普林斯顿大学校长2018毕业演讲：读书无用论是最大的谎言(中英文)
凤凰男是什么意思-境外保险
演讲稿英文版：
In a few minutes, all of you
will march through FitzRandolph Gate as
newly
minted graduates of this University. Before you
do, it is my
privilege to say a few words
about the path that lies ahead. It is indeed
a
privilege, and also a joy, to address you, for all
of you who graduate
today have accomplished
something genuinely important and worth
celebrating.
You have completed
a demanding course of study. It will transform
your life in many ways. It will expand the
range of vocations you can
pursue, increase
your knowledge of the world, deepen your capacity
to
appreciate societies and cultures, and
provide a foundation for lifelong
learning.
So we celebrate here on
the lawn in front of Nassau Hall, as do other
college communities in courtyards, auditoria,
arenas, and stadia around
the country.
Graduates toss caps in the air and professors
applaud. Families cheer and holler
enthusiastically. Yet, even as we do
so, we
see a strange trend from columnists, bloggers,
think tanks, and
politicians. In essays,
books, and speeches, some of them suggest that
too many students are earning college
degrees.
Too many college
graduates: that is a very odd claim, because the
economic evidence for the value of a college
degree is
overwhelming. For example, in 2014,
economists Jaison Abel and
Richard Deitz of
the Federal Reserve Bank of New York estimated the
average annual return on investment from a
college degree, net of
tuition paid and lost
earnings, at between 9 percent and 16 percent per
year for a lifetime (1). For the last two
decades, the return on
investment has hovered
at the high end of that range, around 15
percent per year.
By comparison,
the historical average return on investments in
the
American stock market is around 7 percent
per year. That is why my
friend Morton
Shapiro, the president of Northwestern University
and a
leading educational economist, says that
for most people, the decision
to invest in a
college degree will be “the single best financial
decision
they make in a lifetime,” even if
judged purely in terms of financial
return on
investment.
A degree conveys many
other benefits as well. For example, college
graduates report higher levels of happiness
and job satisfaction, even
after controlling
for income. College graduates are healthier than
non-graduates. They are more likely to
exercise, more likely to vote,
and have
higher levels of civic engagement. To these
pragmatic
considerations we should add the
joys that come with an increased
capacity to
appreciate culture, the arts, the world’s
diversity, and the
inherent beauty of
extraordinary ideas.
The numbers I
have quoted are not specific to Princeton. On the
contrary, they are averages over all four-year
degrees, in all fields, from
all colleges in
the United States. Think about that for a moment:
on
average, all degrees in all fields from all
colleges generate an annual
return between 9
percent and 16 percent, and this return is
supplemented by additional benefits to health,
happiness, and quality
of life. How could
anyone think we need fewer college graduates?
Some people answer that you can learn a
trade without getting a
college degree.
Welders, they observe, can make more money than
many college graduates. That’s true. There
are, of course, reasons why
you might want to
get a college degree even if you plan to become a
welder. You might worry, for example, about
what happens if
technology renders your trade
obsolete, or arthritis leaves you unable
to
practice it, or you want to move into management
or explore other
interests. A college degree
equips you to respond to the changes —
to
yourself, and to the world — that inevitably occur
over a lifetime.
Still, if
pundits and politicians were saying only that
America needs
better vocational training, I
could agree wholeheartedly. It would be
terrific if more people could get the training
they need to practice a
trade. But at the same
time it would also be great if more people, not
fewer, could receive the extraordinary
benefits that come with a college
degree.
So I ask again: why would anyone think
we need fewer college
graduates? I think there
is a simple answer. Education requires
high-
quality teaching. Teaching, in turn,
depends upon skilled labor, which
is
expensive. As a result, the up-front cost for
education is real, large,
and easy to measure.
The returns are equally real and even larger, but
they accrue over a lifetime, are hard to
measure, and vary from person
to person. It
is tempting to wish that you could get more
certainty at
lower cost.
The
people who call for fewer degrees yield to that
temptation. They
emphasize the short-term.
