【社会】美国目前的教育体系有什么问题?_风闻

【来源龙腾网】

评论原创翻译：

Ethan Soo

What is the biggest problem with the public school system of the United States?

Albert Einstein once proclaimed, “The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.” Throughout the past century, technology has advanced greatly, but our education system has not changed at all. The standardized school system we use today was originally created to supply factory workers for the Industrial Era (Dintersmith). However, in the technological era of today, we need innovators, creative minds, and critical thinkers. Our education system does not allow students to grow nor does it motivate students to learn; ultimately, today’s school environment does not prepare us with essential skills we need to thrive in the future.

美国公立学校系统最大的问题是什么？

阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦曾宣称：“唯一干扰我学习的是我的教育。”在过去的一个世纪里，科技有了很大的进步，但我们的教育制度却一点也没有改变。我们今天使用的标准化学校系统最初是为工业时代(Dintersmith)提供工厂工人而创建的。然而，在今天的技术时代，我们需要创新者、创造性思维和批判性思考者。我们的教育体系不允许学生成长，也不激励学生学习;最终，今天的学校环境并没有让我们具备在未来茁壮成长所需的基本技能.

Our current school system does not promote student growth. Though students spend about 8 hours in school daily, students are unable to retain most of the knowledge they learn. In a study conducted by researchers, high school students who passed the AP Psychology exam were tested again in 3 months with the same material the exam covered. The study found that 90% of these high school students did not even pass that test (Dintersmith). 90% of those students forgot more than half of the material they “learned” in just a span of 3 months. Students cannot retain the information they learn, because it’s just too much. In 2012, the Economic Intelligence Unit compiled a global report on education by ranking 40 countries in the world based on test scores in reading, math, and science. While the U.S. was ranked 17th, Finland topped the chart at number one . Finland uses a very different approach to education. In the Finnish school system, there are no standardized tests. Additionally, high school students spend less than 3 hours of homework a week and school hours are cut in half . But how is it that doing less means more? Darling-Hammond, a Stanford professor in education answers this question by describing “the [Finnish] curricula” as an education system that emphasizes “critical thinking…, problem-solving, project-based learning, and learning to learn”. By covering less content and challenging students to critically think, students are able to retain much more of their knowledge.

我们目前的学校制度不能促进学生的成长。尽管学生们每天在学校呆上大约8个小时，但他们无法保留所学的大部分知识。在研究人员进行的一项研究中，通过AP心理学考试的高中生在3个月后再次接受了与考试内容相同的测试。研究发现，这些高中生中有90%甚至没有通过这项测试（Dintersmith）。其中90%的学生在短短3个月内忘记了他们“学到”的一半以上的材料。学生无法保留他们所学的信息，因为这些信息太多了。2012年，经济情报局根据阅读、数学和科学考试成绩对世界40个国家进行了排名，编制了一份全球教育报告。美国排名第17，芬兰排名第一。芬兰采用了一种截然不同的教育方法。在芬兰的学校系统中，没有标准化的考试。此外，高中生每周花在家庭作业上的时间不到3小时，上课时间减少了一半。但是为什么做得少意味着掌握得多呢？斯坦福大学教育学教授Darling Hammond回答了这个问题，他将“芬兰课程”描述为一种强调“批判性思维、解决问题、基于项目的学习和学习如何学习”的教育体系。通过涵盖较少的内容和挑战学生批判性思维，学生能够保留更多的知识。

Despite everything students learn in school, they do not develop the skills they need to thrive in the workplace. Jobs today are immensely different than those from the past. Google receives around 2 million applications a year, but only accepts and hires about 4000 of them. With an acceptance rate of 0.2%, surely, the special few who have a job at Google earned a 4.0 GPA in high school in order to get accepted, right? Wrong. Laszlo Bock, head of People Operations at Google, explains that Google does not use test scores and GPA to determine qualification. Instead, they employ people with a high cognitive ability, those who have a strong thinking ability, and those who have grit. It is inevitable that being able to pass tests and memorize content will not prepare us for jobs of the modern era.

