《旅 行者IQ大挑戰》在業內被稱作“休閑”遊戲﹐像卡片遊戲和謎題遊戲也屬於這種類型﹐其特點是開發成本低﹐易於上手﹐畫面也不像為Xbox 360等遊戲機開發的新遊戲那般絢爛華麗。而另一方面﹐隨著全球衛星定位系統(GPS)導航設備及Google Earth等新技術的應用﹐人們對地理知識又開始感興趣起來﹐於是便有了《旅行者IQ大挑戰》的成功。Google Earth是谷歌公司(Google Inc.)推出的一款電腦軟件﹐用戶可以在地球的三維模型上進行地理搜索。
本文涉及主題虚拟世界中的性教育 | |||||||||
近年来电脑互联网络发展日新月异，越来越多的所谓“虚拟世界”出现。这些都是虚幻境界，有兴趣者可透过网络进行互动，其中最为有名的可能就是“第二人生”（Second Life）。 很多时候，人们都批评这种虚构世界容易让年轻人沉迷，而且也可能会让他们最终脱离现实，陷于不务正业之境。 可是，英国一位大学讲师并不赞同这种说法。她认为这种虚拟世界不单有其存在价值，而且也可以予以利用，达致教育的目的。她自己就即将以此作为“根据地”推广她的性教育课。 作此奇想的是英国曼彻斯特地区的索尔福德大学（University of Salford）的护理学高级讲师芭芭拉·黑斯廷斯-阿萨图利安（Babara Hastings-Asatourian）。 改善情况 黑斯廷斯-阿萨图利安从前是护士，她对于目前英国年轻人的性教育水平感到不满，因此，她想尽种种办法，希望可以推广安全性行为的信息。 就在本周，一个称为“英国年轻人议会”（UK Youth Parliament）的青少年组织发表调查报告说，英国学校为年轻人提供的性教育的水平低落，而很多年轻人多部知道如何得到性方面的知识。 在过去12个月内，黑斯廷斯-阿萨图利安花了不少时间去了解互联网上的社会网络网站（social networking sites），希望找出办法跟年轻人沟通。 她得出的结论是，这种网站不单为年轻人提供娱乐，而且也是一同提供性教育信息的好渠道。
她选择的是“第二人生”这个庞大的虚拟世界。 这个“世界”在2003年成立，但是，在短短四年期间吸引到数以万计来自世界各地的读者。 “生 活”在这个虚拟世界中的是称为avatars的虚构人物，它们都是个别用户创造出来的“人物”。这些“人物”可以在“第二人生”的虚拟空间之中“生活”， 过他们的“社交生活”，而且，他们也可以购物、做生意、置业、投资等；由于这个虚拟空间模仿现实世界，因此，它也出现了“罪案”。 黑斯廷斯-阿萨图利安认为这是一个很好的提供教育的场所。她已经决定在12月13日英国时间晚上8时开设“直播”性健康教育研讨会。 首创之举 黑斯廷斯-阿萨图利安说，据她所知，这是“第二人生”创立以来首次举办同类的性健康研讨会。 在这个虚拟世界的研讨会之中，黑斯廷斯-阿萨图利安将利用声音与文字、图像推广她的信息。在研讨会之后，有关材料也将以多种文字发布，便利那些有需要的人。 黑斯廷斯-阿萨图利安承认，她对此却是感到非常紧张。 不过，如果要真正达到在虚拟世界全面推广性教育，黑斯廷斯-阿萨图利安仍需要通过另一个难关：如果让更多的年轻人可以有适当途径进入这个世界。 这个项目得到英国普利茅斯大学（University of Plymouth）的支持。 | |||||||||
Harvard’s new financial aid policy is the boldest move yet to mitigate the soaring costs of a college education. Most previous efforts to make higher education affordable have focused, as they should, on helping low-income students. Now Harvard will also provide generous aid to students whose annual family incomes reach as high as $180,000. It is a welcome move, but also a disturbing admission that the priciest colleges are now beyond the reach of even many upper-middle-class families.
The cost of attending college has been rising faster than inflation and faster than family incomes, prompting anguished outcries from consumers and calls in Congress for colleges to rein in their costs or disgorge more of their endowments. Some of the most expensive schools have responded with new aid programs. Princeton, in a move emulated by others, shifted to grants from loans, easing the debt burden on students, and removed home equity from financial aid calculations. Harvard’s new policy also includes these provisions.
Harvard currently provides a free undergraduate education to students from families earning up to $60,000 a year. Under its new plan, families earning between $120,000 and $180,000 a year would pay only 10 percent of their incomes for tuition and fees on an education that is currently priced at more than $45,000 a year. More than 90 percent of American families would be eligible for aid, Harvard officials estimate.
The new standards will make the cost of a Harvard education comparable to the charges at the nation’s leading public universities. The new approach should allow more students to engage in unpaid research, unpaid summer internships and study abroad. Students who graduate with little or no debt could more readily pursue low-paying careers in public service.
Although Harvard is often a trendsetter, it is not clear that many other schools can afford to follow. Its endowment of $35 billion is the largest of any university. Most other colleges rely heavily on tuition and fees and can’t readily give up that income. There are more than 60 colleges that have endowments that exceed $1 billion that ought to move at least partially in the same direction.
Students attending public colleges have also faced steep cost increases, in part because state governments have become stingier in providing support. Governors and legislators ought to be ashamed if their flagship public universities charge more than a high-priced private school like Harvard.
■ 陳冠妤
自從法國新總統上任以來，各項改革案，讓法國人民頻頻跳腳，當然跳腳的人有，支持的也大有人在，對立也因而形成。諸多法案中包括目前大學生在激烈抗議的大學自治法。
簡 單來說，大學自治法就是法國政府開始要求大學要對自己的一切負責，包括人事管理、財務來源等；最直接的衝擊就是學費問題！如果學費不再由政府負擔，那麼勢 必大學之間就必須要有評比，好的學校收取較高費用、吸引更優秀的學生成為必然的趨勢，因此有學者認為這項政策其實就是「把法國英國化」。
不光是收取學費問題，這法案的背後挑戰的其實是法國長久以來一直標榜的社會主義價值，認為人人都該有受教育的權利，外國學生也一視同仁，這樣的「烏托邦」實行幾十年下來，果真也面臨了困境。
支 持以罷課來表達抗議的學生，在本校雖只有六、七百人，但卻因投票方式係採取舉手投票，整個大禮堂早已被這群學生霸占，且充滿暴戾之氣，投票的秘密性與安全 保障不足，使得多半希望復課的學生因此不敢參與投票；再加上校長並沒有針對這現象提出有效的解決辦法，而是直接將學校關閉，造成這次罷課一罷就是五星期。
終 於，在反罷課的學生要求下，十二月十四日學校舉行了公投（不記名公開投票）。當天一早，校門口又是兩方人馬，支持繼續罷課的學生企圖阻止公投的進行，因為 他們深知自己是少數，有些學生甚至拿出棍棒毆打要參與投票的學生，幸好靠警察出動維持秩序，投票順利完成。三千多人參與投票，反罷課的學生以兩千三百票獲 得勝利，五週以來的僵局也終於化解。
某些教授認為，法國媒體和權力核心相當密切，因此言論幾乎完全的「右」傾，人民不同的聲音無法完整表 達，但是激烈的手段又無法達到目的，造成進退兩難的局面。支持復課，並不見得等於支持大學自治法，但民主社會就該理性就事論事，如何堅持自己的權益而不影 響到大眾的利益，是今日每個民主社會遇到的難題。
此次罷課事件，讓我看到另一面向的法國，號稱幾百年的「民主老店」卻連學生的罷課與否 都搞不定，校園內部的輿論與民主，甚至公投，也出現落差。嘆為觀止之餘，也回頭看看台灣的民主，更是百感交集。與法國相反的是，台灣的媒體與舊權力核心仍 相當密切，造成社會空轉；民主新生兒如我們，能否借用民主的力量跳出目前的困境，是對當權者智慧的最大考驗吧。
（作者為法國Montpellier大學法國文學研究生）
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hc評:這篇可能被"編輯過--第一段
"自從法國新總統上任以來，各項改革案，讓法國人民頻頻跳腳，當然跳腳的人有，支持的也大有人在，對立也因而形成....."
