I don't mean to improve the importance of the university as a turning point in one's life direction. Because there are many forks in the road in life, college may not be the most important one for you. Shen Congwen graduated from high school, but he became a professor in Peking University, the highest institution in China. Zhou Enlai University was unknown on the list until it became our most beloved prime minister, and it was only a high school diploma. Chen Yinque, praised by Liang Qichao and Wu Mi as "the most learned person in China", is known as the "professor of professors". He studied abroad for more than ten years, but only graduated from Fudan College with a high school education. Mr. Chen's nephew, Chen Fengxiong, once asked him, "Why didn't you get a doctorate after studying abroad for more than ten years?" He replied: "It's not difficult to get a doctorate, but if you are tied down by one subject after two or three years, you won't have time to learn other knowledge. As long as you can learn knowledge, it doesn't matter whether you have a degree or not. " The three examples I cited above are not world-famous people who were conquered by force. On the contrary, Shen Congwen, Chen Yinque's elegance and erudition, and Premier Zhou's talk and laughter are unparalleled, and they can even be used as spokesmen of China University's knowledge. Therefore, knowledge and insight don't have to be taken from schools, and the success or failure of life doesn't have to be based on the merits of universities. University-as one of many turning points in the journey of life. Here we can't judge whose future is infinite, because that is as absurd as judging whose future is dying. Every individual is different and active. Students will not mass-produce meat products with uniform specifications in universities and then review and stamp them. I always believe that as long as you refuse to define your life, no one can see your future at the fork of the road in the university.
I don't want to sanctify the university to eulogize it, otherwise the text is empty and general, and I really can't write it. So I quoted examples from Mr. Shen Congwen and others to express my inner feelings, but in order to avoid misunderstanding, I want to be a little frank. For example, Liang Qichao said, "Only by reading can you forget to play cards, and only by playing cards can you forget to read." Liang Shiqiu once said such a sentence about Liang Qichao playing cards: "Mr. Ren Gong has a style of study and can play cards. We don't have his learning style and can't make excuses. " So I also want to say that we are not Shen Congwen, Chen Yinque and Premier Zhou. We don't have their knowledge and manners, and we can't find an excuse. It can't be said that they won't become them in the future, but none of them will regard themselves as great men in the future from the beginning and constantly make excuses for their privileges, so it is not advisable to underestimate the importance of universities too much. We can't exaggerate its significance to life. We should not only break the aura of authority, but also emphasize individual initiative and unlimited possibilities without falling into extreme emotional mire. Only by judging the significance of university with a prudent and objective attitude can we plan and evaluate how to complete self-transformation and sublimation at the turning point of life. Otherwise, excessive advocacy is close to whitewashing, while excessive criticism is a mere slander, both of which are biased.
What is a university? Mei Yiqi, president of Tsinghua University, said, "A great scholar is not an architecture, but a master." In fact, in the final analysis, universities are artificially created environments, not objective conditions such as facilities, school buildings and houses. There are "masters" but the cultural idols you meet here can be called "masters". The integrity of these masters is the spirit of the university and an important part of the "school spirit". Man is the product of environment and education. As an educational place, a university gathers knowledgeable masters to preach and teach as examples, and creates an academic atmosphere of assiduous study. The so-called "advance despite difficulties, go straight without help". White sand is nirvana, and it is black. This good learning environment has a great influence on people, especially young people.
After the mentor, let's talk about good friends. There are many club activities in universities, and students have a lot of work to exercise their personal abilities. Most young people are passionate and willing to devote themselves to new areas of interest, so it is not difficult to find like-minded friends in activities and work. Therefore, the university provides such a convenient platform, where three or five friends can sit around the stove, talk about their ideals and encourage each other to forge ahead. In this way, these people around you form a class with you. In fact, this relatively closed class virtually resets your living environment and gives you a vision and platform to choose your future environment.
Speaking of horizons, I have to say that college life is of great significance to the horizons of the rich. For most people, the university stage is a stage from naivety to maturity. It can't be said that the university has transformed us into mature people. We can only say that the transition period from teenagers to young people in our lives happens to be the period of studying in universities. The curtain of life opened, and we boarded the stage of university, which provided us with a stage of freedom and pursuit. On this stage, the role we play, the lines we say and even the value of our performance depend on ourselves. What do we take differently from others? Pu Songling in Qing Dynasty said: Although the road of life is long, there are only a few key steps, especially when people are young. Isn't that what we are now? The most important thing for birds is their wings, and the most important thing for people is their thoughts. So I think: the university is a stage, a stage for tempering ideas. The free stage is the freest period in a person's life. During this period, we are free from the heavy schoolwork in senior high school, from countless mathematical formulas, chemical equations, English grammar, political significance, historical events and so on. Bury yourself in the dense pile of characters in the book. We don't have time to think about the direction and goal of life. The freedom and career of the adult world are unrestrained, and the pressure of life choice has hit us hard without rehearsal. We don't have time to blame ourselves, we can only mature quickly under great external pressure. During this period, the role of universities in helping others is particularly important. In a short period of three or four years, universities should try their best to make up for our lack of life experience in the past ten years, broaden our horizons-go to the real world instead of books, and let us make correct life and career choices at the fork in the road. In a word, the people you met in college, the books you read and the jobs you have done have broadened your horizons, made you quickly understand what kind of person you are and what kind of person you want to be, and made the first important choice in life-career choice.
This paper discusses the intangible influence of university as a humanistic environment on us, and then discusses what university as a higher education organization has taught us. Professor Andrew Abbott delivered a speech at the opening ceremony of the University of Chicago, saying: "University education teaches you general skills that will benefit you for life, whether it is used for graduate study, work or entertainment. Critical reading ability-enables you to clearly explain complex action plans at work; Necessary writing skills-enable you to clearly explain your views to colleagues; Independent thinking ability-this can avoid conformity; And the ability of lifelong learning-let you relax because of the constant changes in work and play. Education is not about teaching specific content, or even imparting skills. Education is a habit of thinking or a state of mind. He is not your accessory, but he is integrated with you. "
We know that these abilities expounded by Professor Andrew Abbott are not only obtained from university education, in other words, university education is not the only way to obtain these abilities, but it is the most convenient way. It can be said that the path taken by most people is not necessarily the best, and the path taken by a few people is often wrong.
Newton said, "I see far, because I stand on the shoulders of giants." Universities are actually the shoulders of giants. We can build a nine-story platform without any effort. As long as we are willing to climb, the university can be the perfect cornerstone of your life.