教育只有被专门设计来满足每一个学生个人需求和兴趣的时候才是真正有效率的。
While I agree with the speaker that specifically-designed education for each individual may serve students better than the general education we adopt today, this kind of education may have some potential problems and even harms undermining its feasibility.
I concede that nowadays individualism is becoming more and more vital. People advocate and appreciate special characteristics and skills distinctive from those of others. The trend applies to both social lives and professional careers. With respect to one's vocation, specialization demands that talents with unique skills and abilities are the most distinguished ones, especially in such a competitive society like today. Every individual is competing with peers all around the world. If one receives mere general education, it is quite possible that he/she can only reach a mediocre level, never an eminent expert. With respect to school education, a specifically designed education is needed to dig out students' potentials, which would otherwise be masked by general education. It is especially so in high school, when students are prepared to choosing their future majors in university. Suppose a student with distinguished gifts in economics. With only a few economics courses in the high school curriculum, he/she may not discover his/her own gifts. Even if he/she realizes his/her interests in economics, no opportunnities of exploring more about economics are provided for him/her because there lacks special courses for those who want to learn more about economics. From the two respects above, I strongly hold a positive attitude towards specialized education which caters to individual needs.
Nevertheless, the concept of specific education has certain potential problems which prevent it from being feasible in a large scale. The problems are mainly embodied in three aspects. First, the technical feasibility of the concept is highly questionable. How can people devise a curriculum that is suitable to each student in the country? How does a school arrange those courses? How can teachers be able to deal with so many different needs and interests of each individual? As a matter of fact, under today's circumstances of general education, the supply of teachers is becoming less and less,while the demand for them is increasing. So, it's hard to imagine that, for so many students in the country and so many different needs and interests, the teachers can be capable of catering to all the students.
Secondly, too much emphasis on specific education may make students disregard the importance of general knowledge, therefore undermining the academic basis of students. Take high school education as an example, we encourage students to learn a wide range of basic disciplines, such as mathematics, literature, physics, chemistry, philosophy, to ensure that they absorb adequate knowledge from all different subjects. That guarantees them to have a relatively general background to explore their own potentials and develop their own interests. If a student interested in literature is encouraged to plunge into literature and overlook other subjects from high school,even if his/her individual interest is satisfied, it is harmful for his/her future development because of lack of logical and analytical training.