They focus almost entirely on the price of
college and on the salaries students might
earn in their first jobs. That
is a
mistake.
A college education
is a long-term investment. It enables graduates
to develop and adapt, and it pays off
spectacularly in the long run. The
idea that
we would be better off with fewer college
graduates is a short-
term swindle, a swindle
that will cheat America’s young people, weaken
the nation’s economy, and undermine our
future. We need to have
the confidence to
invest in our young people and to ensure that a
college education is accessible and affordable
for students from all
backgrounds and
financial circumstances.
I hope that
all of you who graduate today, and who experience
the
power of education in your own lives, will
become advocates for the
value of higher
education in our society. There is a national
conversation taking place right now about the
value of higher
education, and we need your
voice in that conversation. We need you,
in
other words, to help others to achieve in the
future what you achieve
today.
How can you help more students earn college
degrees? Here are three
suggestions. First,
become advocates for the importance of completion
rates. A college education produces a
tremendous return—if you get
the degree.
Returns are much lower if you start college but do
not get
the degree. The highest default rates
on student loans do not involve
college
graduates with big debts. They instead involve
students with
small debts who never finish
college and so never get the earnings
boost
that comes with a degree.
A few
moments ago, we awarded an honorary degree to
President
Barbara Gitenstein. Over her nearly
two decades leading The College of
New Jersey,
she raised the College’s four-year graduation rate
from
58 percent to 75 percent, a number that
puts TCNJ’s on-time
completion rate among the
top ten in the nation for public colleges
and
universities. By raising TCNJ’s graduation rate,
President
Gitenstein has improved the lives of
thousands of students who might
have left
school with debt but no degree. Be an advocate for
higher
education leaders like Bobby
Gitenstein, and for colleges like TCNJ that
commit to improving completion rates.
Second, support America’s public institutions
of higher
education. State subsidies for
public colleges and universities have
declined
precipitously, and state funding represents an
increasingly
small share of the budget at
public research universities. At the
University of Michigan, for example, state
funding now accounts for
only about 9 percent
of total revenues. In the 1950s, by contrast,
that
number was 80 percent. Tuition at state
universities has risen not
because they
have increased their expenditures per student, but
because state legislatures have hollowed out
their other sources of
support.
America depends on its public colleges and
universities. They are
engines of social
mobility and innovation. Princeton and other
private
universities make essential
contributions to the nation and the world
—
but there is no way that we could ever replace
America’s great
public institutions. They are
a national treasure, and I urge you to
support
them.
Third, stand up for the
importance of enabling more students from
low-
income families to earn college degrees.
Princeton’s Great Class of
2018 graduates
today as the most socioeconomically diverse class
in
the 272-year history of this University.
You will not hold that record for
long. Other
classes already at Princeton will break your
record. Our
graduate programs are likewise
drawing upon new sources of
talent: this
spring we admitted the most socioeconomically
diverse
class of doctoral students in
Princeton University’s history.
At
Princeton we believe in socioeconomic diversity
because we know
that to achieve excellence as
a University and as a nation we must draw
talent from every sector of society. We
know, too, that a Princeton
degree is a
rocket-booster for students seeking socioeconomic
mobility. If we want to heal the divisions
that inequality has produced
in this country,
we must ensure that students from low-income
backgrounds receive the educations they need
to develop their abilities
and contribute to
our society.
As I look out at our
extraordinary class of undergraduate, masters, and
doctoral degree recipients, I take pride in
your excellence and your
diversity, and I am
excited about the contributions you will make in
the
years ahead. The world needs more college
degrees, not fewer. We
need more celebrations
like the one we hold today, with more proud
families and happy graduates ready to go out
and make a positive
difference in the world.
All of us on this platform are thrilled to be a
part of your celebration. We applaud your
achievements. We send our
best wishes as you
begin the adventures that lie ahead, and we look
forward to welcoming you back to this campus
on future visits. To the
Great Class of 2018
and all of our graduates, congratulations!
