我们是第1（1）！

xylonhong

看完中国人写的批判中国的教育的文章，我们也来看看美国人写的批判美国的教育的文章。


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华盛顿邮报
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/05/AR2010090502817.html

纽约时报
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/12/opinion/12friedman.html

我们是第1（1）！
I want to share a couple of articles I recently came across that, I believe, speak to the core of what ails America today but is too little discussed. The first was in Newsweek under the ironic headline “We’re No. 11!” The piece, by Michael Hirsh, went on to say: “Has the United States lost its oomph as a superpower? Even President Obama isn’t immune from the gloom. ‘Americans won’t settle for No. 2!’ Obama shouted at one political rally in early August. How about No. 11? That’s where the U.S.A. ranks in Newsweek’s list of the 100 best countries in the world, not even in the top 10.”
我想分享几篇我最近偶然读到的文章，认为这些文章切中了困扰如今美国的核心问题，但是这些问题却很少论及。第一篇是《新闻周刊》上一篇题为《我们是第十一》的文章，这个标题颇具讽刺性。这篇由迈克尔•赫西撰写的文章在文中说道：“美国已经丧失超级大国的魅力了吗？奥巴马总统也未免感到忧郁。‘美国人无法忍受当第二！’奥巴马在8月初的一次政治集会中呐喊道。排到第十一会有何感想呢？这就是美国在《新闻周刊》发布的世界上100个最好国家榜单中的排名，连十强都没挤进。”

The second piece, which could have been called “Why We’re No. 11,” was by the Washington Post economics columnist Robert Samuelson. Why, he asked, have we spent so much money on school reform in America and have so little to show for it in terms of scalable solutions that produce better student test scores? Maybe, he answered, it is not just because of bad teachers, weak principals or selfish unions.
第二篇应该算是由《华盛顿邮报》经济专栏作家罗伯特•萨缪尔森撰写的题为《为何我们是第十一》的文章。他问道，为何我们在美国的学校改革上花了大量钱，却在提高学生考试成绩的大量解决办法上乏善可陈？他答道，也许这不仅仅是因为不称职的老师、无能的校长和自私的工会。

“The larger cause of failure is almost unmentionable: shrunken student motivation,” wrote Samuelson. “Students, after all, have to do the work. If they aren’t motivated, even capable teachers may fail. Motivation comes from many sources: curiosity and ambition; parental expectations; the desire to get into a ‘good’ college; inspiring or intimidating teachers; peer pressure. The unstated assumption of much school ‘reform’ is that if students aren’t motivated, it’s mainly the fault of schools and teachers.” Wrong, he said. “Motivation is weak because more students (of all races and economic classes, let it be added) don’t like school, don’t work hard and don’t do well. In a 2008 survey of public high school teachers, 21 percent judged student absenteeism a serious problem; 29 percent cited ‘student apathy.’ ”

萨缪尔森写道：“失败的一个更大原因几乎很难说出口：学生缺乏动力。毕竟，学生要努力学习才行。如果他们缺乏动力，再能干的老师可能也无能无力。动力的源泉很多：好奇心和雄心、父母的期望、上‘优秀’大学的欲望、激励人心或令人敬畏的老师、同伴的压力。很多学校‘改革’的潜规则是，如果学生缺乏动力，主要是学校和老师的错。”错了，他说：“学生缺乏动力是因为他们（来自不同的民族和经济阶级等等）不喜欢上学、没有努力学习以及表现糟糕。2008年，在一份有关中学老师的调查中，21%的老师认为学生旷课是一个很严重的问题，29%的老师提到了“学生缺乏兴趣”的问题。

There is a lot to Samuelson’s point — and it is a microcosm of a larger problem we have not faced honestly as we have dug out of this recession: We had a values breakdown — a national epidemic of get-rich-quickism and something-for-nothingism. Wall Street may have been dealing the dope, but our lawmakers encouraged it. And far too many of us were happy to buy the dot-com and subprime crack for quick prosperity highs.
萨缪尔森的话很有道理并且那个问题只是我们没有正视的、在这次衰退中发现的巨大问题中的沧海一粟。我们的价值观解体了——一夜暴富和不劳而获的思想在全国盛行。华尔街可能一直在做不良交易，但是我们的立法者鼓励这种做法。此外，为了追求暴富的快感，我们当中相当一部分人乐于购买网络股和次级债“毒品”

