Abraham Flexner (1866-1959) 傳記 Iconoclast : Abraham Flexner and a life in learning

Iconoclast : Abraham Flexner and a life in learning
By Bonner, Thomas Neville.
Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press c2002

In this, the first biography of Abraham Flexner (1866–1959), distinguished scholar Thomas N. Bonner offers an engaging and insightful view of one of the most influential figures in twentieth-century American education. From his early, pathbreaking work in experimental primary schools to the founding of the prestigious Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, Abraham Flexner's influence on American education was deep, pervasive, and enduring. In Thomas N. Bonner, Flexner has at long last found the biographer that his critical role in American education deserves.

The son of poor Jewish immigrants in Louisville, Kentucky, Flexner was raised in the Reconstruction South and educated at the Johns Hopkins University in the first decade of that institution's existence. Upon earning his degree in 1886, he returned to Louisville to found―four years before John Dewey's Chicago "laboratory school"―an experimental school based on progressive ideas that soon won the close attention of Harvard President Charles Eliot. After a successful nineteen-year career as a teacher and principal, he turned his attention to medical education. His 1910 survey―known today as the Flexner Report―stimulated much-needed, radical changes in the field and, with its emphasis on full-time clinical teaching, remains to this day the most widely cited document on how doctors best learn their profession.

Flexner's subsequent projects―a book on medical education in Europe and a comparative study of medical education in Europe and America―remain unsurpassed in range and insight. For fifteen years a senior officer in the Rockefeller-supported General Education Board, he helped raise money―more than 6 billion in today's dollars―for education in medicine and other subjects. His devastating critique of American higher education in 1936 raised the hackles of educators―but ultimately raised important questions as well. Three years later he created and led the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, convincing Albert Einstein to accept the first appointment at the newly created institute.

Brilliant, abrasive, tenderhearted, and fundamentally a decent, farseeing man, Abraham Flexner accomplished much good in the world. His story, based on new archival sources and told with verve and wit, is sure to become the definitive work on a man and his era.

在這裡，亞伯拉罕·弗斯特納（Abraham Flexner，1866-1959）的第一本傳記，著名學者托馬斯·伯納（Thomas N. Bonner）對二十世紀美國教育中最具影響力的人物之一提供了一個引人入勝的見解。從他在早期實驗小學的開創性工作到普林斯頓著名的高等研究院的成立，Abraham Flexner對美國教育的影響是深刻的，普遍的和持久的。在Thomas N. Bonner中，Flexner終於找到了這位傳記作者，他認為他在美國教育中的關鍵角色是值得的。

位於肯塔基州路易斯維爾的弗萊斯納的可憐的猶太移民的兒子在重建南部長大，並在約翰霍普金斯大學接受了該機構存在的頭十年的教育。 1886年獲得學士學位後，他回到路易斯維爾，在杜威的芝加哥“實驗學校”之前四年，這個實驗學校是一個基於進步思想的實驗學校，很快贏得了哈佛大學校長艾略特的密切關注。在成功擔任教師和校長十九年的職業生涯後，他把注意力轉向醫學教育。他1910年的調查 - 今天被稱為Flexner報告 - 激發了急需的，在該領域的激進變化，並強調全日制臨床教學，直到今天仍然是關於醫生如何最好地學習他們的專業最廣泛引用的文件。

Flexner的後續項目 - 一本關於歐洲醫學教育的書以及歐美醫學教育的比較研究 - 在範圍和洞察力方面仍然是無人能及的。在洛克菲勒支持的通用教育委員會擔任了十五年的高級官員，他幫助籌集了超過60億美元的現金 - 用於醫學和其他學科的教育。他在1936年對美國高等教育的破壞性批評引起了教育工作者的ha but，但最終也提出了重要的問題。三年後，他創建並領導了普林斯頓高級研究學院，說服愛因斯坦接受新成立的研究所的首次任命。

精湛的，磨蝕的，溫情的，從根本上說是一個體面的，有遠見的人，亞伯拉罕·弗萊克納在世界上取得了很大的成就。他的故事，以新的檔案資料為基礎，用睿智的方式講述，肯定會成為一個人及其時代的權威性作品。

