Unit 3 Education and Recreation

Formal education in the United States consists of elementary, secondary and higher education. Elementary and secondary education, which forms public education, is free and compulsory1. Higher education in the United States has been developing for more than 380 years from the founding of Harvard University. National basic values, especially the equality of opportunity are the representations of the educational institutions in the United States. The goal of the American education is to teach students how to learn and to help them reach their maximum potential, so American students are encouraged to express their own opinions in class and think for themselves. Creational and cultural life of Americans is plentiful and colorful, including movies, television, music and sports etc.

School Education

Educational institutions2 in the United States reflect the nation’s basic values, especially the equality of opportunity.From elementary schools through colleges, Americans believe that everyone deserves an equal opportunity to get a good education. In order to develop educated population, all the states have compulsory school attendance laws. These laws vary from one state to another, but they generally require school attendance from 6 to 16 years old. But most students attend school at least until high school graduation. The goal of the American education system is to teach children how to learn and to help them reach their maximum potential. About 80% of American children receive their elementary and high school education in public schools, which are supported by state and local taxes and do not charge tuition. American Public schools are locally controlled, and they are free and open to all at the elementary and high school, but public universities charge tuition and have competitive entrance requirements. While other American children go to private schools, which charge tuition and are not under direct public control although many states set educational standards for them. To attend a private school,a student must apply first and be accepted.

Most children start school at the age of five, by attending kindergarten, or even at the age of three or four by attending pre-school programs. Kindergarten teachers have taken on the job of introducing some academics3, such as teaching letters, numbers, colors and shapes. Still, there’s a lot of time for playing games and fun. Then there are 6 years of elementary school and usually 2 years of middle school, and 4 years of high school. Not all school systems have kindergartens, but all do have 12 years of elementary, middle school, and senior high school. School systems may divide the 12 years up differently.

After high school, the majority of students go on to college. Undergraduate studies lead to a Bachelor’s degree, which is generally what Americans mean when they speak of a college diploma4. The Bachelor’s degree can be followed by professional studies, which lead to degrees in professions such as law, medicine, and graduate studies which lead to master and doctoral degrees.

Higher education of the United States began with the founding of Harvard University in 1636. A university is much larger than a college. A university usually has several different colleges in it. Each college within a university has a special subject area. There may be a college of liberal arts where humanities, social science, natural science, and mathematics are taught. There may be a college of education where students learn to be teachers.A university always has programs for advanced or graduate study in a variety of subjects. There may be a medical school, a law school, and other advanced programs.

A university program for undergraduates usually takes four years. In this way, a university and a college are alike. College students usually spend four years in school as well. A college, however, usually has only one or two kinds of programs.A college does not have graduate or professional programs in a variety of areas.

College students, like university students, usually have a high school diploma or its equivalent, when they enter college. Most students have completed regular high school programs.If a college student completes a course of study in the arts, he or she receives a Bachelor of Arts degree. In the sciences, the students receive a Bachelor of Science degree. If college students want to continue for a graduate or professional degree, they must go to a university.

Compared with universities and colleges, community colleges in the United States are quite different. The community college gives training for a variety of jobs, and also has an academic program. The programs of study in the community college usually last only two years. The community college serves the community, and anyone who lives nearby may go there. When community college students complete a two-year program, they receive an associate of Arts or associate of Science degree. Community colleges are nearly always publicly funded by the state,country, or city government, but not usually funded by religious groups.

Famous Universities

Harvard University was established in 1636, which is the oldest institution of higher education in the United States. Harvard University, which is based in Cambridge and Boston, has an enrollment of over 20,000 degree candidates, including undergraduate, graduate, and professional students. Harvard has more than 360,000 alumni around the world. Harvard University is devoted to excellence in teaching, learning, and research, and to developing leaders in many disciplines5 who make a difference globally. Harvard faculties are engaged with teaching and research to push the boundaries of human knowledge.

For students who are excited to investigate the biggest issues of the 21st century, Harvard offers an unparalleled student experience and a generous financial aid program, with over $160 million awarded to more than 60% of their undergraduate students. The University has twelve degree granting schools in addition to the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, offering a truly global education.

