2022暑期精读第二课：大学焦虑
选择作品：College Pressure by William Zinsser
“悬在我们每一个人头上的焦虑之剑。”
“我们中的大多数都在经历这样的焦虑……”
“有时候只需要上帝的手，将我们推向这样或者那样的未来……”
耶鲁大学的学院院长最近总是收到学生们的留言，留言内容各不相同，却呈现出千篇一律的焦虑——绅士的时代一去不复返，自由下行的社会环境倡导将大学生活编码为两点一线的“pre-rich”，暴富前教育……
从前的学生总爱提出这样的问题：“要怎样才能终止世界上的悲惨与苦难呢？”如今，学生们更常咨询道，“您觉得我是进入法学院发展更好，还是进入医学院？”
内容干货
1.作者简介，作品梗概
作者简介：William Zinsser was a lifelong journalist and nonfiction writer—he began his career on the New York Herald Tribune in 1946—and was also a teacher, best known for his book On Writing Well.His 18 other books range from commentary (The Writer Who Stayed), memoir (Writing Places; Writing About Your Life) to travel (American Places), jazz (Mitchell & Ruff), American popular song (Easy to Remember), baseball (Spring Training) and the craft of writing (Writing to Learn). During the 1970s he was at Yale University, where he was master of Branford College and taught the influential nonfiction workshop that would start many writers and editors on their careers.
Notable Works：Writing Well, The Writer Who Stayed
作品梗概：In this article, the author discussed a heated topic: college pressure. He took the phenomenon in Yale university as an example and dug into the core of it. In an era filled with ambition and anxiety, the true essence of education is fading away. We are not producing world-viewers but bread-winners with high salaries. With the economy nose-diving, the whole system above fluctuates……
2.单词词组，地道表达
（1）人生快车道概念疾驰的年代，原本blithe的大学教育被codify为under the creek的焦虑流水线——the only end of college is pre-rich. 教育从试错导向转化为结果导向，似乎人生就是proverbially一方通行的单行道。What a wretched existence these students are! 学生们无法shuffle，被laden with woe，在赏味期不能savor，不曾知味就要求做出缜密的人生蓝图并按图索骥。我们听见the clacking of typewriters in the hours before dawn，我们描摹人生的blueprint before we could.
（2）但不确定性才是studded on人生镶嵌画的最美装饰。而如今我们已经很难 allow the hand of God or chance to nudge 我们 down some unforeseen trail. 应当提出的是，我们只是希望求得 some release from the clammy grip of the future. 一种 to savor each segment of their education as an experience in itself的机会，而不是as a grim preparation for the next step. 我们稀得the right to experiment, to trip and fall, to learn that defeat is as instructive as victory and is not the end of the world，狭隘的社会意义上的成功并不是人生的全部。
3.文章佳句，沉浸赏析
室友前后脚出入教室办公室，相互抱怨彼此“太卷了”……
▶I had a freshman student I’ll call Linda,” one dean told me, “Who came in and said she was under terrible pressure because her roommate, Barbara, was much brighter and studied all the time. I couldn’t tell her that Barbara had come in two hours earlier to say the same thing about Linda.”
一个人在简介上的面孔比其在现实中的血肉更重要……
▶l Note the emphasis on looking better. The transcript has become a sacred document, the passport to security. How one appears on paper is more important than how one appears in person.
放下对未来掌控感的执念。教育本身是实验，是试错的机会，不是过独木桥。
▶l What I wish for all students is some release from the clammy grip of the future. I wish them a chance to savor each segment of their education as an experience in itself，and not as a grim preparation for the next step. I wish them the right to experiment, to trip and fall, to learn that defeat is as instructive as victory and is not the end of the world.
4.主旨哲思，流连赏玩
▶人生需要不确定性，没有确定的人生地图——人生不是按图索骥。
“Mainly I try to remind them that the road ahead is a long one and that it will have more unexpected turns than they think. There will be plenty of time to change jobs, change careers, change whole attitudes and approaches. They don’t want to hear such liberating news. They want a map—right now—that they can follow unswervingly to career security, financial security, Social Security and, presumably, a prepaid grave. ”
▶教育是去体验，去领悟；而不是机械地为未来铺砖。
I wish them a chance to savor each segment of their education as an experience in itself，and not as a grim preparation for the next step.
（College Students） can hardly imagine allowing the hand of God or chance to nudge them down some unforeseen trail……
到底什么是大学教育？它的初衷、呈现形式、产出结果究竟是什么？本文写作于10余年前，但是我们仍然经历着这些问题。囚徒困境、经济下行等等现实问题，都让追求安稳人生的大学生们胆战心惊。
我们的未来究竟怎么走？大学的意义究竟是什么？读了这篇文章，我想你会有一些思考。
