge, which can be called "human freedom education". Long before 1 1 century university system appeared, human beings had the original concept of higher education. In higher education, people receive "adult" education, not only adults in age, but also "people" in the sense of the relationship between individuals and groups, which involves knowledge about what is human virtue, what is human happiness, what is human truth and so on. Man's free and meaningful existence depends on and is embodied in the exploration of humanistic knowledge. This kind of humanistic knowledge is difficult for minors to master, and they need to wait until a certain age when their knowledge is ready. To this day, this is what we call humanistic education. The original meaning of humanistic education is still and must be people's free education.

Fourth, humanistic education is a free education for people.

The ancient Greeks thought the number 7 had a special meaning. After the age of 7, people began to change their teeth. 14 years old enters puberty, and 2 1 year old is fully mature. People's education is linked to the growth of these seven cardinal numbers. Starting to study at the age of seven, 14 and 2 1 are also two promotion ages in one's education, at least Aristotle thinks so. Aristotle did not explain the special significance of 2 1 year, but he determined that 14 year was the turning age from primary school to middle school. /kloc-before the age of 0/4, a person learned to read and write, and some literature. /kloc-After he was 0/4 years old, he spent three years "studying other things". Aristotle's "otherness" refers to general education, which is what the Greeks call enkuklios paideia or enkuklia mathemata.

The Romans accepted the concept of the Greeks almost intact, calling this kind of education liberales artes, which is what we are familiar with. To this day, the core of many American universities is still the Faculty of Arts. Humanistic education provides a subject suitable for free people, and according to the enlightenment, it is an education suitable for "gentlemen" (educated people). Leo Strauss has always used the word "gentleman" in his discourse on humanistic education (somewhat similar to the "scholar" familiar to China people). The number of humanities courses is also seven: language, rhetoric, dialectics (logic), arithmetic, music, geometry and astrology.

In ancient times, apart from universal education or humanities education, there were only three kinds of professional education, namely medicine, architecture and teaching. Everything else is a "transaction". Craft is acquired through "apprenticeship" rather than "education". Cobblers, shipbuilders, tent repairers, carpenters, brewers and vendors are all "craftsmen". In Athens, they may have the opportunity to hold important public positions, but they are people who lack "education". Anitus, who appeared more than once in Socrates' dialogue, is a master of leather. Socrates, at least Socrates in Plato's dialogue, obviously looked down on him.

5. Knowledge and good use of knowledge

The "occupation" and occupation structure in modern society are completely different from those in ancient times. Good leather masters and winemakers are graduates of "Institute of Light Industry", good shipbuilders and professional fishermen are graduates of Maritime College, and traders have MBA degrees. This is because modern society is what Chomsky called "knowledge society". With the accumulation of professional knowledge in all walks of life, "apprentice" has been replaced by university study. This is exactly the problem. Although college students may have received rich professional knowledge, they may not have really received "higher education" because of the lack of "humanistic education".

It is not enough for modern society to be based only on knowledge. N. Chomsky pointed out that people are always "full of praise and expectation" for the rich knowledge of modern society, thus ignoring some questions most related to knowledge: "What is the goal of knowledge?" "Who does knowledge serve?" For example, computer knowledge can help and hinder the openness and transparency of public knowledge, and even be used to search for dissidents and punish and convict them. Chomsky pointed out, "No matter how rich knowledge is, knowledge is different from real understanding, which includes the understanding of people's correct position in the material world and social world. If (a knowledge-based society) cannot be transformed into a society based on understanding, then it is unlikely that there will be a world where decent people want to live. "

What Chomsky called "understanding" is actually what hannah arendt called "thinking" and "judging". Knowledge does not mean thinking, nor does it mean having a correct judgment on value issues. Real knowledge includes not only mastering practical skills, but also knowing which skills and knowledge are well used and being used. The responsibility of modern universities includes two aspects: enhancing practical knowledge and understanding the good use of knowledge. "Universities should strive to improve their ideas, concepts and views on science and human life, … and help us have a broad understanding of a more humane future. To this end, universities must get rid of external pressure. " Universities can still accomplish the task of vocational education without being independent of external pressure, but it is difficult to accomplish the task of human freedom education. This lame professional education is career-oriented, not higher education in the sense of freemen.