定理至此證畢。

前年在GIS幫忙志工，這篇演講是我錄音聽寫的。雖然老生常談，不過他講的道理都是真的，值得警惕，而且英文淺顯又優雅。我當初是一個字一個字重複聽的，實在聽不清楚才自己補，應該相當可靠。

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Collide and Sparkle — Education, Eastern and Western
speech by Dr. Jeffery S. Lehman
July 16, 2014

Master of ceremony, Su-Kuan Chu (朱書寬):

Higher education is a cornerstone that offers new perspectives. Today invited here are three top speakers among the world: Jeffery Lehman, inaugural vice chancellor of New York University, Shanghai; Dr. Lai Choy-Heng, executive vice president for academic affairs of Yale-NYU, National University of Singapore; Dr. Dai Hai-Lung, senior vice president for academic affairs of Temple University; and Dr. Chen Liang-Gee (陳良基), vice president for academic affairs of National Taiwan University.

Dr Chen will first introduce the forum. Lehman, Lai, and Dai will talk respectivelly. And then Dr Chen will ask, to all, questions prepared by the team. In the 2nd Q&A session, delegates are invited to ask their own question.

Dr Chen: 

Good morning. Welcome, all delegates, to this session!

In the field of Kungfu there is a distinction of inside Kungfu (內功) and an outside one (外功). Education is the inside one; technology is the outside one. 

[differences exist, between the East and the West.] Eastern and western culture are different, as is evident from the fact that they think utterly differently. Today's talk I, as only a host, seek to look for sparks, that may inspire you to notice such disparity. Even the definition of “education” should have been rewritten! In Latin, educere, or “education,” comes from “to lead, to draw out.” But the Chinese one, “教養”, “to nurture.”

Indeed, the United States has paid great attention to train students’ ability, for example, and to encourage the individual by assuring them that they are special. In the East, however, the students are asked to be the same, and form a group. I shall spare some time for the speaker.

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Dr. Lehman:

Thanks Dr Chen. I feel inspired. [laughs] 

[self-introduction] I shall first say a little bit about myself. I have been a professor for, by now, more than 25 years, being for the first 20 years in American universities, like U. of Michigan; for the last 7 years in, like, China, helping to create schools of trans-national law, in Peking U. for 2 years and afterwards in the Shanghai campus.

What I am to talk is not so much Eastern or Western education, but my expressing perspective of an convergence between western and eastern ones, one of the most exciting feature of present day education. Indeed, education is always changing in response of the globalization.

I shall address to those of you, delegates who are undergraduates, what you should extract from your experiences; and who are high school students — ones soon going to college – what you shall look for into a university experience.

[the aim of U. education] Obviously it is the case that university education, Western or Eastern, seeks to provide you an environment in which you may complete your preparation to your goal, your 70-year-long, if lucky, life, counted from the moment you graduate, which period of time should be full of satisfaction and contribution — Personal satisfaction for your own enjoyment, of course; and satisfaction because you have contributed significantly to others: to the society.

[development of talents] This way you should develop talents. All of you, at least most of you, are born with ability, but raw talents is not sufficient to bring round success. Everywhere you look, you see people born with tremendous talents, fail to realize their potential. To do so, then, you need to develop yourself along 3 dimensions.

The realisation of yourself is not something you can buy online, something people would do on your behalf! The fantasy we often have, that we are capable to teach the students, is, honestly, that we can teach no one — no one, our students, relatives, friends, other than ourselves! — to undertake the challenge of learning.

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[3 dimensions students ought to develop] The three dimensions are knowledge, skills, and virtues. Some of the qualities are timeless, which are also what we sought at our time; some of which, however, change with time: These, I shall place special emphasis on.

[1. the knowledge] First knowledge, your understanding of the world around you. It is not so much what you are merely told, verbally or by reading, about the world, but the sophistication, sufficiently so to digest and integrate what you see, directly or indirectly. 

It is the realisation that information could have been misleading. Could be subject to illusion — what we saw does not reflect the reality: a “cognitive bias”, so-called. Could have been mistaken, earnestly mistaken. Could have been deception: yes, people sometimes do persuade us to what is false, even fool us!

Some knowledge consists of confidence that a fact is really a fact, while some, merely doubt. I have confidence, for instance, that if I walked across the room, I would remain on the floor, not floating into the air [laughs]. Experience of fifty-seven years of walking without floating tells me so, but not absolutely so. This way comes a recognition that all our knowledge is tentative. 