德国于2002年在蒂宾根创办了第一所儿童大学。这一创意来自一位与蒂宾根大学进行合作的报社女记者。现在，世界许多地区和国家都组织了类似的活动，比如非洲就是其中之一。
南非德班夸祖鲁－那他大学的大教室里挤满了孩子。德国学术交流中心信息部负责人心里的一快石头终于落了地。三辆学校大巴都开了过来，其中一辆甚至来 自70公里外的一个小镇上。非洲第一所儿童大学可以正式开学了－尽管这些年龄在8至13岁之间的孩子们还得熟悉这里的陌生环境。
来自奥尔登堡大学的神经生物学家克里斯蒂娜－里希特－兰德贝格是这里的客座教授。她的授课内容是告诉孩子们与大脑有关的一切，当然这会涉及到一些复 杂的概念－比如神经腱、树突等，当然，里希特－兰德贝格会详细地讲解这些概念，并进行直观的图象展示。授课内容尽管复杂，但里希特－兰德贝格尝试的教学方 式却获得了成功。孩子们听得津津有味。这样的项目对德国学术交流中心的组织者来说的确是不无风险的，但南非的项目经受了考验。
讲堂里大约一百名儿童兴致勃勃，他们不时地鼓掌，提出各种问题，课堂上还不时传出孩子们的欢笑声－尤其是当6个孩子扮演神经传感器，这些负责神经细胞间信息传递生化物质时，扮演神经细胞末梢角色的布里安故意“哎呦”地尖叫起来，装出疼痛的样子。
孩子们都很守纪律，很听话，尽管也有孩子们认为，一小时的讲座有些枯燥和无聊，但所有的孩子们都学到了新的知识。当然，授课内容不仅仅停留在表面 上，有时题目的处理也较为深入，尽管如此，教授里希特－兰德贝格依旧深受南非儿童大学孩子们的喜爱：“南非的儿童大学的确不错，孩子们穿着校服，规规矩矩 地座在那里。与我们那儿完全不同。我认为，这里远不如德国，无法更多地满足孩子们的愿望。”
对德国学术交流中心来说，儿童大学专门聘请一系列德国的优秀科研人员负责做报告，其目的在于为作为科研所在地的德国进行广泛的宣传活动。德国学术交流中心的该 项目组织者安德列亚斯－黑蒂格说：
“让孩子们对科学产生浓厚兴趣的做法在整个非洲大陆还从未有过。这样的活动也许会有助于引导孩子们日后走上科研之路。”
明年，开普敦将继续组织这样的活动。
12/07/2007
When I was in primary school, the science room in the old wooden school building was one place I didn't want to go near. In the eerie gloom, by a shade curtain, there were rows of jars containing specimens in formaldehyde. And of all things, there was an anatomical model of the human body. I even heard rumors that the room was haunted.
I do not know how scenes of science rooms affected the scientific curiosity of people at the same age.
Nowadays, science rooms are said to be bright and well-equipped. Unfortunately, however, the dismal reality today is that Japan's 15-year-olds are the least interested in science among their peers around the world.
According to the 2006 Program for International Student Assessment conducted on 15-year-olds in 57 countries and regions by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Japanese teenagers did worse than the previous survey three years ago in three tests--scientific literacy, mathematical literacy and reading ability. Japan is now far behind the world's smartest group.
The Japanese youngsters not only scored poorly in scientific literacy, but revealed an even more disturbing lack of interest and eagerness in science itself. They placed last in the world in their level of interest in reading books about science, as well as in their frequency of watching science programs on television or reading newspaper and magazine articles on science.
A high academic performance can be expected only if the student is highly interested in the subject.
Japan is said to have progressed rapidly in the study of physics since World War II. Asked why by a non-Japanese person, Nobel laureate physicist Shinichiro Tomonaga (1906-1979)朝永振一郎 reportedly answered, "It was because we Japanese tried to compensate for our intellectual starvation during the war."
It appears that intellectual curiosity is numbed by a surfeit of information that can be obtained without any effort. Inundated with information as we are today, we can readily find an answer to any question we have. And as our ability to wonder about the unknown becomes dull, we apparently become increasingly less inclined to wonder about anything.
As if Tomonaga foresaw our present age, he once said that the job of a teacher is to make sure his or her students did not become surfeited with knowledge.
--The Asahi Shimbun, Dec. 6(IHT/Asahi: December 7,2007)
昔日作：Maulbronn Monastery and Concerts (2007年10月6日 星期六)
毛爾布龍修道院原為西妥教團修道院（Zisterzienserabtei）前身，位於德國巴登-符騰堡邦，接近普福爾茨海姆。毛爾布龍的外圍，雷山西北方，為黑森林與歐登森林的交界處。修道院是阿爾卑斯山北面所存留保存最好的中世紀修道院群，皆是從羅馬式到後歌德式建築的形式潮流與發展過程代表。
整個修道院群由封閉的城牆包圍，其中包括毛爾布龍市政廳，警局，餐廳，九到十年級的福音派大學預校（文理中學）與其他公家機關等。從1993年十二月起為聯合國教科文組織列為世界文化遺產。
其中說 The monastery, which features prominently in Hermann Hesse's novel Beneath the Wheel, was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1993.
我知道這本漢譯從30年前就有幾本。譬如說，台北的道聲出版社等等。不過現在取得一翻譯，文句和注解都不夠好：
“…..一 邊漫不經心地聽這位虔誠的虔信派教徒講話。弗萊格談到了考試，祝男孩運氣好，並且對他說了些勉勵的話，但他談話的最終目的是咬指出，考試不過是表面的而且 有偶然性東西。考不上並不丟臉，即使成績最好的人也有名落孫山可能。萬一他榜上無名，就想想上帝對每個人都自有安排，會指引他們走自己的道路的。
注：虔信派是十七世紀末興起的一個基督新教教派。
--{在車輪下}，張佑中譯， 上海譯文出版社，2007，p.10”
OF the many mistakes I have no doubt made over the last few weeks, two stand out: One cost me money and one cost me some pride.
━━ n. 付加, 増加, 加算; 付加物; 〔米・カナダ〕 増築部分.
Albert William Tucker ... was chairman of the mathematics department at Princeton University in the 1950's and 1960's, but effectively presided over it during World War II. ...
