A．enrichment of our understanding of the pastB．broadeni……
TEXT D
In a reaction against a
too - rigid, overrefined classical curriculum, some educational philosophers
have swung sharply to an espousal of "life experience" as the sole source of
learning. Using their narrow interpretation of John Dewey’s theories as a base
for support, they conclude that only throught" doing, can learning take place.
Spouting such phrases as," Teach the child, not the subject," they demand,
without sensing its absurdity, and end to rigorous study as a means of opening
the way to learning. While not all adherents to this approach would totally
eliminate a study of great books, the influence of this philosophy has been felt
in the public school curricula, as evidenced by the gradual subordination of
great literature.
What is the purpose of literature7 Why read,
if life alone is to be our teacher James Joyce states that
the artist
reveals the human situation by re -creating life out of life; Aristotle states
that art presents universal truth because its form is taken from nature. Thus,
consciously or otherwise, the great writer reveals the human situation most
tellingly, -*extending our understanding of ourselves to our world.
We can soar with the writer to the heights of man’s aspirations, or
plumment with him to tragic despair. The works of Steinbeck, Anderson, and
Salinger; the poetry of Whitman, Sandburg, and Forst; the plays of Ibsen, Miller
and O’Neill: all present starkly realistic portrayals of life’s problems,
Really Yes! But how much wider is the understanding we gain than that attained
by viewing life through the keyhole of our single existence.
Can we measure the richness gained by the young reader venturing down the
Mississippi with Tom and Huck, or cheering Ivanhoe as he battles the Black
Knight; the deepening understanding of the mature reader of the tragic South of
William Fanlkner and Tennessess Williams, of the awesome determination--and
frailty--of Patrick White’s Australian pioneers
This
function of literature, the enlarging of our own life sphere, is of itself of
major importance. Additionally, however, it has been suggested that solutions of
social problems may be suggested in the study of literature. The overweening
ambitions of political leaders--and their sneering contempt for the law--did not
appear for the first time in the writings of Bernstein and Woodeard; the
problems, and the consequent actions, of the guiltridden did not await the
appearance of the bearded psychoanalyst of the twentieth century.
Federal Judge Learned Hand has written, "I venture to believe that it is
as important to a judge called upon to pass on a question of constitutional law,
to have at least a bowing acquaintance with Thucydided, Gibbon, and Carlyle,
with Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, and Milton, with Montaigne and Rabelais, with
Plato, Bacon, Hume, and Kant, as with the books which have been specitically
written on the subject. For in such matters everything turns upon the spirit in
which he approaches the questions before him. "
But what of our
dissenters Can we overcome the disapproval of their" life experience classroom
"theory of learning We must start with the field of agreement—that education
should serve to improve the individual and society. We must educate them to the
understanding that the voice of human experience should stretch our human
faculties, and open us to learning. We must convince them—in their own personal
language per haps-- of the "togetherness" of life and art; we must prove to them
that far from being separate, literature is that pan of life which illumines
life.
As the author sees it, one of the most important gains from the study of great literature is ______.
A．enrichment of our understanding of the past
B．broadening of our approaches to social problems
C．that it gives us a bowing acquaintance with great figures of the past
D．that it provides us with various experiences which provide a much broader experience than we can get from experiences of simply Our own lives alone