演讲稿中文版：
几分钟后，作为这所大学新一批的毕业生，你们都会走出校门。
<
br>在这之前，我有幸能够和你们聊一聊你们过去几年和未来几年的生活，当然，
请允许我站在台上而
不是跳到你们中间。在我的演讲过程中，这种举动看似很
有趣，但没有防护头盔的话，我是不会这么干的
。
不管是不是站在这个台上，我感到非常荣幸也非常高兴能够站在你们面前致辞，
所有今天毕业的同学们，你们完成了一件非常重要且值得庆祝的事情，你们完
成了学科课程的要
求，这将在很多方面改变你的生活，它将扩大的你的择业范
围，增加你对世界的认知，加深你理解社会文
化的能力，并为终身学习提供基
础。
因此我们聚集在这里，在
Nassau Hall（普林斯顿大学最古老的建筑）前的草
坪上庆祝。其他大学也都在他们的庭院、
礼堂、舞台和体育场内举行庆祝活动，
毕业生们将帽子抛向天空，教授们在鼓掌，家人们在热情欢呼，尽
管我们都是
这么做的，但我们仍发现，社会上有一股奇怪的风气，这种风气来自一些专栏
作家、
博客作者、智库专家和政客，他们中的一些人在文章书籍和演讲里，宣
称很多人其实不用上大学、大学生
太多了。
多么奇怪的观点呀！因为已经有经济学数据充分证明了读大学的好处。
例如，据2014年纽约联邦储备银行的经济学家Jaison Abel和Richard Deit
s
的统计，投资一个大学学位的平均年回报率扣除学费和收入损失后大约在9%-
16%之间，
尤其在过去二十年间，投资回报率一直在该范围内的高位，大约为
每年15%。相比之下，历史上美国股
票市场的年平均投资回报率为7%，这就
是为什么我的朋友西北大学校长、教育经济学家
莫顿·夏皮罗(Morton
Schapiro)说：“对于大多数人来说，投资大学学位将是他们一
生中做过的最英
明的经济决策，即使单从经济回报的角度来说。”
一个大
学学位还能带来很多其他好处，比如，有报告显示大学毕业生们即使在
收入不多的情况下，也拥有更高的
幸福感和工作满意度。同时，大学毕业的人
群要比非大学毕业的人群更健康，他们会更多的进行体育锻炼
，更积极的参与
投票，有更高层次的公民参与度。如果从实用角度考量的话，我们还应该加上
那
些由于对文化、艺术、世界多样性、内在美和卓越观点的理解能力增强而带
来的乐趣。
我举例的这些数据不只适用于普林斯顿，相反，它反映了所有接受过美国大学
四年制
教育后的人会达到的平均水平。
想想看，在任何专业领域，读完大学的年平均回报
率都有9%-16%，还要再加
上健康、幸福指数和生活质量等方面的额外收益，怎么会有人觉得应该少
些人
上大学呢？
有些人的回答是，因为你在没有大学学位的情况下，也能
学会一门手艺，他们
说电焊工有时比很多大学生都赚得多，这没错。当然也有理由解释为什么即使
你打算成为电焊工也要先读个大学，比如你可能担心随着技术发展，你的手艺
会被淘汰，或者伤病会让
你无法胜任这份工作，又或者你想进入管理层，探索
其他方面的爱好，大学学历能让你拥
有应对更多变化的能力，无论是在你自身
还是在全球发生的变化，而这些都是难以避免的。
不过，如果那些专家政客只是说：“我们需要更好的职业培训”，我完全赞同。
如果
更多人能够在就职前获得职业培训机会的话，那当然非常好。但与此同时，
如果更多人而不是更少的人能
从读大学这件事上有更深远的获益会更好。所以
我再次发问：“为什么会有人认为我们需要更少的大学生
？”
我认为答案其实很简单，高等教育意味着高质量的教学，教学则依赖于资深的
教职员工们，而这些是非常昂贵的，因此，显而易见，根据量化统计教育的前
期成本是非常高昂
的。而教育的回报也同样是显而易见的，甚至回报还会比投
