育人是大学的本能，是大学存在的合法性根基；理念是大学的灵魂，决定了大学的品位和高度。美国大学在诞生后很长一段时间都是欧洲大学的附庸，直至20世纪初开始崛起，一路迤逦向前成为无可辩驳的执牛耳者。这一过程清晰地体现在美国大学育人理念中，从最初因袭古典自由教育，到提出全人教育，再到对“全面发展”和“批判能力”重新反思，育人理念的历史沿革标记了美国大学的发展之路，也为我国的外语教育提供了重要的参考价值。

Education is the instinct of the university, the university is the foundation of the legitimacy of survival; idea is the soul of the university, determines the university’s grade and level. American universities were born a long time as the vassal of the Europe University until the early 20th century, and then kept going forward to become an irrefutable leader. The implementation of this process was very clearly reflected in the idea of American university education, from the initial blindly followed the classical liberal education, to examine self-proposed "whole person cultivation" of holistic education, to "overall development" and "critical skills". The historical evolution of the idea of education clearly marks the development of American universities, and also provides an important reference for foreign language education in China.