进步主义教育家中的保守主义者:重新认识康茨

A Conservative among Progressive Educators:A New Study of George S.Counts

在美国教育史上,康茨因为提出了"康茨问题"而闻名于世。然而,人们往往只是重视这个问题本身,却相对忽视了康茨对这个问题的解答。康茨主张美国应充分发挥文化传统的教育作用,学校教育应致力于保存植根于希伯来—基督教传统的美国价值。康茨强调美国教育应守护和扩展美国的自由传统。由此可以看出,康茨是一个典型的保守主义者。然而,"康茨问题"给人留下了"激进"的印象。实际上,从深层看,康茨的"激进",是一种基于保守主义者的悲观和恐惧的壮胆和奋进。康茨曾提倡"计划经济",主张"民主的集体主义",这是一种与保守主义不合拍的观点,他后来改变了这个观点,回到了保守主义的立场。整体上看,康茨是一个温和的保守主义者,他的教育思想具有托克维尔式的保守主义性质。康茨为探索进步主义教育和保守主义教育的融合,作出了重要贡献,但对于如何融合仍有许多问题没有解决。

In the history of education,George S.Counts became famous because of his well-known question,"Dare the school build a new social order?"However,people merely heeded the question itself,and ignored his answer to the question.Counts advocated that the United States should give full play to traditional culture in education,and that schools should be dedicated to preserving American values rooted in the Hebrew-Christian tradition;he pointed out that education should conserve and expand the American tradition of freedom.It can be seen that he was a typical conservative.However,his question was considered radical.In fact,his"radicalism"reflected a bold endeavor based on a conservative’s pessimism and fear.He advocated"planned economy"and"democratic collectivism,"a view that was out of step with conservatism.Later,however,he changed his mind and returned to a conservative stance.On the whole,he was a moderate conservative,whose ideas of education were conservative,like those of Alexis de Tocqueville.Counts made important contributions to the integration of progressive education and conservative education,but many problems about how to integrate them remain to be solved.