#HonorsProgram#養成閱讀習慣#VIS菁英班

【春節連假你讀了什麼書？】

李瑞中教授給菁英班學生出的寒假作業是：讀一本有博士學位（Ph.D., M.D. or J.D./S.J.D.）作者的專書。

同學們這週在課堂上報告自己寒假讀的書，有同學讀了哈佛特聘教授Michèle Lamont的“The Dignity of Working Men“，Lamont教授是李瑞中教授恩師的好朋友，沒想到再次聽到她的名字竟是從高中生的口中；李瑞中教授問學生是如何得知這位學者與她的書，學生說他只是很自然地到Harvard University Press（哈佛大學出版社）的網站上翻看一本本的書，直到找到這本最吸引他的書……。

大部分的人會認為，很多事情必須達到一定歲數才做得來，就連教育者也常會以年紀評估能力。事實上，不要小看孩子們，引發他們的興趣，為他們推開一扇門，他們會自己走進去，開展屬於他們的天地。

以下是菁英班同學們選讀的書單，領域遍佈經濟學、社會學、心理學 與 自然科學，邀請大家一同養成閱讀的好習慣。

而今天要介紹的是：The Race between Education and Technology 

【 The Race between Education and Technology 】

This book provides a careful historical analysis of the co-evolution of educational attainment and the wage structure in the United States through the twentieth century. The authors propose that the twentieth century was not only the American Century but also the Human Capital Century. That is, the American educational system is what made America the richest nation in the world. Its educational system had always been less elite than that of most European nations. By 1900 the U.S. had begun to educate its masses at the secondary level, not just in the primary schools that had remarkable success in the nineteenth century.

The book argues that technological change, education, and inequality have been involved in a kind of race. During the first eight decades of the twentieth century, the increase of educated workers was higher than the demand for them. This had the effect of boosting income for most people and lowering inequality. However, the reverse has been true since about 1980. This educational slow-down was accompanied by rising inequality. The authors discuss the complex reasons for this, and what might be done to ameliorate it.