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放任自由的反学校教育

2013-04-08

疯狂英语·原声版 2013年3期
关键词:埃里马丁自学

这篇文章中,人物角色(主要是记者与母亲)交换频繁,听时要注意辨别,特别是留意不同人说话时的不同语气。

Its a common morning ritual, hustling the kids to get ready for school...

Dana Martin: Are you guys getting hungry?

...and parents for work, but as the school bus doors close, the Martin family isnt on it.

The four Martin children, ages 11, 8, 5 and 2 simply dont go to school: never have. They arent home schooled either. Instead theyre whats called“unschooled.”

Dana: Just picture life without school, so maybe a weekend. We wake up and we have breakfast and we just start pursuing what were interested in doing.

Mom, Dana Martin, doesnt think her kids need to go to school to learn their A-B-Cs.

Reporter: Doesnt a child need to know who 1)George Washington and FDR and JFK were?

这是每天早上例行的套路,催促孩子们准备好上学……

达纳·马丁:你们饿了吗?

……父母们也要准备上班。可校车的车门关上了,马丁家的孩子却不在车上。

马丁家的四个孩子,年龄分别是11、8、5和2岁。他们都不上学,从来都没上过学,他们也不是在家自学。他们的状态是所谓的“反学校教育”。

达纳:你想象一下不用上学的生活吧,比如说周末。我们早上醒来,吃完早餐,就开始做我们自己想做的事。

孩子们的母亲达纳·马丁认为她的孩子不需要到学校去学习基础知识。

记者:难道孩子不需要知道谁是乔治·华盛顿、弗兰克林·德拉诺·罗斯福和杰克·肯尼迪吗?

Dana: I dont know. Do you think they do? Do you think thats necessary?

Reporter: Your mom lets you kinda read and study whatever you want?

Devin: Mmm.

Reporter: What about, like, math? Does she ever force you to do math?

Devin: No, not really.

Unschooling is radical enough, but radical unschooling extends the 2)laissez-faire philosophy to parenting. Meals, for example, are up to the kids: whatever they want as long as its in the house.

Dana: And so, because we dont punish, we dont use the term“rules,” but we have a rhythm to our day.

Dad, Joe, works from home building wooden toy sets. In this home, theres no bedtime, no alarm clocks in the morning, so 11-year-old Devin often stays up past midnight.

Reporter: Devin stays up until one oclock in the morning.

Dana: Sometimes, and Im so happy that he does and that he has that time to himself. He can have a nice three, four hours with Joe or just me.

So while kids everywhere are studying history, ...

Voice: In the summer of 1765...

...and geography, ...

Voice: Bering Strait.

...the Martin kids are free to pursue their own intellectual curiosity. Devins baking projects involve measurements and creativity.

Devin: About 8 to 6 cups of flour...

Dana: I just personally dont believe in…that humans learn best when its…when theyre trying to learn something that somebody else is telling them to.

达纳:我也不知道,你觉得他们应该知道吗?你觉得真的有必要吗?

记者:妈妈让你随便喜欢看什么就看什么,想学什么就学什么吗?

德温:对。

记者:那像数学这种呢?她有没有逼你学数学?

德温:没,没怎么逼。

反学校教育的做法可能很偏激,但在学习上的放任自由还进一步延伸到父母对孩子的管教上。举例说,用餐也随孩子的心愿,爱吃什么都行,只要在家里就可以了。

达纳:还有,因为我们不惩罚他们,也不会用“规矩”这个词,可我们的日常生活还是有节奏的。

当父亲的乔在家里工作,制作木玩具。在这个家里,没有规定的睡觉时间,早上也不用闹钟。所以,11岁的德温常常过了午夜才睡。

记者:德温在凌晨一点才睡觉。

达纳:有的时候是这样。而我也乐意他这样做,这样他会有属于自己的时间。他可以跟乔或者我一起度过三、四个小时的美好时光。

就这样,当别的孩子都在学习历史……

声音:在1765年的夏天……

……还有地理……

声音:白令海峡。

……马丁家的孩子可以随意去满足自己的求知欲。德温的烘烤项目需要用到计量知识,要有创意。

德温:大概八到六杯的面粉……

达纳:在我看来,我不认为……人在别人让他们学的时候……学习效果是最佳的。

While they arent always idle, there are no tests, no homework, no lesson plans. If youre wondering, unschooling is legal because it falls under the guidelines of homeschoolers, so the regulations vary from state to state.

Dana says her children have learned reading and math without formal instruction, but when we asked 11-year-old Devin a basic multiplication question, he stumbled.

