当今大学里做什么最重要？What Matters Most in College Today?
原文地址：Education 2.0: What’s most important to do in college today?
翻译： 任平生
我曾写过一系列关于当今社会发展最快的工作职位以及大学生应该如何为它们做好准备的文章。在教育2.0丛书中有很大一部分是Natali写的关于大学生应该学会使用哪些社交网络工具的文章。（译者注：教育也2.0啊）。
我认为大学生应该通过学会与校园里与各种各样的人交朋友并抛开课本来为将来充满竞争的工作世界做好准备。这或许是因为我发现在大学里我花费在为得到A评级的时间恰恰是我学到东西最少的时间。
本月的 Ode 杂志上有一篇关于慷慨的重要性的文章：一项从十九世纪二十年代就开始进行的追踪调查显示一个人给与他人帮助的能力预示着他将来生活幸福的程度。（威尔斯大学的Paul Wink负责了这项调查，并著有《In the Course of a Lifetime》）
其中最有趣的一项发现就是在慷慨方面得分越高的青年在以后的生活中越是健康和幸福。所以对在大学里应该做什么的最好建议就是培养和发展给与的能力。
下面列出了五种给与者经常表现出来的特征：
- 一种认为自己可以做的与众不同的观念；
- 一种能使你自己真切地体会到他人感受的情感。
- 坚信自己有能力把事情顺利完成。
- 有自己的精神信仰 --- 无论是传统的宗教还是折衷的利他主义。
- 能够坚持一生地做好事。
即使现在你还没有表现这些特点，但从今天起你就可以开始尝试给与，随着你的进步就能慢慢地形成这些人格特征。据加利福尼亚大学的心理学教授Sonja的看法，试着在一天内做五件不含私心的事情，就可以开阔你的视野。
所以大学生为自己做的最好的事情可能就是少去上课且多给与他人以帮助，这对将来的工作是很有帮助的。不管怎样，当你在面对生活的时候，把时间花在真正重要的事情上就会赢得这场战争一半的胜利。
（译者注：学好自己的专业课知识是不是能够为他人提供更多更好的帮助呢，关于是否应该翘课，各位读者您有什么看法？）
Original post: Education 2.0: What’s most important to do in college today?
Translated by: 任平生
I once wrote a series of posts about the fastest-growing jobs in today’s world and how college students should prepare for them. A good part of the Education 2.0 series is Natali’s writing on which social networking tools college students should learn to use. (Translator’s note: so education is 2.0 now too).
I believe college students should prepare for the fiercely competitive working world by learning to make friends with all kinds of people on campus and by putting their textbooks aside. Perhaps this is because I found that the time I spent in college earning A grades was exactly the time I learned the least.
This month’s Ode magazine has an article on the importance of generosity: a longitudinal study running since the 1920s shows that a person’s capacity to give help to others predicts how happy their later life will be. (Paul Wink of Wellesley College led the study, and is the author of In the Course of a Lifetime)
The most interesting finding among them is that the young people who scored higher on generosity were healthier and happier in later life. So the best advice on what to do in college is to cultivate and develop the capacity to give.
Listed below are five traits that givers often display:
- A belief that what you do can make a difference;
- A feeling that lets you truly and vividly sense what others feel.
- A firm conviction in your own ability to see things through.
- A spiritual belief of your own --- whether traditional religion or an eclectic altruism.
- The ability to keep doing good works for a whole lifetime.
Even if you don’t show these traits yet, you can start trying to give from this day on, and as you make progress these traits of character will slowly take shape. In the view of Sonja, a psychology professor at the University of California, trying to do five things free of self-interest within a single day can broaden your horizons.
So the best thing college students can do for themselves may be to attend fewer classes and give others more help; it will serve their future work well. Either way, when you face life, spending your time on the things that truly matter wins you half the battle.
(Translator’s note: wouldn’t mastering your own coursework let you offer others more and better help? On whether one should skip class, dear readers, what do you think?)
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