尽管学生在学校学到了一切，但他们并没有发展出在工作中茁壮成长所需的技能。今天的工作与过去大不相同。谷歌每年收到约200万份申请，但只接受并雇佣了其中约4000份，录取率为0.2%，当然，在谷歌工作的少数特殊人群在高中时获得了4.0的GPA才能被录取，对吧？错，谷歌人事运营主管Laszlo Bock解释说，谷歌不使用考试成绩和GPA来确定资格。相反，他们雇佣的是认知能力高的人、思维能力强的人和有毅力的人。不可避免的是，能够通过考试和记住内容并不能让我们为现代职场做好准备。

Now how do we solve this? We need students to be motivated. Motivation is the driving force that compels us to learn, yet schools do not employ it. According to a National Research Council report on education, 40% of high school students are “chronically disengaged from school” . Now, why is that? Well, from spending 8 hours on our daily lives at school, 5 hours on homework, and 3 hours on extracurriculars, students are simply exhausted with countless loads of information to memorize that they feel don’t relate to them. To solve this, our schools need to stop standardizing our learning and create more choices for students to learn. This way, students can pursue their own interests rather than wasting time on others. Some argue that if students are able to learn anything they want, then students might not be motivated to take the initiative to learn. However, it turns out the contrary seems to be true. An experiment conducted by teacher researchers concluded that increasing the freedom of choice to learn directly leads to an increase in self-motivation. In other words, it has been proven that students are more motivated when they are given more choices.

现在我们该如何解决这个问题？我们需要学生有积极性。动机是迫使我们学习的动力，但学校并没有利用它。根据国家研究委员会关于教育的报告，40%的高中生“长期脱离学校”。为什么？好吧，在学校花8个小时在日常生活上，花5个小时在家庭作业上，花3个小时在课外活动上，学生们只是被无数他们觉得与自己无关的信息所累。为了解决这个问题，我们的学校需要停止规范我们的学习，为学生创造更多的学习选择。这样，学生可以追求自己的兴趣，而不是把时间浪费在别人身上。一些人认为，如果学生能够学到他们想要的任何东西，那么学生可能就没有动力主动学习。然而，事实证明恰恰相反。教师研究人员进行的一项实验得出结论，增加选择学习的自由度直接导致自我激励的增加。换句话说，事实证明，当学生有更多的选择时，他们会更有动力。

In this technological era, we have the freedom to learn anything we want online. Did you know you could even watch free lectures from many top universities like Stanford, UC Berkeley, and MIT as if you were a part of their course? Well you can and once schools are able to give us enough time to learn on our own, our educational growth will no longer be defined by the education system. We can create our own unique education. Of course, there are some skills like collaboration, cooperation, and grit, which cannot be developed online. Rather than focusing on teaching content in school, schools can help us develop these essential life skills we need for our future.

在这个科技时代，我们可以自由地在网上学习我们想要的任何东西。你知道吗，你甚至可以观看斯坦福大学、加州大学伯克利分校和麻省理工学院等许多顶尖大学的免费讲座，就好像你在上他们的部分课程一样？你可以的，一旦学校能够给我们足够的时间让我们自己学习，我们的教育成长将不再由教育系统来定义。我们可以创建自己独特的教育。当然，有些技能，如协作、合作和毅力，是无法在网上培养的。学校可以帮助我们发展未来所需的这些基本生活技能，而不是专注于学校的教学内容。

We all have the power to change the future. Nelson Mandela, former South African President, once stated, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” By spreading awareness of these changes we can use to fix our school system, we can revolutionize our education, and with our education, we can diversify our future. School should not be a place to limit our growth as students. School should be a place of development. School should be a place of discovery. School should be a place of exploration. School should be a place of inspiration. School should be a place for students to find their passion. School should be a place for students to find their potential. And the day schools are able to help students find their potential, the day schools are able to help students find their voice, is the day the sky becomes the limit.

我们都有改变未来的力量。南非前总统纳尔逊·曼德拉曾说过：“教育是改变世界的最有力武器。”通过传播人们对这些变化的认识，我们可以用这些变化来修复我们的学校系统，我们可以彻底改变我们的教育，通过我们的教育，我们可以使我们的未来多样化。学校不应该成为限制我们学生成长的地方。学校应该是一个发展的地方。学校应该是一个探索的地方。学校应该是一个研究的地方。学校应该是一个充满灵感的地方。学校应该是一个让学生找到激情的地方。学校应该是学生发掘潜力的地方。当学校能够帮助学生找到自己的潜力，当学校能够帮助他们找到自己的声音，届时天空才是极限。