《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20节
The illustrious psychologist subsequently shows us the difference between our system and that of the Anglo-Saxons. The latter do not possess our innumerable special schools. With them instruction is not based on book-learning, but on object lessons. The engineer, for example, is trained in a workshop, and never at a school; a method which allows of each individual reaching the level his intelligence permits of. He becomes a workman or a foreman if he can get no further, an engineer if his aptitudes take him as far. This manner of proceeding is much more democratic and of much greater benefit to society than that of making the whole career of an individual depend on an examination, lasting a few hours, and undergone at the age of nineteen or twenty.
注释摘要
勒庞在这里借泰纳之口，要论证的是一个根本性的对比：拉丁民族的教育体系制造了一大批不满现状、脱离实际的精神无产阶级，而盎格鲁-撒克逊体系则通过在实践中磨砺，让每个人各得其所。他的推理逻辑很清晰——法国的统一考试制度在十九至二十岁左右的数小时内就决定一个人的终生前途，这在他看来既荒谬又反民主；而英美的工场师傅带徒弟的模式，反而让木匠的儿子成为木匠、有天赋者自然…