有幸看过已故华人科学家张首晟的一次讲座 —— 从沙粒中看世界，在讲座 45:11 以他的儿子举例如何从错综复杂的信息中找到关键信息，结合最近发生的一些事情，发现了一个值得深思的问题。

近代名人多出自文科

纵观中国近代史上掀起的各种浪潮，猛然间发现能被大家所熟知的名字，大多是文科出生，为什么会这样呢？直到我看到了爱因斯坦的《培养独立思考的教育》一文，上面的问题终于有了答案，以下是译文全文（英文原文在译文之后）：

专业教育存在着诸多的缺陷，它使人成为一种机械性的工具，而不能使一个人的身心得到全面发展。最根本的是要使学生对价值有自己的体会和理解，还要产生一定的感情。要使学生具有一定的明辨是非以及辨别道德高低的能力，这是最起码的要求。不然的话，学生也就如同动物园里被训练过的动物一般机械，而不能算是一个真正意义上的人。学生除了学习知识外，还应当走进社会，走进生活，学会与人相处，体察世间百态，这样才能成为一个有感情的人，而不能成为一个只会机械性工作、没有感情的动物。

上面这些东西是教育者自身在社会接触的过程中得到的，不能说全部但至少有很大一部分是专业教育和课本学习无法给予的。这也正是文化构成的一个重要来源和文化保存的一个重要方式。我眼里的“人文学科”正如上面所谈的那样，而不是诸如历史、哲学等充满众多专业词汇而又枯燥无比的知识，所以我才郑重向大家推荐。

知识的过早专业化或片面地强调竞争，不但会使文化生活得以依托的精神严重挫伤，甚至丧失殆尽，而且也会使专业知识本身僵化、停滞不前。对教育而言，学生的批判性思维和独立思考的能力无疑是十分重要的，然而，当下的学生尤其是那些青年学生，面临着来自诸如学分制等方面的沉重负担，这在一定程度上严重影响了他们独立思考能力的培养与形成，也因此使得教育只能流于表层而不能够深入。一种成功的教育模式，不是使学生感觉接受教育是一项不得不完成的任务和重负，而应该是让学生感觉接受教育像接受一种礼物那样快乐。

Education for Independent Thought

by Albert Einstein – New York Times, October 5, 1952

It is not enough to teach a man a specialty. Through it he may become a kind of useful machine but not a harmoniously developed personality. It is essential that the student acquire an understanding of and a lively feeling for values. He must acquire a vivid sense of the beautiful and of the morally good. Otherwise he – with his specialized knowledge – more closely resembles a well-trained dog than a harmoniously developed person. He must learn to understand the motives of human beings, their illusions and their sufferings, in order to acquire a proper relationship to individual fellow men and to the community.

These precious things are conveyed to the younger generation through personal contact with those who teach, not – or at least not in the main – through textbooks. It is this that primarily constitutes and preserves culture. This is what I have in mind when I recommend the ‘humanities’ as important, not just dry specialized knowledge in the fields of history and philosophy.

Overemphasis on the competitive system and premature specialization on the ground of immediate usefulness kill the spirit on which all cultural life depends, specialized knowledge included.

It is also vital to a valuable education that independent critical thinking be developed in the young human being, a development that is greatly jeopardized by overburdening him with too much and with too varied subjects (point system). Overburdening necessarily leads to superficiality. Teaching should be such that what is offered is perceived as a valuable gift and not as a hard duty.