An admired teacher, Professor Tucker had a somewhat atypical trajectory that stretched from Princeton's heyday of John von Neumann and Albert Einstein through the Cold War years of military research to the anti-war demonstrations on campus of the early 1970's.
Professor Tucker's best-known work, in which he created the mathematical foundations of linear programming, was the product of a second career in mathematics that did not begin until he was 45 and swamped with wartime work, administrative duties and three boisterous young children.
Linear programming, or operations research, grew out of the logistical problems of the Army and Navy during World War II. It is a handy mathematical tool for maximizing the use of some scares resource. It is now used by the AT&T Corporation to design communications networks, by oil companies to run refineries and by the Navy to route its supply ships.
As a skilled communicator, he solved the problem of explaining game theory to psychology majors at Stanford in 1950 by dreaming up one of the most famous examples in all mathematics: the so-called Prisoners' Dilemma. [MJO: Nasar's claim that the Prisoner's Dilemma is one of the most famous examples in mathematics is surely incorrect. It is, however, a famous example in game theory, without question the most well-known strategic game. Further, Tucker did not "dream it up". The game originated with others; Tucker invented its well-known interpretation.]
It is a story of two criminals confronted with the choice of confessing or denying their crimes. For each, the consequences depend on what the other prisoner decides to do. If they guess right, they can go free. If both guess wrong, they both have the book thrown at them. Dr. Tucker's tale spurred a vast literature in philosophy, biology, sociology, political science and economics.
Mostly, though Dr. Tucker was the intellectual soul of Princeton's mathematics department. Martin Shubik, a professor economics at Yale University, recalled in an essay that the math department under Dr. Tucker was "electric with ideas and the sheer joy of the hunt."
"If a stray 10-year-old with bare feet, no tie, torn blue jeans and an interesting theorem walked into Fine Hall at teatime, someone would have listened," Professor Shubik wrote.
Professor Tucker was the mentor of a remarkable generation of mathematicians, including Ralph Gomory, the former research chief at I.B.M. who is now president of the Sloan Foundation of New York; Marvin Minsky, head of the artificial intelligence program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and Jack Milnor, of the State University at Stony Brook, L.I., a winner of the Fields Medal, mathematics's equivalent of the Nobel Prize. He also trained the first generation of game theorists, including John Forbes Nash, Jr., who won a Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science last year.
Students flocked to Dr. Tuckers because of his willingness to back the more independent-minded ones. Dr. Von Neumann for example, disapproved of Dr. Nash's approach to game theory, but Professor Tucker, unfazed by Professor Von Neumann's glamour and prestige, encouraged Dr. Nash to pursue his own ideas. "He was extremely flexible as a thesis adviser and as an adviser in general," Dr. Nash said yesterday.
Dr. Tucker, a son of a high school teacher turned minister, came from a poor family in Ontario, Canada. No prodigy, Professor Tucker has to repeat his senior year of high school to retake the qualifying examination for a provincial scholarship he needed to attend college. After getting a B.A. in 1928 and M.A. in 1929 from the University of Toronto, he went to Princeton as a doctoral student.
As a first-year graduate student at Princeton, he taught calculus for a senior faculty member and protested that the professor was going too fast for his students until, finally, the professor tried to have him removed from the math department. After the dean of the faculty heard the particulars, however, Dr. Tucker was promoted.
After 1945, Professor Tucker never submitted a paper of his own for publication in a journal. He wrote conference papers with students, his son, Alan, said, but "he wanted to leave space in the journals for the next generation."
For example, the well-known Kuhn-Tucker theorem, a basic result in linear programming, never appeared in a journal but rather a volume of conference proceedings.
After his retirement in 1974, Professor Tucker tried to recapture some of the magic of Princeton's mathematics department in the 1940's. He organized a novel oral history project involving hundreds of taped interviews with former faculty members and students. He also procrastinated, his former colleagues recall fondly. His last book, published recently, was in the works for 18 years.
...
Addition by Martin J. Osborne: During Tucker's time as chair of the Math Department at Princeton, instructors in PhD courses did not award grades. At some point, the Dean of Graduate Studies demanded that they start doing so. Tucker's response was to invent the grade of "N"---meaning "no grade"! [Source: "Mathematics in the Movies" by Harold W. Kuhn (paper to be published, in Italian, in the proceedings of a conference on "Mathematics and Culture" in Venice, Italy,Click here for European and world rankings for universities
Irish universities put in good performances on the global front in the recently published THES-QS World University Rankings. Some colleges rose more than 100 places in the space of a year, and one narrowly failed to make the top 50. On the face of it this was a good result for a small island but just how important are such lists?
Eight of Ireland’s third-level institutions featured in the fourth annual ranking of the world’s top 500 universities.
Trinity College Dublin (TCD) climbed to 53rd from 78th last year, following a concerted campaign by the college to hit the top 50.
John Hegarty, the provost of TCD, said he was surprised to have come so close to the target, believing it would take a few more years to get there. Hegarty insists, though, that the push towards the top has not had any detrimental effect on undergraduate learning. He said student-staff ratios at TCD ensure that all undergraduate students benefit from one-to-one support from lecturers and tutors while studying.
“The campaign had several fronts,” Hegarty said. “We employ the best minds in the world to educate our students, while simultaneously advancing knowledge. Research and education are two sides of the same coin. If there is excellence in research, there is excellence in education and learning”. He added: “People are taking these lists very seriously. We live in a competitive world, and we need to be pushing all the time.
Hugh Brady, the president of University College Dublin (UCD), said university league tables are a reality but shouldn’t be the driving force behind the way colleges operate. He said that UCD had just passed through a period of intense change that was challenging for all concerned, and that its ranking of 177th was extremely “gratifying”.
Describing it as a “great boost”. Brady said high rankings greatly improve a college’s chances of recruiting students from overseas, but admitted that there was a “natural tension” between undergraduate learning and so-called fourth-level university activity, the commercialisation of research work. “It’s something we have have to watch very carefully,” he conceded.
Dublin City University (DCU) saw its ranking rise by 141 places to 300th, the biggest improvement by any college. Ferdinand von Prondzynski, the president of DCU, said staff were pleasantly surprised by their performance, and the college hopes for an equally significant jump next year.
“DCU has given extra weight to research funding in the last couple of years and that is reflected in this year’s rankings. We jumped far more than we had expected to,” von Prondzynski said.
He said international league tables are useful when trying to secure foreign investment for research projects. But he warned
that significant increases in government funding are needed. “We’ve been very good at providing high-quality education at a low cost base, but there are limits to that. Unless there is a serious reappraisal of core funding, the quality of undergraduate learning will start to suffer.”
Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) saw its position improve too, moving from 370th to 351st. But Frank McMahon, DIT’s director of academic affairs, said the college had little control over the outcome. “More than half of the allocated marks are given by peer review and by recruiter review. All we can do is our best and hope we will be reviewed positively,” he said. “It’s heartening to see that we are well-received, though, and it certainly has an impact on our attractiveness to both students and staff.”
DIT began to widen its research remit about five years ago in a bid to attract international students. It hopes they will soon account for 10% of its numbers. McMahon acknowledged that foreign students represent a cash injection into the college, through their fees, but added that they also enrich college life. “International students add diversity to the learning environment,” he continued, “and can share their wealth of knowledge from their own systems.”