入更多，但这种回报是难以量化统计并且因人
而异的。企图以低成本博取更具
确定性的收益的想法当然是诱人的，那些想少读书的人当然会屈服于这种
诱惑，
他们强调短期的把注意力完全集中在对大学学费和第一份工作的薪水的比较
上，这是错误
的。大学教育是一项长期投资，它让毕业生不断发展自己和适应
世界，从长远来看，收益更加惊人。
“减少大学生会让这个国家更好”的想法是非常短视的骗局，欺骗美国年轻人
的骗局
。它会削弱国家经济，破坏我们的未来。我们要有信心投资我们的年轻
人，并确保大学教育对于各种背景
和经济状况的学生来说都是可以获得且负担
得起的。
我希
望，我希望今天所有毕业的同学，以及所有在生活中体会过教育力量的人
们都能成为高等教育的倡导者。
目前关于高等教育的价值有一场全国性的讨论，
我们需要听到你们的声音。换句话说，我们需要你将来帮
助他人取得你们今日
所取得的成就。
关于如何帮助更多学生获得大学学位，这里有三点建议
首先，成为学业完成率的重要性的倡导者。
如果能取得学位的话，高等教
育带来的收益是巨大的。如果你读了大学最终却
没能取得学位，回报率会低得多。学生贷款违约率最高的
那批人，不是负债最
多的那些毕业生，而是没能读完大学的那些小额债务人。由于没能读完大学，
他们也未能享受到高校学位带给他们的收入增长。
不久之前，我们授予了新泽西学院校长Barbara Gitenstein荣誉学位，在她
领导新泽西学院近二十年的时间里，她将学校的四年制毕业率从58%提高到
了75%，这个数字在全国
公立高校排名前5%。通过提高学生的毕业率，
Gitenstein校长改变了成千上万可能背负着债
务辍学的学生的人生。支持更多
像Gitenstein校长这样的高等教育领袖以及那些像新泽西学院
一样致力于提
高毕业率的院校吧。
其次，支持美国的公立高校。
美国各个州对公立高校的补助急剧下降，公立研究性大学的教育拨款在州财政
预算中占比越来越小。例如，在密歇根大学，州的资助仅占总收入的9%。相
比之下，在20世
纪50年代，这个数字是80%。州立大学的学费上涨并不是
因为他们增加了每个学生的花销，而是因为
州立法机关挖空了其他的经济来源。
美国依靠其公立学校而强大，他们是社会发展创新的引擎。普林斯顿
和其他私
立大学为这个国家和世界做出了显著的贡献，但我们无法取代美国伟大的公立
机构，它
们是国宝，我希望你们支持它们。
第三，倡导帮助更多低收入家庭学生获得大学学位。
普林斯顿2018届
优秀毕业生是这所大学272年历史上社会经济背景最多元
化的，珍惜这点特别之处吧，因为你们不会保
持这个记录太久了，普林斯顿的
其他学生将打破这个记录。我们的研究生项目同样吸引了各种背景的人才
，今
年春天，我们录取了普林斯顿历史上背景最具社会经济多样性的博士生。在普
林斯顿，我们
相信这种多样性的积极意义，因为我们知道，不管是大学还是国
家想要向前发展必须从社会各阶层吸收人
才。我们也知道，普林斯顿的学位是
学生寻求社会经济阶层流动的助推器。如果我们想要解决这个国家由
于不公平
而导致的割裂，我们必须确保来自低收入全体的学生得到他们需要的教育，从
而发展能
力并为社会做出贡献。当看到我们的本科、硕士和博士毕业生时，我
真心为你们的优秀和多元感到骄傲，
并未你们将会在未来几年做出的贡献而感
到兴奋。
这个世界需要更多的大
学生，而不是更少！我们需要更多像今天这样的庆祝活
动，需要更多自信快乐的毕业生和
为他们骄傲的家人走出去，为世界带来积极
的变化。在台上的所有人都为能参与到你们的庆祝活动中感到
振奋，我们为你
们的成就鼓掌，为你们即将开始的前方的冒险送上最美好的祝福，同时，我们
欢
迎你们将来多回母校看看。