[why we get educated] The domain of knowledge is more extensive than that forty years ago, when I was in college, when people may live a happy adult life, remaining completely ignorant about these stuffs. At that time, local political knowledge would suffice!

But now, no, not any more, thanks to the globalization. The pace of life is faster, the power of technology stronger, the community much larger, larger than ever used to be! Familiarity in these areas facilitates the perception made throughout different countries, similarly becoming or remaining different, as evident from the comparison made earlier, by prof. Chen, about Eastern and Western architectures and calligraphy.

We have thus to be educated. We need to know a lot of stuffs. We cannot be complacent in what we “think”, “feel”, or “believe.” We can no more say that “You have to show respect, because this is my earnest belief!” No, you have to link it to the perception, to evidences, constantly in dialogue with others. 

It is crucial, I think, to gain a working knowledge of historical development of humanistic ideas, of natural sciences, of moral and political philosophy, and of economy. Also crucial is a working knowledge of the history of cultural expressions, through literature, fine art, and music. As well as an understanding of global political history.

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[2. the skills.] What about skills? While knowledge is a set of ideas inside out heads, skills, however, are more than that. It’s like the ability to perform the act others highly value, like to react to information or other stimuli present in the environment, for example to negotiate. So skill, we might say, is action. I shall give you my top 5 skills. 

1. Analytical rigour: to think precisely, not sloppily, and both to listen and read critically, so that you speak and write persuasively.

2. Numeracy: to be comfortable with numbers and quantitative reasoning, and hence be able to apply, and manipulate, numbers to the world around you.

3. Computer literacy: to be able to navigate effectively in the age of informational technology. 

4. Multi-lingual-ism: to be fluent in more than one language, which makes possible appreciation that how differently people think, seeing variances in languages –– which is my advice to my US friends, who still firmly believe English is the global language and they don’t have to learn other languages! Well, exactly the opposite is true. If America is not becoming bi-lingual, they will be far behind.

5. Cross-cultural effectiveness: to be able to work with a group, each of them coming from different places. To be able to interpret what they say, what they do. To reduce the likelihood that your intention be misunderstood. 

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[3. the virtues] Knowledge is internal, and skills are external. Virtues are both: they are qualities essential to character that not only makes us, being who we are, happy inside, but also what approves us to be good. Let me give my top 6, with which different peoples are bound to disagree –– which is great!

1. Empathy: ability to see, standing in their shoes, what they see: their joy, their pain.

2. Humility: appreciation of your own fallibility. You may be smart, but not perfect. It is easy to be wrong, even you are certain you are right!

3. Generosity: permission given to others to be imperfect, to make mistakes, without feeling superior.

4. Courage: being brave enough to make mistakes, to stand out, and to do the right thing, even if you make a fool of yourself in front of others.

5. Authenticity: to be honest, that is to speak in your own, true voice, after overcoming the natural human tendency to remain silent, once being afraid.

6. Curiosity: development of your hunger for leaning, and overcoming the human nature of laziness.

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[3 changes of university education] 25 years of involvement in university education has made me particularly looking forward to see how world change in the 21th century.

[1. broadening of curriculum] The first change is that universities, Eastern and Western, has striven more to include in their curriculum liberal education. Perspectives of other culture broadens the subjects students study. Today, the notion of liberal education has been more widespread and widely appreciated than ever. 

Liberal education should force a student to develop knowledge and skills through a wide range of subjects, while not allowed, any longer, to focus narrowly on the one most favoured. In classroom, make sure you are tasting the humanities, that you are learning the whole world: its social side, its natural side, whatever you are majoring. 

[2. cultural diversity] The second change is that universities, Eastern and Western, have been more cultural diversified. The best way students develop the multi-cultural effectiveness, is to befriend — close friend, not just acquaintance! — befriend classmates from different background, which would be difficult if all comes from the same country. Delegates, you are on the way, now anticipating this forum [laughs].

[3. changes in teaching styles] The third change simply has more to do with the pedagogue, say, the style of interaction. Students are likely to develop these knowledge, skills, and virtues as just mentioned, if they are forced to be active learners, in which case they are required to speak, but not to learn passively. Things like clickers and online quizzes, can make courses more personalized.

[final words: educate yourself] Compared to forty years ago, universities nowadays in US are more suitable to help student acquire these knowledge, skills, and virtues. But in the end, a university is only a place in which it is you — and it is up to you — that take advantages to educate yourself. Thank you.