The Department of Education said it did not “generally comment on the compilation of league tables for schools or other educational institutions”, but added that it had made a “massive investment” across the third-level sector in the past 10 years.
The department said that ¤13 billion will be invested over the next six years to cover day-to-day funding of colleges, and that recurring departmental funding of third-level research stands at ¤94m. “Continuing to improve third-level education and developing ‘fourth-level Ireland’ is central to building a better economy and society,” the department said.
But Sean Barrett, senior lecturer in economics at TCD, said university league tables are little more than an exercise in public relations and said the move to increase the number of overseas students is set to deprive Irish students of college places.
“They are closing doors on Irish 18-year-olds, by selling places to foreign students,” he said. “They are actively excluding the sons and daughters of the taxpayers who pay their wages. Somebody should tell them to step back into the lecture hall.”
Cambridge and Oxford are the second best universities in the world according to the latest rankings, and British universities are closing the gap with those in the United States.
Oxford and Cambridge share the number two spot with Yale, with Harvard ranked number one in the latest league tables from The Times Higher Education Supplement.
The findings will bring cheer to the higher education sector in Britain at a time of growing concern among vice-chancellors and employers that British universities will lose students to better-financed institutions abroad and that business will then follow them with jobs and investment.
They are also likely to add to pressure from vice-chancellors for a rise in the £3,000 annual tuition fee cap at British universities to ensure that they have sufficient funding to compete on the world stage effectively John Hood, the vice-chancellor of Oxford, said that the success of the university in the rankings – Oxford had moved up – had been achieved “despite the fact that its resources are considerably more limited than its international counterparts, particularly in the US”.
Wendy Piatt, the director-general of the Russell Group of elite research-led universities, said: “We recognise that our universities must continue to rise to the challenges of increasing global competition and increasing investment by other countries in their universities if we are to retain our status as truly world-class institutions.”
Professor Rick Trainor, the president of Universities UK, representing vice-chancellors, added: “Our competitors are increasingly marketing themselves more aggressively so it is vital that the UK remains among the foremost destinations for international students and staff.”
Britain now has four universities rated among the top ten in the list of the best 100, according to the rankings.
University College London rose from 25th position last year to ninth in the table, entering the top ten for the first time and rising farther than any other major institution. Imperial College, London also improved its standing this year, rising from ninth place to fifth.
Harvard, whose endowment of $35 billion (£16.6 billion) is roughly equal to the combined annual funding for all English universities, tops the table, but its lead over its closest rivals has fallen from 3.2 to 2.4 points. Nunzio Quacquarelli, the managing director of QS, the careers and education group that compiled the rankings, said: “In an environment of increasing student mobility, the UK is putting itself forward as a top choice for students worldwide.
“They are taking a closer look at the quality of faculty, international diversity and, of course, to the education they will receive.”
The rankings are based on a survey of academics and companies employing graduates, international student and staff numbers and research citations. The factors were weighted and transformed into a scale giving the top university 100 points and ranking the others as a proportion of that score.
The presence of so many American and British universities at the top of the rankings reflects the dominance of English as the world language for academic publishing.
Top class
1 Harvard University US
2 University of Cambridge UK
2 University of Oxford UK
2 Yale University US
5 Imperial College, London UK
6 Princeton University US
7 California Institute of Technology (Caltech) US
7 University of Chicago US
9 University College London (UCL) UK
10 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) US
People need to read the methodology of THES before commenting. The movement to a Z based criteria score meant that LSE being top of the international student criteria did not lead to it having disproportionate weight. in that criteria leading to an inflated global ranking. It is a specialist institution. which is reflected in it being 3rd world wide for social sciences, but not being able to compete with comprehensive universities.
More importantly, the bias which is the Ivy League has held long enough. American Universities have had a big propaganda machine (look what a good one did for LSE in such a short time). Propaganda does not make a university better, it just diverts funds and LSE (53rd out of 56th in the UK for teaching) suffered, like some US Universities.
However, research scores are skewed heavily this time. Not at Purchasing Power Parity, with the US Dollar weakening, UK institutions got a skewing boost from a strong pound. Same research, just worth nominally more.
Vishal Mirpuri, UCL,London,
1. Korea Univ
2. Harvard
ABC, Seoul, Seoul /Korea
The LSE not in the top 50???? How can an institution go from being safely in the top 20 for several assessments consecutively to jumping out of the top 50?? Surely the change in criteria does not truely reflect reality. Also
UCL ahead of MIT? Stanford not in the top 10??
Tony, Manchester,
To the Editor:
Re “50 City Schools Get Failing Grade in a New System” (front page, Nov. 6):
No doubt the mayor and the schools chancellor will now be the recipients of unending grief from those schools and principals who feel they were graded unfairly.
tr.v., -cat·ed, -cat·ing, -cates.Grading schools is as absurd as grading students. The criteria for both are equally detrimental to achieving the goals of a truly useful education: self-awareness, an engaged citizenry and the skills necessary to generate meaningful, dignified work.
Until we address the core societal conditions that now make such goals unattainable for the vast majority, there is little hope that obfuscating parlor tricks like high-stakes testing, free cellphones for every child and schoolwide report cards will serve as successful incentives. (紐約時報讀者投書)
obfuscating parlor tricks like high-stakes testing 注
ob·fus·cate (ŏb'fə-skāt', ŏb-fŭs'kāt')
[Latin obfuscāre, obfuscāt-, to darken : ob-, over; see ob– + fuscāre, to darken (from fuscus, dark).] v. tr. - 弄暗, 使迷亂, 使模糊
日本語 (Japanese)
v. - 困惑させる, 不明瞭にする, 混乱させる, 当惑させる, わかりにくくする
2007/11/7 午前師大書局來取SIMON書(折扣問題多多)
中午去書林 他們將The Human Web 翻譯成”文明….”(350元) 缺原書(500元)之索引
一時想起 應到RL家取書
不知何故 MOS漢堡生意好得不得了 六廚客家菜也好
RL 不在 我再走幾步 有 SUN SPACE DESIGN 再沿建國南路某巷 景甚佳
慧炬TORCH OF WISDOM原來在這兒
在大路上看”新疆牛肉伴麵”克制一下 看台糖生技店(蠔精等3500變2300?)
