上个世纪80年代开始,美国的基础教育就一直给人教育环境过于宽松、教育质量不高等印象,因此饱受诟病。《国家处于危机中》一书直白地道出了美国教育界对本国教育水平的严重怀疑。事实上,美国对于大众教育和精英教育的认识是辩证的,在重视大众教育的同时,也非常重视精英教育。在美国,除了儿童一般学得较轻松外,美国精英学生的学习强度和深度都远超过我国。美国对于精 Since the 1980s, the basic education in the United States has been criticized for being too lax in its educational environment and poor in quality of education. The book National in Crisis bluntly argues that the American education community is seriously skeptical of its own educational standards. In fact, the understanding of the United States about mass education and elite education is a dialectical one. It attaches great importance to elite education while attaching importance to mass education. In the United States, in addition to the general ease of learning of children, the elite students in the United States have far more strength and depth of learning than our own. America is fine