From The New England Journal of Medicine

Iconoclast is a thoughtful, wonderfully crafted, solidly researched account of an uncommon life that far exceeds Abraham Flexner's association with reform in medical education. Born in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1866, Flexner (Figure) was one of nine children of German-Jewish immigrants who expected extraordinary achievement from each of their children. By 19 years of age, he was a graduate of Johns Hopkins and passionate about learning; he was a firm believer that education should be marked by small classes, personal attention, and hands-on teaching -- characteristics that he would reproduce throughout his lifetime in many settings. After graduation, he returned to Louisville and developed a school that came to be known as "Mr. Flexner's School." There, he tested his ideas and found that they worked: his graduates were accepted at leading colleges and entered college at very young ages. He soon gained national attention, and in 1908, he published his first book, The American College, an "unrelievedly critical attack on American higher education," as Bonner describes it. One of his fiercest critiques focused on the lecture mode, which enabled colleges to "handle cheaply by wholesale a large body of students that would be otherwise unmanageable and [to give] the lecturer time for research." Flexner's writing attracted the attention of Henry Pritchett, president of the Carnegie Foundation, who was looking for someone to lead a series of studies of professional education. Flexner was his first choice, despite the fact that he had never been inside a medical school. At that time, there were 155 medical schools in North America with wildly diverse admissions, curricular, evaluative, and graduation requirements. Flexner visited all of them; in one month alone, he inspected 30 schools in 12 cities. Some of his descriptions still ring true: "Each day students were subjected to interminable lectures and recitations. After a long morning of dissection or a series of quiz sections, they might sit wearily in the afternoon through three or four or even five lectures delivered in methodical fashion by part-time teachers. Evenings were given over to reading and preparation for recitations. If fortunate enough to gain entrance to a hospital, they observed more than participated." Although the 1910 report became famous for its stinging description of particular medical schools -- he referred to Chicago and its 14 medical schools, for example, as "a disgrace to the State whose laws permit its existence . . . indescribably foul . . . the plague spot of the nation" -- it was largely successful in creating a single model of medical education characterized by a philosophy that is still current. "An education in medicine," wrote Flexner, "involves both learning and learning how; the student cannot effectively know, unless he knows how." Although the report is more than 90 years old, many of its recommendations are still relevant -- particularly those concerning the physician as a "social instrument . . . whose function is fast becoming social and preventive, rather than individual and curative." A less well-known recommendation, but one that Flexner promoted unrelentingly, was for the creation of full-time clinical appointments in medical schools. Under this system, faculty members would become "true university teachers, barred from all but charity practice, in the interest of teaching." This was a campaign that Flexner pursued for years, despite opposition from "virtually all clinicians across the country." The remainder of Flexner's professional life was no less accomplished. Soon after the release of the 1910 Carnegie report, he set off to Europe to conduct a similar study of medical education there, and by the time of its publication, his work was, according to Bonner, "nearly as well known in Europe as in America." Working for the Rockefeller Foundation's General Education Board, he developed the Lincoln School in 1916 in cooperation with the faculty at Teachers College of Columbia University. Next, with funding from the Rockefeller Foundation, he worked toward restructuring the nation's medical schools, which enabled him, writes Bonner, "to exert a decisive influence on the course of medical training and to leave an enduring mark on some of the nation's most renowned schools of medicine," including Johns Hopkins, Yale, the University of Chicago, Columbia, Vanderbilt, and Washington University. In this second round of critique, he was concerned that "the imposition of rigid standards by accrediting groups was making the medical curriculum a monstrosity," with medical students moving through it with "little time to stop, read, work or think." In the mid-1920s, Flexner left medical education and renewed his interest in the "direction and purpose of the American college and university," which resulted in Universities: American, English, German, published in 1930. The book, which, says Bonner, "provoked the most intense debate on the purposes of a university since the late 19th century," railed against the "growth of big-time athletics, student governments, and other activities that made a mockery of serious learning." "Intellectual inquiry," Flexner argued again and again, "not job training, [is] the purpose of the university." One of his final projects was the establishment of the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton, which would be a "graduate university in the highest possible sense" and would "elevate the status of faculty members in America." Bonner's labors have produced a critical, insightful portrait of Abraham Flexner as a brilliant, tireless, extraordinarily persuasive visionary. In addition to detailed portraits of the man "at the vortex of swiftly moving scientific, educational, and philanthropic currents" in higher education in the United States, Bonner also provides an account of Flexner's personal life with his remarkable family of origin and the family he and his wife Anne created even as they both pursued demanding careers that were often challenging to family life. For all of us in academic medicine, Iconoclast offers a learned portrait of the distance traveled in medical education during the past 100 years, along with consideration of the curricular and pedagogical problems that persist. Flexner was, and perhaps continues to be, "the severest critic and the best friend American medicine ever had." Delese Wear, Ph.D.
Copyright © 2002 Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved. The New England Journal of Medicine is a registered trademark of the MMS.