Yale University is an American private Ivy League research university in New Haven,Connecticut. Founded in 1701, it is the third oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nine Colonial Colleges chartered before the American Revolution.

Yale is organized into 14 constituent schools:the original undergraduate college, the Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and 12 professional schools. While the university is governed by the Yale Corporation, each school’s faculty oversees its curriculum and degree programs. In addition to a central campus in downtown New Haven, the university owns athletic facilities in western New Haven, a campus in West Haven, Connecticut and forest and nature preserves throughout New England. The university’s assets include an endowment valued at $25.4 billion as of June 2017, the second largest of any the American educational institution. The Yale University Library, serving all constituent schools,holds more than 15 million volumes and is the third-largest academic library in the United States.

Yale has graduated many notable alumni, including five the United States Presidents, 19 the American Supreme Court Justices, 20 living billionaires and many heads of states. In addition,Yale has graduated hundreds of members of Congress and many high-level the United States diplomats. 58 Nobel laureates, 5 Fields Medalists, 78 MacArthur Fellows, 247 Rhodes Scholars and 119 Marshall Scholars have been affiliated with the university.

Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California, in Silicon Valley, 20 miles outside of San Jose. Because of its academic strength, wealth, and proximity to Silicon Valley, Stanford is often cited as one of the world’s most prestigious universities.

Stanford University was founded in 1885 by Leland and Jane Stanford in memory of their only child, Leland Stanford Jr., who had died of typhoid fever at the age of 15 the previous year.Stanford was a former Governor of California and the United States Senator, who made his fortune as a railroad tycoon. The school admitted its first students on October 1, 1891, as a coeducational and non-denominational institution.

Stanford University struggled financially after Leland Stanford’s death in 1893 and again after much of the campus was damaged by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Following World War II,Provost Frederick Terman supported faculty and graduates’ entrepreneurialism to build self-sufficient local industry in what is later known as Silicon Valley. The university is also one of the top fund raising institutions in the country, becoming the first school to raise more than a billion dollars in a year.

The university is organized around three traditional schools consisting of 40 academic departments at the undergraduate and graduate level and four professional schools that focus on graduate programs in Law, Medicine, Education and Business. Stanford’s undergraduate program is one of the top three most selective in the United States.

Cultural Life

The history of Hollywood is sometimes separated into four main periods: the silent film era,classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period. American film studios collectively generate6 several hundreds of movies every year, making the United States the third most prolific producer of films in the world. The major film studios of Hollywood are the primary source of the most commercially successful movies in the world, such as Gone with the Wind, Titanic, and Avatar. The products of Hollywood today dominate the global film industry.

To honor the outstanding film achievements of the film season, the first Academy Awards ceremony was held on May 16, 1929, and the 90th Academy Awards, honoring films in 2018, was held on February 25, 2018.

Americans are also the heaviest television viewers in the world. By far, the most popular leisure-time activity is watching television. American programming consists mostly of game shows, talk shows, and never-ending soap operas. Evening entertainment consists mostly of sitcoms in a humorous way. There are also movies, adventure shows, dramas, and various weekly shows with the same cast of characters and general theme but a different story each week.

In general, more media, such as public television and radios, now provide Americans with news and entertainment than ever. Newspapers, magazines and traditional broadcast television organizations have lost some of their popularity. These public media receive money to operate from private citizens, organizations and government. Many of their programs are educational. At the same time, online, cable and satellite media have increased in numbers and strength. One dramatic change in American media is the increased success of cable television. It comes into most homes over wires. The computer has also changed American media.

Elements from folk idioms, such as old-time music, Blues, were adopted and transformed7 into popular genres with global audience. Jazz was developed by innovators in the 20th century. Country music developed in the 1920s, and rhythm and Blues in the 1940s. In the mid-1950s, rock and roll became known to the Americans. More recent American creations include hip hop and house music. The history of country music is hundreds of years old. It is older than America itself. It begins with the immigrants from Scotland and Ireland who brought their traditional songs and instruments to the New World. There were new stories to tell, new troubles and heartaches to mourn. There were also new loves to sing about. New instruments started to be too. In many ways, rock is a mirror of American culture. In 1955, rock and roll was born in America, when "Rock Around the Click" was performed. So it was first known as "Rock and Roll" and then simply as "rock." So far, rock and roll has been popular not only in the United States, but all over the world as well. Rock and roll grew mainly out of rhythm and Blues, and it was also influenced by country and western music. Rock and roll is a mixture of styles that work together, and it offers something to people of all ages.