Dana: And sometimes people, theyll ask me “how do your kids learn if theyre having fun all day?” Like they so dont equate learning with fun.

Reporter: Right. So how do your kids learn if theyre just having fun?

Dana: You know, whatever theyre interested in, I try to bring as much into their life as possible with as many resources as possible.

Reporter: How do you see your kids future lives playing out—high school, college age, beyond?

Dana: I dont really necessarily project. I just want them to be happy.

Reporter: But Im stunned that youve never thought about what kind of jobs your kids would end up...

Dana: Well, I dont know. Do you…I mean, does anybody know? Do you know? Can you picture what kind of jobs your kids would have?

Reporter: My son wants to be the Yankee 3rd baseman, so, right now. Its a little...its a little off.

Perhaps not the best long-term plan. Dana, though has become a leader in the growing radical unschooling movement through YouTube videos.

Dana: (in a YouTube video) True learning comes from the internal drive, the need from the learner.

虽说他们并不总是无事可做,但他们的学习没有测验,没有作业,也没有学习计划。如果你对此感到好奇的话,这种反学校教育的做法是合法的,因为它与在家自学同属一个类型,因此,各州的规定也不尽相同。

达纳说,她的孩子没有经过正规教育也学会了阅读与数学,可当我们问11岁的德温一个简单的乘法问题时,他却支支吾吾。

达纳:有的时候,有人会问我:“如果你的孩子整天都开开心心的,他们怎么学习?”他们竟然觉得学习不应该与开心有什么关系。

记者:对。那么,如果他们整天都在玩,那他们究竟怎么学习?

达纳:你知道,就是他们对什么感兴趣,我就尽可能地把一切相关资源都融入到他们的生活中。

记者:你怎么看孩子们的未来,会怎么发展:中学、大学,更远的未来?

达纳:我没有必要预测。我只想他们开心。

记者:但我很吃惊,你竟然没有想过你的孩子会做什么样的工作……

达纳:嗯,我也不知道。那你……我是说,有谁知道吗?你知道吗?你知道你的孩子将来会做什么?

记者:我儿子想到扬基棒球队当三垒手,所以现在嘛……那个有点,是有点不寻常。

可能那也算不上最佳的长远规划。不过,通过YouTube视频,达纳成了日益壮大的反学校教育运动的领军人物。

达纳:(在一个YouTube视频中)真正的学习需要源自内心的动力,学习者本身的渴求。

Shes even written a book. There are an estimated 150,000 unschooled families nation-wide.

Massachusetts mom, Erika Faberg, homeschools and is trying to ditch the textbooks and try unschooling.

Erika: Most of the struggle is my self in trying to figure out how to let go of what my idea of school is.

And the mother of three boys is full of questions.

Erika: What if they really do need algebra and I dont teach them algebra?

Dana: So…so the fears that you have are so normal...

Erika: OK.

Dana: ...and algebras not something everybody on earth needs to know.

Erika: Right.

Dana: This life is about honouring the fact that were not all put on the earth to do the same thing in life...

Reporter: What about when this learning gets more sophisticated? How do you expose them to Shakespeare or Twain or Henry James? You know, how do you teach them the great works and the great historians if you cant get them to sit down and learn?

Dana: Well, I think a lot of people might value that more than others. I honestly dont remember—yes, although I know their names, I dont remember the details of what I learned in school about the historians, for example.

Details her children may never have the chance to forget.

她甚至还写了一本书。据估计,全美国约有十五万个实行反学校教育的家庭。

埃里卡·法伯格是来自马萨诸塞州的一名母亲,她的孩子在家自学,她希望避开教科书,而给孩子试行反学校教育。

埃里卡:最难的事情是我自己如何放弃原来对学校的想法。

这位三个男孩的母亲心里疑问重重。

埃里卡:如果他们以后真的需要代数,而我现在又不教他们,怎么办?

达纳:这个……这些忧虑是很正常的。

埃里卡:好吧。

达纳:并不是世界上所有的人都需要学会代数。

埃里卡:对。

达纳:我们的人生是要尊重这样一个事实:我们来到这个世上并不是为了做相同的事情……

记者:等学习内容变得更加复杂时,怎么办?你怎么让他们了解关于莎士比亚、马克·吐温、亨利·詹姆斯?你知道,如果你没办法让他们安安静静地坐下来学习,你怎么向他们传授优秀著作和杰出历史学家的知识?

达纳:嗯,我想可能许多人比其他人更看重这些东西。老实说,我自己都不记得了。是的,我还记得这些人的名字,但我不记得以前在学校里学过的细节,比如说,历史学家。

但这些细节,她的孩子连忘记的机会都没有。翻译:丁一

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