或覺得該買些豬肉
轉回新生南路
元祖採日文
有專門的印尼商店
國小前停6部美車待接學子
40多年前中山國小前只幾部三輪車 當時無教育媽媽
和平東路招牌英文 “某…讓居” FAMILY 拼錯
紫藤 warita (忘了 2.5小時前 out of short-term memory….) 巷道都高級
清真寺近觀 聖家堂遠景
台大牛肉麵 翻譯與後現代化
邱談wiki
談法國文學家
台大 史記
回永和 談史 世界史--地中海 傳統 暴斃稅
幼稚園查稅問題
http://word-watcher.blogspot.com/2007/11/transmogrification.html
採訪／黃孫權、李靜怡、吳牧青
文／吳牧青
放眼歷來的國內建築名家，響噹噹的人物不少，不過，若要說起橫跨建築、教育、媒體、博物館、藝術甚至宗教各界，都能有舉足輕重的地位，除了現任宗博 館館長漢寶德，實在很難想出有同等豐富履歷的人物。出身於二戰前的漢寶德，輾轉從山東日照鄉下、青島大城、到國共戰後的澎湖馬公，到考上台南工學院（成大 前身）建築系，創辦建築刊物，留學哈佛建築、普林斯頓藝術，東海建築系主任，中興工學院院長，國立自然科學博物館創館館長，台南藝術學院（南藝大前身）創 校校長，台北當代藝術館草創時期館長，世界宗教博物館首任館長…。
然而，這些敘述都只是關於漢寶德字面上流水年華。透過以下與他的訪談，我們可以去理解他如何去看媒體刊物、建築、教育、博物館，或是美學。
從辦刊物投射對於建築的熱情
一碰到在研究所時期就創《破報》與同為建築背景的黃孫權，漢寶德便開始滔滔說起自己年輕時同樣對辦刊物的熱情。從大學到任教時期一共辦了四份刊物， 大四時便辦了份《百葉窗》，到東海建築任助教時則辦了《建築》雙月刊，在當年成為第一個建築的期刊。在他留美回國後幾年，他所策動的《建築計畫》雙月刊再 度出爐，「《建築與計畫》那時資金有些吃不起，便找了些建築師來幫忙。這個經驗我就跟你講，『要靠建築師的話，鐵定會出問題的！』果然，過了一段時間，有 的建築師就跑來問我，怎麼他們的作品不在裡面？」漢寶德這時說起往事，露出雲淡風輕的自嘲微笑，也顯見他對於媒體公眾平台和利益關係人切割的重視。
後來，《建築與計畫》報導大阪萬國博覽會中國館的設計（李祖原年輕時的團隊競圖選入而獲得貝聿銘的指導），遭到業界相當大的吃味與不滿，漢寶德因此 憤而停掉《建築與計畫》。隨後便辦了《境與象》，當中參與編輯的還有他的得意門生—現在台大城鄉所的頭牌學者夏鑄九，除了介紹建築概念，也觸及了社會文化 思想的多重議題。
深而廣的文化評論
「有『建築人』這件事，而沒有『文化人』這事情…而我覺得文化人是一個被創造出來的名詞，什麼樣的人可以被稱作文化人？」漢寶德認為，文化人是一個 很寬鬆的定義，所有各個和文化相關的範疇都可稱之為文化人。「所以說，從事文化工作的可以說是文化人，關心文化的人也可以叫文化人，是不是？」他進一步強 調，文化人應該是在文化下屬其中一脈支葉下的行業，從而去關心文化的整體性。
至於從事文化研究或文化批評的人，在漢寶德的理念中，「做文化研究和文化批評不是憑空掉下來的，它是在文化當中各個分項下的一個專業，也就是它必須 建立在專業中的專業，批評本身必須奠定在一定的基礎下，例如藝術、或建築等，然後融合了史觀、哲學的觀念。」他以建築為例，認為一個專業的設計者不光是在 本身的專業就可以與社會共謀，而是在文本（context）上問題的溝通與釐清。「當視野拉高，由上往下看的時候，一個接著一個的問題與個案，才會串連到 文化評論的產生。」他也執此一認知，期許文化評論要有深度則必需建立在對圈內專業的理解。
漢寶德繼續延伸建築人的例子︰「如果一個建築師就只是出來蓋房子，那就是商人而不是文化人。你要我蓋哪樣的房子，我就蓋怎樣的房子，紅包拿了就繼續 幹，這種缺乏對文化知覺的建築人，當然不能說是文化人，只能說是技師。」《破》總編則提問︰「所以您的意思是建築的領域，對於文化有覺醒就是文化人？」 「文化人是別人講我的，如果要用這個角度來看，當然我也可以稱之為文化人。」漢寶德如此解釋。
有機會才有建築作品
在投身第一個建築作品前，漢寶德在1976年先參與了彰化孔廟的修復案，這也開啟了他傳承與學生至今長逾三十載的古蹟修復工作室，也因此才有後來在 國內信譽卓著的古蹟修復師陳益宗。1978年到1983年間則先後完成了天祥和溪頭青年活動中心，對他而言，天祥和溪頭青年活動中心是完全兩種不同的設計 理念，前者是他60年代赴美進修著迷的立體派幾何形，後者則是在和蔣經國溝通後改採情境主義的原木建築。而和救國團接觸到這兩個建案，漢寶德笑了笑，「我 本來根本不認識什麼救國團！只因為那時（宋時選）任內台中團部總幹事王先生是我的山東老鄉，這樣才引薦的。」
「我很早就考到建築師執照，但可以說是放在抽屜裡好幾年都沒用到…」漢寶德笑著說，「我認為做建築是要憑著一些運氣，即使擁有才能和實力的人，也不 見得能保證你成功。如果以畫家和建築師來相較，一個畫家開了畫展如果受歡迎，畫作就可以賣出。但是，畫家是畫他自己想要畫的東西，建築師不一樣，一個業主 他欣賞你、喜歡你而要委託你去蓋一棟建築，可是，你怎麼知道他喜歡你哪一個東西呢？這個就是很討厭的一點…建築是要有一個人信託你，信任你去蓋個房子才能 成事。」漢寶德強調，「機會」是很重要的，當沒能獲得機會，作品也無從產生。這也間接證實到建築業界很流行的一句名言︰「一切等案子接到再說吧！」
隨之而來的，還有同樣在80年代完工的墾丁青年活動中心、中研院民族學研究所、南園。
從文化教育到批判當下後現代的橫流
從東海、中興、南藝這些橫跨建築到藝術背景的教育經驗，自稱「悲觀」經驗的漢寶德則是如此看待任職教育文化機關和學生之間的關係︰「傳統建築教育是 要培養出一批對於建築美感有苛求的人，嚴格說來，並不被主流文化所接受，所遇到的困難非常的多。基本上，我便是受到美育教育的牽累（苦笑），一直到現在， 我都還是很想去推廣美學教育。」漢寶德一面苦笑，一面調侃地說︰「如果放棄這種自恃，其實應該會過得蠻『舒服』的。」
「到了後現代盛行的年代，我們對於美學的要求就完全地鬆開了，那種對於傳統美學真善美的觀念，就幾乎是完全沒有了。所以說，當你不去定義文化教育的 時候，你怎麼去做文化教育？」漢寶德從傳統美學，引申到晚近藝術圈奉之為天物的後現代主義︰「我的理論很簡單，傳統古典的論述，那到今天都還是一種價值， 因為它是一種『人性』。而愛美就是根於人性，追根究柢來說，古代的學問沒那麼多，所以越是古典的學理，就越是基本的。」
漢寶德也順便虧了一下目前高等教育的素質不均和亂象︰「一有了大學，世界就亂了，有那麼多在寫博士論文的，你要寫博士論文，一定就是要否定別人，然 後說自己是對的，就搞得亂七八糟。套老子的理論，那應該把博士論文通通拿去燒掉。」「回到最原始，人不就是希望有那麼一些美和小小的愛心嗎？」他對於後現 代將「個人價值凌駕於傳統核心價值觀」的個性伸張態度，認為如此是許多失序的根源，感到不以為然。他並強調︰「越是多元的社會，越要強調核心價值。」
城市與混亂的美感價值