新英格蘭醫學雜誌

Iconoclast是一個深思熟慮，精心製作，精心研究的不尋常生活的記錄，遠遠超過了Abraham Flexner與醫學教育改革的聯繫。 1866年出生於肯塔基州路易斯維爾的Flexner（圖）是德國和猶太移民的九個孩子之一，他們期望每個孩子都有非凡的成就。 19歲時，他是約翰霍普金斯大學的畢業生，熱衷於學習;他堅信教育應該以小班制，個人關注和實踐教學為特徵 - 他將在許多場合中一生重現這一特點。畢業後，他回到路易斯維爾，開發了一所被稱為“弗蘭克先生的學校”的學校。在那裡，他測試了他的想法，發現他們的工作：他的畢業生被接受在領先的大學，並在很小的時候進入大學。他很快得到了全國的關注，1908年，他發表了他的第一本書“美國學院”，這是邦納所描述的“對美國高等教育毫不留情的批評性攻擊”。他最激烈的批評之一是講授模式，使大學能夠“批發大量的學生，否則難以管理，給講師時間進行研究”。弗萊克的寫作吸引了卡內基基金會主席亨利·普里切特（Henry Pritchett）的注意，卡內基基金會的主席正在尋找某人領導一系列專業教育研究。儘管他從來沒有上過醫學院，但Flexner仍是他的首選。那時候，北美有155所醫學院校，招生方式多樣，課程設置，評估和畢業要求。 Flexner訪問了所有的人;僅在一個月內就考察了12個城市的30所學校。他的一些描述仍然是真實的：“每天學生都受到無休止的講課和復習，經過長時間的解剖或一系列測驗，他們可能會在下午疲倦地坐下來，通過三到四次，甚至五次講座由兼職教師進行有條不紊的訓練，晚上讀書，準備背誦，如果有機會進入醫院，他們觀察的就不止是參與了。儘管1910年的報告因其對特定醫學院的刺痛描述而聞名 - 例如，他把芝加哥及其14所醫學院稱為“對其法律允許其存在的國家的恥辱......難以形容的犯規......這個國家的瘟疫之地“ - 在創造一種以現在依然存在的哲學為特徵的單一醫學教育模式方面，在很大程度上是成功的。 Flexner寫道：“醫學教育涉及到學習和學習，學生不能有效地知道，除非他知道如何。”儘管這個報告已經有90多年的歷史了，但是它的許多建議仍然是相關的，特別是那些關於醫生作為“社會工具......其功能正在迅速變成社會和預防性，而不是個人和治愈性”的建議。一個鮮為人知的建議是Flexner堅持不懈地提出的建議，是為了在醫學院設立全日制臨床任用。在這個制度下，教師們將成為“真正的大學教師，除了慈善實踐之外，為了教學的利益而被禁止”。這是Flexner多年來所追求的一項運動，儘管“全國幾乎所有的臨床醫生”都持反對意見。 Flexner的職業生涯的其餘部分也同樣完成。 1910年卡內基報告發布後不久，他就前往歐洲進行類似的醫學教育研究，在出版時，他的工作是根據邦納的說法，“在歐洲幾乎和在歐洲一樣廣為人知美國。”在洛克菲勒基金會的通用教育委員會工作，他於1916年與哥倫比亞大學師範學院的教師合作開發了林肯學院。接下來，在洛克菲勒基金會的資助下，他致力於重組國家的醫學院，這讓Bonner寫道：“在醫學培訓過程中發揮決定性的影響力，並在全國一些最有名的醫學院“，包括約翰·霍普金斯大學，耶魯大學，芝加哥大學，哥倫比亞大學，范德比爾特大學和華盛頓大學。在第二輪批評中，他擔心“認證團體實行嚴格的標準，導致醫學課程變成一個怪物”，醫學院學生通過“很少時間來停下來，閱讀，工作或思考”。在20世紀20年代中期，弗萊克納離開了醫學教育，並重新對“美國高校的方向和目標”產生興趣，導致1930年出版了“美國，英國，德國”大學。該書說，波恩

