미국의 대학 교육: 과거와 현재 1636-2008

Abstract

My paper is a survey of the development of American colleges and universities beginning with the establishment of Harvard College. Whether private or public, these schools were subject to considerable degree of State control, and depended heavily on financial assistance of their state government until the mid-19th century. The more schools turned to their state government, the more intervention and control they suffered from the State authority. Every State in the union jealously maintained its hold on education in general and higher education in particular. It was this State-centered educational politics that, I believe, defeated George Washington's aspiration to establish a national university in Washington, D. C. in the 1790's. Some degree of finanical relief and stimulus came to these schools when the Federal Government enancted the Morrill Act or Land Grant Act in 1864 giving various States a tremendous amount of federal land to finance their higher education needs. Thanks to this law, many agricultural and technical colleges and universities were founded and those poor schools gained a lease on life and become financially solvent. The most striking about this federal policy was that States were given full discretion as to how this aid should be used and that the central government did not intervene in States'educational management and revenue from the sale of the federal lands. The respect the central government accorded to local and State oriented educational practices was the most distinctive hallmark of the American higher education. The same policy pattern was repeated in the so-called G. I Bill in 1944 which gave the 15million vetrans of the World War 11 substantial scholarships to obtain college education. My paper also explores the ways in which American higher ed ucation grew and expanded. The emergence of many fine and comprehensive and research muitiversitties and two year community colleges after 1945 owed greatly to this legislation. Noteworthy was the fact that as was the case with the Morrill Act, the G. I. Bill did not allow the federal government to interfere with the management of the scholarship by the States. However, this tradition of local control of higher education seems to be on decline as the federal government has recently become more intrusive in affirmative action and financial aid matters. Finally, my paper examines the various problems and issues of controversy facing modern American universities and colleges, especially in the area of undergraduate ed ucation, such as the commercialization of higher learning, poor writing programs, and the mundaneness of student culture.