「建築幾乎是沒辦法影響城市的發展，而城市有90%是政治所影響的產物，而只有10%是都市計劃的技術。」漢寶德表示，都市計劃又被相關的利益團體 所綁住，「都市設計原本是期待建築師將藝術帶到城市當中，但現實是建築師要去改造或打造一座城市簡直是個夢想。」他悲觀中還是帶點古典的期待，「這些作夢 的人很傻，不過這世界是需要一群作夢的人，當然，這和現實無關了。」
「當你看到一個城市的建築很混亂的時候，就可以知道這城市的價值是很混亂的。」漢寶德說得有些無力，他認為台灣的中小學需要基本的美感教育，一些關 於環境、生活空間的美感。「台北市每次的滿意度調查都很高，可是學建築的一看，台北市怎麼那麼醜滿意度還那麼高？因為住在裡面很舒服嘛，門上掛個鐵窗感覺 很安全，到樓下沒走兩三步，什麼都有得買有得吃，附近也有公園，似乎只要長樹就可以了，是不是？因為，沒感覺嘛，就是到後來各種不同階層的美感價值混搭在 一起，形成一種混亂。」
博物館所不能被踐踏的精神價值
「巴洛克基本上就是有錢人喜歡的東西，那你看故宮現在也展著《華麗巴洛克》。」從80年代自然科學博物館創館、90年代台南藝術學院創校到近幾年的 台北當代館與世界宗教博物館的他，對於博物館的現況有另一種期待。「我到故宮博物院，就跟他們說，你們展出那麼多宋朝的盤子，有沒有人看啊？大家過了那些 玻璃櫃，連看都不看一眼。觀光客進來，看了一個「翠玉白菜」就走了，因為他們在家裡，就吃那個白菜嘛。然後，現在的故宮就特地把「翠玉白菜」給它突出、特 別擺設，好像它是非看不可的東西，旁邊還放一塊肥豬肉，剛好豬肉燒白菜配一塊兒。」漢寶德認為，當故宮在文物常設展做成這樣，價值幾乎等於零。
「博物館做為一個教育機構，必須要做到藝術普及傳達給大眾。」漢寶德說，當文物或是藝術品需要被宣揚它的「貴重」，藝術的價值就等於零。「好像看到 什麼很值錢的東西就賺到似的，《華麗巴洛克》現在不就在大力宣揚那些作品多貴重嗎？藝術本身的精神價值就在價錢的衡量中給抹滅了。」
「以一個建築人的夢想，你會想要為自己蓋一棟房子嗎？」漢寶德想了想，驚覺這幾年才開始有這麼想過，然後一方面也猶豫著，「不過嘛，我總是會想太多，想著去推美感教育，為自己蓋，是不是去蓋個墳墓還比較實際？」
與漢寶德這位老前輩訪談的過程，讓人感受到那股曾經很用力的丰采，那種丰采不在於他曾有的頭銜、尊稱或是權力位置，而在於他停不下來的空間理想。或 許，對於前衛的自由派覺得有些老古，卻又看得見力尊古典核心美學下，切中要領的批判論述。若果他所言一切為真，當美學的建築無限量地在腦海中搭起，那或許 就像漢寶德一樣，都是畢生難以窮盡、追不完的夢想。
新博物館學，但具幻覺的人文主義姿態
文╱李靜怡
短短兩小時裡，我們不自覺地拍了幾百張的照片。
手上是淡金色封面的世界宗教博物館「虛擬聖境」—世界宗教建築縮影手冊，偌大的空間裡，人們大約都體驗了對於一個六、七樓博物館展場，如何突破時空 結構的侷限，如何規劃平衡流動觀者與宗教命題的戲劇性光線投射，組織口述歷史，如何與在地藝術家合作，明牆、暗牆、揭示、隱藏與心理暗示。博物館如何回歸 教育本質、展示敘事、安排物質文化並且架構自不毀壞的博物館知識系統，作為傅柯心中累積事物、建立存檔、企圖包含所有時間、時代、所有形式、所有品味的異 質空間(heterotopias)，然而自身卻相當自外地、永不毀壞、但具幻覺的姿態；而或博物館僅止於傅柯所批判的？
然而思考教育，不應當是一個趨於複雜的問題。
對漢寶德自身理解建築相當重要的建築師萊特，提出建築的「草原風格」，主張建築物像樹一樣，「從地下自自然然長出來」。萊特將有機理論發揮到極致， 室內室外是一體的設計，部分元素即整體，整體即部分元素；萊特反映出一個建築師如何修養詩的精神，取得和諧，並與神聖共存。宗教博物館在規劃概念上，回到 許多基本的命題。何謂博物館的教育精神？博物館自身如何自外於當代社會輕薄價值判斷尋求實驗與改革？
近代博物館的產生和殖民主義的擴張有其歷史上的必然關係。1753年，大英博物館收購史龍恩(Sir Hans Sloane)所珍藏的八萬件古物，博物館開始以建立世界博物館(universal museum)為目標，以空間分配為其繪圖學，進而排序世界文明史。而大型博覽會的成型來自帝國主義與殖民者心態操作的萬物博覽會。1851年，英國倫敦 齊聚世界各地的科技工藝與民族文物，帝國殖民者將歐洲世界觀與空間感擴展到第三世界與新大陸，將征服感具體而微的收納在珍物櫃或是展示空間。但是這種霸權 式的收藏到了1884年有了轉變。牛津大學內的彼特瑞福博物館(Pitt-Rivers Museum)嚐試了一種令人振奮的實驗。彼特瑞福將軍蒐藏一萬四千件武器、古董、船的模型、錄音，他不以近代人類學博物館以年代、地區、國家區隔，彼特 瑞福將軍發展出獨特的類型學(typology)，將來自世界各地的同一類型物件擺放在一起，如弓箭或樂器的展示區，將世界文明史轉化成互相援引、關聯演 化。而此博物館數百年來陸續接受許多考古學家與人類學家的捐贈，2007年目前的特展，即以世界各地獨特服飾印染技術、編織工法為主。
漢寶德20年前曾在中央副刊發表過一篇文章，「只有一幅畫的美術館」。介紹俄國鄉間的一座畫廊的展示方法，一種深度展示美術品的方法，當時不受任何 博物館的重視。而20年後，所有人仍舊習慣於輕薄展覽法的時候，宗教博物館進行《聖誕圖：一幅畫的故事》特展，以17世紀巴洛克時期，義大利畫家喬丹奴 (Luca Giordano, 1632-1705)為歐洲皇室繪製的聖誕圖為主軸，輔以劇場動畫、十張不同年代的同名複製畫作、文物陳設、人物角色分析、藝術史評論、以及利用多媒體的 展場空間，去理解一幅畫。漢寶德笑說，「我不喜歡那種觀眾看完『翠玉白菜』，釀豬肉，回家以後，白菜還是白菜，觀眾還是觀眾的那種走馬看花的感覺。」
教育很可能是極其簡單的文學，只不過當多數博物館與美術館另俸流行派系與世俗主義之時，博物館經驗變得難以自外於僵化想像或是反映想像僵化的城市活 動，近似有著鮮豔大花票卷、價廉物美、講究穿戴的兒童樂園。要想在博物館內做什麼實驗，甚至以十大宗教為主題進行溫和美學實驗，新博物館學的人文主義提供 但具幻覺的部分真實。
Political leaders, tech executives, and academics often claim that the U.S. is falling behind in math and science education. They cite poor test results, declining international rankings, and decreasing enrollment in the hard sciences. They urge us to improve our education system and to graduate more engineers and scientists to keep pace with countries such as India and China.
