20世纪美国中等教育的宪法:《中等教育的基本原则》发表始末及历史意义

The Constitution of American Secondary Education in the 20th Century: The Whole Story and Historical Significance of Cardinal Principles of Secondary Education

《中等教育的基本原则》是美国中等教育发展史上的一个里程碑。报告以“民主”和“社会效率”为指导,注重对中等教育整体结构的全面改造,涉及内容广泛,其中包括中等教育的功能和目标、学制划分、中等教育与初等教育和高等教育的衔接、中学类型、课程设置以及学校的组织和管理等。报告肯定了中等教育的实用价值,指出中学不是大学的预备机构,应该面向所有的青年,既满足升学学生的需要也满足非升学学生的需要。报告为美国中等教育改革提供了全方位的、纲领性和原则性的指导,其中的“中等教育的七大原则”为20世纪美国中学的改革指明了方向,“六三三”学制、综合中学等建议奠定了现代美国中学发展的制度框架。

Cardinal Principles of Secondary Education is a milestone in the history of the development of secondary education in the United States. Guided by the philosophy of “democracy” and “social efficiency”, the report focused on the comprehensive reorganization of the overall structure of secondary education, and covered a wide range of content, which included the function and target of secondary education, division of school system, articulation of secondary education with elementary and higher education, the type of secondary school, curriculum plan, as well as the organization and management of the school. The report affirmed the practical value of secondary education and pointed out that the secondary school is not the preparatory institution of the university. It should face all youth, and meet the need of both the student that enter a college and that not enter a college. The report provides a comprehensive, programmatic and principled guidance for the secondary education reform in the United States, in which “the seven principles of secondary education” set the direction for the reform of American secondary schools in the 20th century. The proposal of “6-3-3” school system and comprehensive secondary school lays the institutional framework for the development of modern American secondary schools.