Thomas N. Bonner is Distinguished Professor Emeritus and President Emeritus of Wayne State University. He is the author of five books on the history of medicine and education, and two textbooks. He has been awarded two Guggenheim Fellowships and was a Rockefeller Foundation Resident at Baellagio, Italy. The former president of three universities and colleges–the University of New Hampshire, Union College, and Wayne State University–he is the recipient of major, multi-year grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Institutes of Health, and has been awarded three honorary degrees.

" Iconoclast is a thoughtful, wonderfully crafted, solidly researched account of an uncommon life that far exceeds Abraham Flexner's association with reform in medical education... Bonner's labors have produced a critical, insightful portrait of Flexner as a brilliant, tireless, extraordinarily persuasive visionary. In addition to detailed portraits of the man 'at the vortex of swiftly moving scientific, educational, and philanthropic currents' in higher education in the United States, Bonner also provides an account of Flexner's personal life... For all of us in academic medicine, Iconoclast offers a learned portrait of the distance traveled in medical education during the past 100 years, along with consideration of the curricular and pedagogical problems that persist."

— Delese Wear - New England Journal of Medicine

"Bonner's great achievement in this scholarly and captivating book is to model Flexner's critical appraisal skills in writing about him. Even Flexner himself lacked critical awareness in his autobiography... Bonner, on the other hand, offers a gentle and thoughtful appraisal. The elements that contribute to Flexner's greatness—perseverance, vision, clear thinking, and fair mindedness—are all balanced with his weaknesses—an obstinate unwillingness to retract and clouded political insight... Bonner dissects Flexner's contribution with meticulous scholarship, avoiding all cheap adulation or debunking. This is an outstanding book."

— Ed Peile - British Medical Journal

"The book offers historical insights about philanthropy, educational reform, and institutional governance and decision making... In Bonner's capable hands, Flexner emerges an interesting figure whose successes are combined with contradictions and shortcomings."

— Amy E. Wells - Academe

"An outstanding and thorough study of this remarkable American educator who, more than anyone before or since, defined what a medical school should be, left indelible marks on public education, and founded one of the most innovative centers of advanced study in the world. Bonner adroitly portrays in this masterful biography what America and the world owes to Flexner for his vision, creativity, tenacity, and advocacy of progressive education."

— John S. Haller, Jr. - Journal of American History

"Few nonphysicians have had as profound and long-lasting an effect on modern American medicine as Abraham Flexner... An excellent book about a highly significant and neglected figure."

— Janet A. Tighe, Ph.D. - Journal of the American Medical Association

"Not only fills a major void but also provides an important evaluation of an individual whose contributions to education and a variety of social problems have generally been overlooked... Bonner's biography restores Flexner to the position of importance that he merits... This biography is a major addition to American historiography."

— Gerald N. Grob - Journal of the History of Medicine

"Excellent... Deeply researched, carefully presented... This thorough, creative biography adjusts our view of this powerful man so engaged in an astounding array of twentieth-century educational developments."

— Linda Eisenmann - H-Education, H-Net Reviews

"Thanks to Thomas Bonner's Iconoclast, we finally have the biography Flexner deserves and readers seek."

— John R. Thelin - Journal of Higher Education

"If you want to know why more than half of the Nobel Prizes in medicine and science since 1945 have gone to Americans, you must read Thomas Bonner's book. Abraham Flexner was the architect of a revolution in medical education in the United States that explains how this country became the medical mecca of the world. Bonner brings Flexner's remarkable story to life with clarity, sympathy, and verve."

