误解与误译:美国“public school”内涵与功能变迁

Misunderstanding and Misinterpretation:The Connotation and Function Changes of Public School in the United States

国内学者常常将美国“publicschool”译为“公立学校”或“公共学校”,与私立学校相对。基于权威的语料和翔实的史料分析发现,仅从公立和私立角度去探讨美国“public school”并不能准确地阐释它在不同时期的丰富内涵和功能变迁。美国“public school”源自拉丁文“scholapublica”,效仿英格兰文法学校而建,起初并没有现代意义上的公私之分。“publicschool”在殖民地时期泛指面向公众开放的“公众学校”,共和早期至19世纪中期逐渐转变为强调由政府资助管理的“公立初等学校”,19世纪后期又在拓展至中等教育后纳入更多民众所需的多元教育,发展为现代意义上的公立学校。揭示美国“publicschool”的误解和误译,有助于丰富学界的基础研究,深化理解美国公立学校及其发展变革的历史逻辑。

American public school is often interpreted as opposed to private school in domestic academic circles.Based on authoritative corpus and detailed historical data analysis,it is found that only discussing American public school from public and private perspectives cannot accurately explain its rich connotation and functional changes in different periods.The American public school was originated from the Latin"schola publica"and modeled after the English grammar school.At first,there was no distinction between public and private in the modern sense.Public school generally refers to the schools that open to the public in the colonial period.In the early Republic and mid-19th century,it gradually changed into a"public elementary school"that emphasized the management of state funding and regulating.In the late 19th century,it was expanded to secondary education and included the pluralistic education needed by more people,and developed as modern public school.Revealing the misunderstanding and misinterpretation of American"public school"will help enrich the basic research,deepen the understanding of American public school as well as its historical logic of development and transformation.