There is a popular belief that a college education is something to be endured in order to become qualified to obtain certain kinds of jobs or to go to graduate school.
有一种普遍的观点认为,大学教育是一种可以忍受的东西,以便能有资格获得某些工作或去读研究生。
This is not what we're trying to do at Harvard.
这不是我们在哈佛做的。
The most obvious goal of a college education is to give knowledge, but it is far from the most important.
大学教育最显着的目标是给予人知识,但这远不是最重要的。
Remarkably few of the facts you learn here will remain in your memory for many years, and some of those that do might be proved false by new knowledge.
事实上你在大学里学到的知识很少会留在你的记忆中,其中一些又或许被新学到的知识推翻了。
At Harvard, we have looked to other things we can give that will last a little longer.
在哈佛,我们寻求了其他一些能够延续更久的东西。
Among these things are certain habits of mind, such as the ability to have more critical analysis, to make more accurate and logical use of the information and so forth.
这些东西有一定的思维习惯,比如能够进行更多关键性的分析的能力,从而更准确、更合理地利用信息等等。
In addition to these habits of thought, it is our hope that we can help you develop certain attitudes of mind like the willingness to accept uncertainty and the lack of definite truth.
除了这些惯性思维之外,我们的愿望是能够帮助你开发某种心灵上的态度,比如愿意接受不确定性和缺乏道理的真理。
Beyond providing these qualities, a college education should try to lay foundation for the creative use of leisure time, which can be cultivated in the classroom.
除了提供这些素质,大学教育还应该在课堂上尝试利用业余时间为创造性打下基础。
Yet, the cultivation of this ability will also occur outside of the classroom.
由此,这些培养出来的能力也能在教室以外出现。
For example, on sports fields, in music room and so on.
例如在运动场上、音乐室内等等。