Ask yourself: What made our Greatest Generation great? First, the problems they faced were huge, merciless and inescapable: the Depression, Nazism and Soviet Communism. Second, the Greatest Generation’s leaders were never afraid to ask Americans to sacrifice. Third, that generation was ready to sacrifice, and pull together, for the good of the country. And fourth, because they were ready to do hard things, they earned global leadership the only way you can, by saying: “Follow me.”
扪心自问一下：什么使我们“最伟大一代”如此伟大？第一，他们面临了巨大、残酷和无法逃避的难题：大萧条、纳粹主义和苏联共产主义。第二，“最伟大一代”的领导人从未害怕要求美国人作出牺牲。第三，为了国家的利益，那一代人团结一致，随时准备牺牲。第四，由于他们随时准备做艰难之事，并表示“跟我走”，于是就获得了全球领导地位，这也是你获取全球领导地位的唯一方法。

Contrast that with the Baby Boomer Generation. Our big problems are unfolding incrementally — the decline in U.S. education, competitiveness and infrastructure, as well as oil addiction and climate change. Our generation’s leaders never dare utter the word “sacrifice.” All solutions must be painless. Which drug would you like? A stimulus from Democrats or a tax cut from Republicans? A national energy policy? Too hard. For a decade we sent our best minds not to make computer chips in Silicon Valley but to make poker chips on Wall Street, while telling ourselves we could have the American dream — a home — without saving and investing, for nothing down and nothing to pay for two years. Our leadership message to the world (except for our brave soldiers): “After you.”
这与婴儿潮一代形成了对比。我们的大问题逐渐显现——美国教育、竞争力和基础设施的衰落，还有对石油极度依赖和气候变化。我们这一代的领导人从来都不敢提“牺牲”二字。所有的解决之道都必须没有痛苦。你喜欢那种药方？民主党的刺激计划，共和党的减税政策还是国家能源政策？都太难了。十年来，我们没有将最优秀的人才送到硅谷制造计算机芯片，而是送到华尔街制作扑克筹码了，与此同时，告诉我们自己，我们不用省两年钱，不用储蓄和投资就可以实现美国梦——拥有一套房子。我们的领导层对世界发出的信息（除了对我们英勇的战士以外）是：“跟你走”。

So much of today’s debate between the two parties, notes David Rothkopf, a Carnegie Endowment visiting scholar, “is about assigning blame rather than assuming responsibility. It’s a contest to see who can give away more at precisely the time they should be asking more of the American people.”
卡内基和平基金会的访问学者戴维•罗特科普夫指出，两党之间的争论大都是“指责而不是承担责任。正是在他们应该向美国人民索要更多东西的时候，这却是一场决出谁能为美国人民提供更多服务的比赛。

Rothkopf and I agreed that we would get excited about U.S. politics when our national debate is between Democrats and Republicans who start by acknowledging that we can’t cut deficits without both tax increases and spending cuts — and then debate which ones and when — who acknowledge that we can’t compete unless we demand more of our students — and then debate longer school days versus school years — who acknowledge that bad parents who don’t read to their kids and do indulge them with video games are as responsible for poor test scores as bad teachers — and debate what to do about that.
我和罗特科普夫一致认为，在如下情况下，我们会为美国政治兴奋不已：在开展全国辩论时，民主党人和共和党人都要首先承认要是不增加税收和削减开支，我们就无法削减赤字，接着再辩论采取哪种政策以及何时采取该政策；要首先承认除非我们对学生提出更多的要求，否则我们就无法进行竞争，接着再辩论增加上学时间还是学年；要首先承认不教其孩子读书、任由他们玩视频游戏的不称职家长和不称职的老师一样，要为糟糕的考试成绩负责，接着再辩论如何处理这种情况。
Who will tell the people? China and India have been catching up to America not only via cheap labor and currencies. They are catching us because they now have free markets like we do, education like we do, access to capital and technology like we do, but, most importantly, values like our Greatest Generation had. That is, a willingness to postpone gratification, invest for the future, work harder than the next guy and hold their kids to the highest expectations.
谁将告诉人民？中国和印度追赶美国靠得不仅是廉价的劳动力和货币。它们正赶上我们是因为，与我们一样，它们现在也拥有开放的市场、教育、资本和技术，最重要的是它们拥有我们“最伟大一代”所拥有的价值观。这种价值观是，他们愿意推迟享受，投资未来，比旁人更加努力地工作，对其孩子寄予最高的期望。

In a flat world where everyone has access to everything, values matter more than ever. Right now the Hindus and Confucians have more Protestant ethics新教徒道德新教伦理than we do, and as long as that is the case we’ll be No. 11!
在一个每个人都可以享用所有东西的平的世界里，价值观就更为重要了。目前，印度教徒和儒家弟子拥有的新教美德比我们要多，只要存在这种情况，我们将排在第十一位。