Yet a new report by the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, tells a different story. The report disproves many confident pronouncements about the alleged weaknesses and failures of the U.S. education system. This data will certainly be examined by both sides in the debate over highly skilled workers and immigration (BusinessWeek.com, 10/10/07). The argument by Microsoft (MSFT), Google (GOOG), Intel (INTC), and others is that there are not enough tech workers in the U.S.
The authors of the report, the Urban Institute's Hal Salzman and Georgetown University professor Lindsay Lowell, show that math, science, and reading test scores at the primary and secondary level have increased over the past two decades, and U.S. students are now close to the top of international rankings. Perhaps just as surprising, the report finds that our education system actually produces more science and engineering graduates than the market demands.
These findings go against what has been the dominant position about our education system and our science and engineering workforce. Consider reports on national competitiveness that policymakers often turn to, such reports as the 2005 "Rising Above the Gathering Storm" by the National Academy of Sciences. This report says the U.S. is in dire straits because of poor math and science preparation. The report points to declining test scores, fewer students taking math and science courses, and low-quality curriculums and teacher preparation in K-12 education compared to other countries.
The call has been taken up by some of the most prominent people in business and politics. Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft, said at an education summit in 2005, "In the international competition to have the biggest and best supply of knowledge workers, America is falling behind." President George W. Bush addressed the issue in his 2006 State of the Union address. "We need to encourage children to take more math and science, and to make sure those courses are rigorous enough to compete with other nations," he said.
Salzman and Lowell found the reverse was true. Their report shows U.S. student performance has steadily improved over time in math, science, and reading. It also found enrollment in math and science courses is actually up. For example, in 1982 high school graduates earned 2.6 math credits and 2.2 science credits on average. By 1998, the average number of credits increased to 3.5 math and 3.2 science credits. The percent of students taking chemistry increased from 45% in 1990 to 55% in 1996 and 60% in 2004. Scores in national tests such as the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the SAT, and the ACT have also shown increases in math scores over the past two decades.
And the new report again went against the grain when it compared the U.S. to other countries. It found that over the past decade the U.S. has ranked a consistent second place in science. It also was far ahead of other nations in reading and literacy and other academic areas. In fact, the report found that the U.S. is one of only a few nations that has consistently shown improvement over time.
Why the sharp discrepancy? Salzman says that reports citing low U.S. international rankings often misinterpret the data. Review of the international rankings, which he says are all based on one of two tests, the Trends in International Mathematics & Science Study (TIMMS) or the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), show the U.S. is in a second-ranked group, not trailing the leading economies of the world as is commonly reported. In fact, the few countries that place higher than the U.S. are generally small nations, and few of these rank consistently high across all grades, subjects, and years tested. Moreover, he says, serious methodological flaws, such as different test populations, and other limitations preclude drawing any meaningful comparison of school systems between countries.
As far as our workforce is concerned, the new report showed that from 1985 to 2000 about 435,000 U.S. citizens and permanent residents a year graduated with bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in science and engineering. Over the same period, there were about 150,000 jobs added annually to the science and engineering workforce. These numbers don't include those retiring or leaving a profession but do indicate the size of the available talent pool. It seems that nearly two-thirds of bachelor's graduates and about a third of master's graduates take jobs in fields other than science and engineering.
Michael Teitelbaum, vice-president of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, which, among other things, works to improve science education, says this research highlights the troubling weaknesses in many conventional policy prescriptions. Proposals to increase the supply of scientists and engineers rapidly, without any objective evidence of comparably rapid growth in attractive career opportunities for such professionals, might actually be doing harm.
In previous columns, I have written about research my team at Duke University completed that shattered common myths (BusinessWeek.com, 7/10/06) about India and China graduating 12 times as many engineers as the U.S. We found that the U.S. graduated comparable numbers and was far ahead in quality. Our research also showed there were no engineer shortages (BusinessWeek.com, 11/7/06) in the U.S., and companies weren't going offshore because of any deficiencies in U.S. workers.
So, there isn't a lack of interest in science and engineering in the U.S., or a deficiency in the supply of engineers. However, there may sometimes be short-term shortages of engineers with specific technical skills in certain industry segments or in various parts of the country. The National Science Foundation data show that of the students who graduated from 1993 to 2001, 20% of the bachelor's holders went on to complete master's degrees in fields other than science and engineering and an additional 45% were working in other fields. Of those who completed master's degrees, 7% continued their education and 31% were working in fields other than science and engineering.
There isn't a problem with the capability of U.S. children. Even if there were a deficiency in math and science education, there are so many graduates today that there would be enough who are above average and fully qualified for the relatively small number of science and engineering jobs. Science and engineering graduates just don't see enough opportunity in these professions to continue further study or to take employment.
With U.S. competitiveness at stake, we need to get our priorities straight. Education is really important, and a well-educated workforce is what will help the U.S. keep its global edge. But emphasizing math and science education over humanities and social sciences may not be the best prescription for the U.S. We need our children to receive a balanced and broad education.
Perhaps we should focus on creating demand for the many scientists and engineers we graduate. There are many problems, from global warming to the development of alternative fuels to cures for infectious diseases, that need to be solved. Rather than blaming our schools, let's create exciting national programs that motivate our children to help solve these problems.
Wadhwa is Wertheim Fellow at the Harvard Law School and executive in residence at Duke University. He is a tech entrepreneur who founded two technology companies. His research can be found at www.globalizationresearch.com .
10/27/2007
Kyoko Kishida, a celebrated character actress who died at 76 last December, wrote in an essay that she used to be partial to children who had strong personalities. She was delighted, she recalled, whenever she came across a youngster who was too individualistic to keep pace with his or her peers.
But, Kishida went on, all that changed when she became a mother. "Hurry up and finish your meal," she would snap at her child. "Have you done your homework?"she would nag. She worried about her child not being accepted by peers. From her writing, I can almost hear her sighing at herself in dismay for having become "another typical adult."
However, I imagine parents just can't help being "typical adults," nor can they ignore the results of the education ministry's latest nationwide survey of primary and junior high school students' scholastic ability.
The survey reveals exactly where each prefecture ranks in scholastic aptitude. Although the rankings were made by city, town or village as well as by school, the results were not officially announced. I should think many parents are feeling uneasy, imaging what the results of their children's school was.
Education boards of lower-ranked prefectures are not happy. "I was shocked," said a board member in lowest-ranked Okinawa Prefecture. A board member in Osaka lamented, "I thought we'd done everything we could think of for our kids." And a Kochi board member sounded like the commander of a defeated army, saying the board should "apologize to the kids."
It is difficult to analyze the results of a survey with complete accuracy. But rankings are easy to understand, so people tend to focus on them and talk about them, proudly or dejectedly, depending on where they stand.
The survey in question has been much touted by the education ministry. But I can't really see anything positive in it, if all it does is make parents and educators around the nation happy or miserable over what may only be superficial phenomena.
To go back to Kishida: By her own account, she could not do division even in her upper years in primary school. But when her mother helped her understand what it meant to divide a number, a whole new world opened up for her.
