《乌合之众·第二编·群体的意见与信念·群体意见与信念的间接因素》第14节
The primary danger of this system of education--very properly qualified as Latin--consists in the fact that it is based on the fundamental psychological error that the intelligence is developed by the learning by heart of text-books. Adopting this view, the endeavour has been made to enforce a knowledge of as many hand-books as possible. From the primary school till he leaves the university a young man does nothing but acquire books by heart without his judgment or personal initiative being ever called into play. Education consists for him in reciting by heart and obeying. "Learning lessons, knowing by heart a grammar or a compendium, repeating well and imitating well--that," writes a former Minister of Public Instruction, M. Jules Simon, "is a ludicrous form of education whose every effort is an act of faith tacitly admitting the infallibility of the master, and whose only results are a belittling of ourselves and a rendering of us impotent."
注释摘要
勒庞在这一段里集中批判了他所谓的“拉丁式教育体系”，也就是十九世纪末以法国为代表的古典人文教育。他的核心论证建立在这样一个心理学前提上：智力不是靠背诵教科书发展起来的。他认为法国从小学直到大学的教育，本质上只训练学生做两件事——死记硬背和服从。学生被要求熟记语法规则、历史年代、动物分类学这些脱离实际生活的知识，而判断力和个人主动性在整个教育过程中从未被调动…