— James H. Jones, author of Bad Blood and Alfred C. Kinsey: A Public/Private Life

"At last we have a life of one of the most powerful shapers of medicine, science, and higher education. This beautifully crafted life of Flexner will rescue a giant of his times from fragmentation and, sometimes, misunderstanding. Bonner has written not only a very important book but a deeply thoughtful and searching interrogation of recurrent social and moral problems that take on life and meaning in a concrete, historical setting."

— John C. Burnham, Ohio State University

"Abraham Flexner was one of the great innovators in education of the twentieth-century. Thomas N. Bonner, a distinguished historian as well as an educator/manager, is the biographer Flexner deserves."

— Daniel M. Fox, President, Milbank Memorial Fund

"This biography is a solid, well-researched study of a towering figure in American biomedical research."

— Darwin Stapleton, Rockefeller Archive Center

"This is a brilliant, beautifully crafted, and much needed biography of one of the legendary figures in American medicine and higher education. Once again Thomas Bonner has shown that he is one of the great medical historians of our time."

— Kenneth M. Ludmerer, Washington University

"Though [Abraham] Flexner wrote an autobiography, until now we have had no comprehensive biography. Fortunately, Thomas Bonner has filled that gap with Iconoclast: Abraham Flexner and a Life in Learning. As a former university president with significant experience working with donors, Bonner is well qualified to understand his subject."

— Martin Morse Wooster - Philanthropy

"As Thomas Bonner relates in his excellent biography, [Abraham] Flexner initiated several... significant developments in American secondary and higher education over some three-quarters of a century. "

— David Mitch - History of Education Quarterly

" Iconoclast captures the boldness as well as the sweeping impact of Flexner's work in the field of American education in the first half of the twentieth century. "

— Adam R. Nelson - Paedagogica Historica

Thomas N. Bonner是韋恩州立大學名譽教授和榮譽主席。他是五本醫學和教育史書和兩本教科書的作者。他已經獲得兩個古根海姆獎學金，並且是意大利貝拉吉奧的洛克菲勒基金會駐地。他是新罕布什爾大學，聯合學院和韋恩州立大學三所大學的前校長，他是國家人文與國家衛生研究院的主要多年資助項目的獲得者，被授予三個榮譽學位。

“Iconoclast是一個深思熟慮的，精心設計，精心研究的不尋常生活的敘述，遠遠超過了亞伯拉罕·弗萊克納與醫學教育改革的聯繫......邦納的工作產生了一個關鍵的，富有洞察力的肖像畫家弗蘭克作為一個輝煌的，不知疲倦，特別具有說服力的幻想家除了在美國高等教育界迅速推動科學，教育和慈善潮流的男人的詳細肖像之外，邦納還提供了弗萊納的個人生活的一個交代...對於我們所有人Iconoclast提供了過去100年醫學教育的距離，並考慮了持續存在的課程和教學問題。

- 刪除穿新英格蘭醫學雜誌

“Bonner在這本學術上和書籍上的偉大成就，是Flexner在撰寫他的關於他的批評性評估技巧的模型，甚至Flexner本人在他的自傳中缺乏批判意識...... Bonner則提供了一個溫柔而周到的評價。有助於弗萊克斯的偉大毅力，遠見卓識，思想清晰，思想公正，都與他的弱點平衡 - 頑強的不願意收回和蒙上陰影的政治洞察力......邦納用細緻的學術研究解決弗萊納的貢獻，避免所有廉價的崇拜或揭穿這是一本很好的書。“

- Ed Peile - 英國醫學雜誌

“這本書提供了關於慈善事業，教育改革，制度治理和決策的歷史見解......在Bonner有能力的人手中，Flexner出現了一個有趣的人物，其成功與矛盾和缺點相結合。

- 艾米E.韋爾斯 - 研究院

“對這位傑出的美國教育家進行了傑出而深入的研究，他比以往任何時候都更清楚地界定了一所醫學院校，為公共教育留下了不可磨滅的印記，並建立了世界上最先進的研究中心之一。邦納巧妙地描繪了這個高超的傳記，美國和世界對於弗萊克斯的理想，創造力，堅韌和倡導進步教育的態度。

