赫伯特·亚当斯与大学推广教育观念的引入

Herbert Baxter Adams and Introduction of University Extension Education

美国19世纪颇有影响的历史学家和教育家赫伯特·亚当斯是教育民主观念的积极倡导者,被视为把英国大学推广教育观念引入美国的第一人。对亚当斯而言,大学推广教育是其教育民主观念的具体体现和缓解当时美国社会脑力劳动者与产业工人矛盾的有效手段。亚当斯把英国大学推广教育观念与公共图书馆有机地结合起来,推动了麦尔威·杜威等人对其观念的改进和实施,迈出了形成美国大学推广教育观念的第一步。亚当斯倡导英国大学推广教育的自由教育传统,使其引入试验落入了在英国遭遇的精英性指责的困局而失败。

Herbert Baxter Adams, an influential historian and educator in the 19th century, was an active advocator of educational democracy and was seen as the first person to introduce the concept of British university extension education to the United States. For Adams, the university extension education is a concrete manifestation of its educational democratic concept and an effective means to alleviate the contradictions between the mental workers and industrial workers in the United States. Adams combined the idea of university extension education with public libraries and promoted the improvement and implementation of his concept with leadership of Melvil Dewey, and took the first step towards the concept of American university extension education. Adams advocated the liberal education tradition of British university extension education, so that the introduction of the experiment fell into the elite of British criticism of the predicament and failed.