The education ministry will conduct another survey next year. This worries me. I just hope it will not result in schools becoming overly zealous to teach youngsters how to score higher in tests to improve their national rankings, and consequently depriving them of the thrill and joy of understanding something new.
--The Asahi Shimbun, Oct. 26(IHT/Asahi: October 27,2007)
96年10月26日(星期五) 中午12:30~13:10 | 「異變」音樂會 | 駱昭勻、胡與之 |
演出曲目
瞬間－鋼琴獨奏(陳家怡作曲)
音樂‧藝像－琵琶、鋼琴二重奏(陳家怡作曲)
光影交錯－琵琶獨奏(陳家怡作曲)
○○○○－琵琶、鋼琴即興
| 演奏者 | 介紹 |
| 駱昭勻 | 琵 琶演奏家－－駱昭勻（Luo Chao-yun），曾受邀出訪臺灣（多次）、北京（多次）、新加坡、馬來西亞（兩次）、葡萄牙、巴基斯坦、尼泊爾、哥斯大黎加(兩次)、義大利、美國 （三次）、英國、荷蘭、巴西、保加利亞等國之重大國際藝術節上舉辦琵琶巡迴獨奏會、即興演奏會、協奏曲，座無虛席，其演奏風格典雅，深受各國媒體評論界及 樂迷們的喜愛。並以訪問教授身份客座講學及教學於葡萄牙里斯本音樂學院(Conservatorio Nacional-Lisbon)、英國國立布萊頓大學(University of Brighton, UK)、哥斯大黎加埃雷迪亞國立大學音樂學院(Escuela de Musica-Heredia Universidad National)、國立哥斯大黎加大學音樂系（UNA）、哥斯大黎加大學音樂系（UCR）、馬來西亞慧音社華樂團、荷蘭Zwolle音樂學院、美國賓州 桑德曼音樂學院(Sunderman Conservatory of Music, Gettysburg College)、美國加州州立大學洛杉磯分校(CSULA)、國立臺灣師範大學音樂系、交通大學音樂研究所『九五音樂論壇』演講系列等。2004年出版 第一張個人獨奏專輯，深受好評，2006年8月出版第二張個人獨奏專輯。 歷年來共同搭檔之各國著名藝術家及團體：陳家怡(臺灣作曲家)，彭奕凱(馬來西亞指揮)，Conall Gleeson(愛爾蘭中提琴暨電子音樂演奏家)，Paul Pallesen(荷蘭班卓琴演奏家)，張怡蓁（台灣電小提琴暨薩他爾演奏家），Paul Austerlitz(美國低音豎笛手)，Audrey Chen(美國華裔大提琴手暨人聲音樂家)，Ehran Elisha(以色列爵士鼓手)，杜翠煙(臺灣鋼琴家)，Anita Hustas(澳洲低音貝司手)，Soo Jung Kae(南韓鋼琴家)，Leonel Kaplan(阿根廷小號手)，林法(臺灣古琴演奏家)，Bettina Koziol(德國聲樂家)，Marvi La Spina(義大利鋼琴家)，Corrie van Binsbergen(荷蘭電吉他手)，Bojan Vuletic(德國吉他演奏家)，陳星 洲(台灣視覺設計藝術家)，James Webster(紐西蘭毛利吹管樂器演奏家)，Nate Wooley(美國小號手)，Hazel Leach(荷蘭長笛手)，Jeffery Lependorf(美國尺八演奏家)，陳暐凱（台灣太極表演藝術家），Jocelyn Swigger(美國鋼琴家)，Ursel Schlicht（德國鋼琴家），Alessandro Bosetti(義大利薩克管暨電子音樂作曲家)，Shadi Fauzi(敘利亞烏特琴演奏家)，原田亞嗣（日本全方位即興藝術家），黃志方（台灣電子音樂作曲家），Jose Duarte（哥斯大黎加實驗電子作曲家），Aleksandar Stamatov(馬其頓冬不拉演奏家)，Celia Malheiros(巴西人聲暨吉他手)，Radu Vincu（羅馬尼亞小提琴手），胡與之(臺灣鋼琴家)，馬來西亞慧音社華樂團，新加坡文禮 華樂團，羅馬尼亞Consiliul Judetean Timis樂團等。葡萄牙里斯本大學文學院著名之Prof. Herr聽完其演奏後接受媒體採訪說：「簡直是天堂傳來之美妙聲音，人間絕無僅有！」英國著名表演藝術家Konrad Fredericks聽完其現場獨奏會後直呼：「簡直不可思議，一把琵琶就能演奏出百人交響樂團的效果出來！」 |
| 胡與之 | 鋼 琴演奏家－－胡與之，臺東馬蘭阿美族。英國倫敦大學音樂研究所鋼琴演奏與理論碩士，倫敦大學音樂系鋼琴演奏學士。接受 David Carhart博士及皇家音樂學院鋼琴教授 Yonty Solomon指導。目前任教於臺灣聖經學院音樂系，文化大學及真理大學推廣部音樂系講師，以及臺北佛光，廣賢及台東日光合唱團伴奏，曾任臺北市政府原住 民兒童合唱團之專任指揮。 1994 年遠赴英國，於倫敦 Ealing Music School 發表個人鋼琴獨奏會。獲選為 Goldsmiths交響樂團鋼琴首席，與其合作演出 Constant Lambert鋼琴協奏曲。他也是室內合唱團男高音及現代室內樂團成員，於倫敦皇家慶典音樂廳演出。其個人創作之室內樂曲 Strung up string quartet 獲 Kreutzer 弦樂四重奏入選為音樂會曲目在倫敦舉行世界首演。加入 Conway Hall網路現場轉播演出現代即興音樂表演，BBC國家廣播電台之節目錄音 Interview for World Service 獨奏Prokofiev 之鋼琴作品。獲選參與台北駐英大使館音樂會的鋼琴獨奏。2002年回臺後舉辦【環島鋼琴獨奏會】於靜宜大學，長榮大學，文藻學院，台東大學，政治大學及台 灣大學。並與台北市原住民親善訪問團赴中國大連市表演阿美族傳統歌舞，於臺北市政府劇場與多元文化藝術團演唱阿美族傳統歌謠。指揮原住民兒童合唱團在市政 府，公共電視臺演出，舉辦多場鋼琴獨奏會於天母也趣藝廊。 2006年六月16日，與女高音童詩婷於臺北十方樂集演奏廳發表演奏會。同年八月赴德國柏林參與莫扎特音樂節安魂曲之合唱演出，九月23日於台東文化局演藝廳擔任日光合唱團之鋼琴演出。2007年六月15日在新竹演藝廳演奏Mozart 雙鋼琴奏鳴曲，及 Rossini 小莊嚴彌撒曲。十一月發表鋼琴四手聯彈音樂會。 |
Can it really be that no non-English speaking university can make this grade?
Mark Runacres, Delhi,
the list ...to my opinion.
1.Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) US
this should be the first!
2.University College London (UCL) UK
this should be the second.
believe me.
9. University of Cambridge UK
10.Harvard University US
so is correct.
gianni, munich, germany
Harvard above Oxbridge?!! You're having a laugh!!
margeret, london,
Second EQUAL? Are you sure the list wasn't just made up to rankle alumni of Both Places?
Ian Kemmish, Biggleswade, UK