- John S. Haller，Jr. - 美國歷史雜誌

“很少有非科學家像Abraham Flexner一樣對現代美國醫學產生了深遠和長期的影響......一本關於一個非常重要和被忽視的人物的傑出書籍。

- Janet A. Tighe，博士 - 美國醫學協會雜誌

“不僅填補了一個重大的空白，而且還對一個對教育和各種社會問題的貢獻普遍被忽視的個人提供了一個重要的評價......邦納的傳記使弗萊納重新恢復到他值得重視的地位。是美國史學的重要補充。“

- Gerald N. Grob - 醫學史雜誌

“優秀...深入研究，認真提出...這個徹底的，有創意的傳記調整了我們對這個強大的人的看法，所以參與了驚人的二十世紀教育發展。”

- Linda Eisenmann - H-Education，H-Net評論

“感謝托馬斯邦納的Iconoclast，我們終於有了傳記Flexner值得和讀者尋求。

- John R. Thelin - 高等教育雜誌

“如果你想知道為什麼自1945年以來，超過一半的諾貝爾醫學和科學獎已經被美國人接受了，那麼你必須閱讀托馬斯·邦納（Thomas Bonner）的書，亞伯拉罕·弗斯特納（Abraham Flexner）是美國醫學教育革命的設計者，這個國家成為了世界的醫療聖地，邦納將弗蘭克的精彩故事帶入了清晰，同情和神秘的世界。

- “Bad Blood”和“Alfred C. Kinsey：A Public / Private Life”一書的作者James H. Jones

“最後，我們擁有了醫學，科學和高等教育中最強大的塑造者之一，這個精心打造的Flexner的生活將從分裂，有時甚至是誤解中拯救出一個巨大的時代。非常重要的書，而是一個深思熟慮的審問，反复的社會和道德問題，在一個具體的，歷史背景下的生活和意義。

- 俄亥俄州立大學John C. Burnham

“亞伯拉罕·弗萊克納（Abraham Flexner）是美國教育界的偉大創新者之一

目次

Our Children Will Justify Us	1
A University Like No Other	20
Mr Flexners School	32
Breaking Free	48
A Legend Is Born	69
Master of the Survey	91
A Secure Berthat Last	114
At the Pinnacle	144

A Last Hurrah	238
Final Battles	266
I Burn That I May Be of Use	292
Notes	313
A Note on Sources	355
The Published Writings of Abraham Flexner	361
Acknowledgments	363
Index	365

A Fall from Olympus	177
Phoenix Rising	215

目次 我們的孩子將證明我們的合法性 1 一個沒有別人的大學 20 先生學校 32 免費打破 48 傳說誕生了 69 調查碩士 91 一個安全的Berthat最後 114 在巔峰 144 最後的歡呼聲 238 最後的戰鬥 266 我燒我可能會使用 292 筆記 313 關於來源的說明 355 Abraham Flexner的已發表文章 361 致謝 363 指數 365 從奧林巴斯跌倒 177 鳳凰瑞星 著作権 Abraham Flexner Papers Advanced Study Alan Gregg Albert Einstein Allan NevinsAmerican Medical Anne Flexner appointments April asked Atlantic Monthly Baltimore Bambergers brother Buttrick Carnegie Foundation Charles Chicago critical Dean Education Board Files Einstein Eliot Europe Felix Frankfurter Flexner Report Flexner to Anne Flexner to Simon Flexner to Thomas Fosdick Frank Aydelotte full-time Gates Germangraduate Harvard Henry Pritchett high school hospital ical ideas Institute for Advanced interest Jacob January Jean FlexnerJewish Johns Hopkins Julius Rosenwald later learning lectures Louis Bamberger Louisville mathematicsmedical education medical schools needed November October Oswald Veblen philanthropy politicspresident Princeton Pritchett professor reform Remember Rockefeller Archive Center Rockefeller FoundationRockefeller Jr Rosenwald scholars School of Medicine Simon Flexner Papers social teachers Thomas Jones Papers tion told Flexner University versity William Henry Welch wrote York