Eight Olympic Games have taken place in the United States and it has won more gold medals than any other country in the summer and winter Olympic Games. International competition is not as important in American sports as it is in the sporting culture of most other countries.

The four most popular team sports are American baseball, football, basketball and ice hockey.The major leagues of these sports enjoy massive media exposure. As team sports, which appeal to Americans love of socializing and competing, they are both spectator sports and participatory8 sports.

Baseball is often called the national pastime. It is likely that the average individual Americans will attend many times more baseball games in their lives than football games.American football has grown in popularity with the advent of television over the last several decades. Basketball and ice hockey are the country’s next two leading professional team sports and basketball is also the world’s most popular indoor sport.

Vocabulary:

1. compulsory　[kəmˈpʌlsəri]　adj.　义务的

2. institution　[ɪnstɪt'ju:ʃn]　n.　机构

3. academic　[ˌækəˈdemɪk]　adj.　学术的

4. diploma　[dɪˈpləʊmə]　n.　毕业证书

5. discipline　[ˈdɪsəplɪn]　n.　学科

6. generate　[ˈdʒenəreɪt]　v.　使形成

7. transform　[trænsˈfɔ:m]　v.　转化

8. participatory　[pɑ:ˌtɪsɪ'peɪtərɪ]　adj.　众人参与的

Exercises

I. Try to answer the following questions according to your understanding of the text.

1. What is the goal of the American education system?

2. When did American children start their education?

3. When did higher education start in the United States?

4. How many famous universities do you know in the United States?

5. How many periods is the history of Hollywood separated into?

II. Read the following passage carefully, and make a comment on it at the end of the passage in no more than 100 words.

Many studies have predicted there will be a great need for future workers skilled in jobs related to science, technology, engineering and math. In education, these areas of study are known as STEM.

Research suggests it is important to get students involved in STEM subjects as early as possible, starting in middle school or even before.

While STEM education programs have been increasing in many areas across the United States, there remains a lack of interest in the subjects by many younger students.

The United States Department of Education has estimated that once students reach their last year of high school, only 16% are interested in a STEM career. A department study also found that even among those who do choose to study STEM subjects in college, only about half decide to work in a STEM-related job.

A survey released this year by Pew Research Center asked American adults why they believe many young people do not want to study math and science subjects.

About 64% of those questioned said they think the main reason is that students consider STEM studies either too hard (52%) or too boring (12%). More than 20% blamed the lack of interest on the belief that a STEM degree might not be useful in the job market.

The study found about one third of Americans would tell a high school student seeking career guidance to study a STEM-related field. About 19 percent of them said they would suggest a health-related STEM career. And 14% would tell them to center on technology.

STEM careers made up about 13% of the total the United States work force in 2016.However, the number of STEM-related jobs-especially in health and computer areas-has risen much faster than other areas for years.

Comments:

Some think that it is the right way to choose what you like as your major in university, while some think that the top university is the first choice but not your favorite major.

What’s your point of view?

Reference:

Argument:

1. The fame and the reputation of the university

2. The value of diploma of the university

3. The teaching qualities of the university

Anti-argument:

1. Focusing on the interest first

2. Focusing on the job potential

3. Focusing on the future success

Keys to Exercises

I. Try to answer the following questions according to your understanding of the text.

1. The goal of the American education system is to teach students how to learn and to help them reach their maximum potential.

2. Most children start school at the age of five, by attending kindergarten, or even at the age of three or four by attending pre-school programs.

3. Higher education of the United States began with the founding of Harvard University in 1636.

4. There are a lot of famous universities in the United States, such as Harvard University,Yale University, Stanford University, University of Chicago, Cambridge University,Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Rice University, and University of California, etc.

5. The history of Hollywood is sometimes separated into four main periods: the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period.

II. Read the following passage carefully, and make a comment on it at the end of the passage in no more than 100 words.

Open-ended.