2018/7/25 14:49:00
許昌翻譯公司教你集中精力
許昌翻譯公司教你集中精力
【導(dǎo)讀】這本書能改變我們撫養(yǎng)孩子的方式，改變學(xué)校運(yùn)作的模式，指導(dǎo)我們?nèi)绾螛?gòu)建社會安全網(wǎng)絡(luò)。當(dāng)然，也會改變我們對童年本身的理解。
School reform
學(xué)校改革
Stay focused
集中精力
Jan 19th 2013 |From the print edition
When pawns gain control
當(dāng)卒掌控全局時(shí)
How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity and the Hidden Power of Character. By Paul Tough. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; 256 pages; $27. Random House; ￡12.99. Buy from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk
《孩子怎樣能贏：持之以恒，好奇心和性格中隱藏的力量》，作者Paul Tough，霍頓?米夫林? 哈考特 （ Houghton Mifflin Harcourt ）出版社：全書256頁，售價(jià)27美元；蘭登書屋，售價(jià)12.99英鎊。美國和英國亞馬遜有售。
THE young teenagers who graduated from a special South Bronx middle school in 1999 became nationally famous. All black and Hispanic and largely from low-income families, the students had been recruited four years earlier to participate in an experimental programme called KIPP (ie, the Knowledge Is Power Program), designed to close the achievement gap between privileged and poor students. The experience seemed to pay off: in a citywide test, these students earned the highest scores of any school in the Bronx, and the fifth-highest in all of New York City. Most won admission to top high schools, often with full scholarships. They all seemed destined for college, and for successful, precedent-bucking, demographic-defying lives.
1999年畢業(yè)于南布朗克斯的一所特殊中學(xué)的青少年聞名全國。他們都是來自低收入家庭的拉丁裔美國黑人，四年前被征集參加了KIPP實(shí)驗(yàn)項(xiàng)目（即“知識就是力量項(xiàng)目”）。該項(xiàng)目旨在縮小富裕家庭和貧困家庭的學(xué)生成就間的差距。試驗(yàn)似乎取得了成效：在布朗克斯市的所有學(xué)校中，這些學(xué)生的分?jǐn)?shù)是最高的，在整個(gè)紐約市排名第五。其中大多通常以全額獎(jiǎng)學(xué)金被頂級高中錄取。他們似乎命中注定要上大學(xué)，他們的人生注定會成功、打破先例、沖破人口的劣勢。
But six years after their high-school graduation, only about a fifth of KIPP’s first class had completed a four-year college degree. Most ended up dropping out, reaffirming America’s growing class divide on college campuses. KIPP’s founders were distraught, particularly because a college degree has never been more valuable, enabling Americans to earn some 80% more than people with only a high-school diploma. So how had KIPP failed to prepare these students for college? What did they do wrong?
然而，在他們高中畢業(yè)的六年后，KIPP最好的一批學(xué)生中完成了四年的大學(xué)學(xué)業(yè)的僅有五分之一。大部分人最終輟學(xué)了，再度證實(shí)了美國大學(xué)校園里的等級分化在日益增長，KIPP的創(chuàng)始人對此感到憂心如焚，其主要原因就在于大學(xué)學(xué)歷含金量從未如此之高，擁有大學(xué)文憑美國人比僅有高中文憑的能多賺80%左右。那么為何KIPP項(xiàng)目沒能使這些學(xué)生完成大學(xué)呢？他們做錯(cuò)了什么？
Paul Tough, a journalist and former editor at the New York Times Magazine, aims to answer these thorny questions in “How Children Succeed”, an ambitious and elegantly written new book, now out in Britain. The problem, he writes, is that academic success is believed to be a product of cognitive skills—the kind of intelligence that gets measured in IQ tests. This view has spawned a vibrant market for brain-building baby toys, and an education-reform movement that sweats over test scores. But new research from a spate of economists, psychologists, neuroscientists and educators has found that the skills that see a student through college and beyond have less to do with smarts than with more ordinary personality traits, like an ability to stay focused and control impulses. The KIPP students who graduated from college were not the academic stars but the workhorses, the ones who plugged away at problems and resolved to do better.
Paul Tough是《紐約時(shí)報(bào)雜志》的前任編輯，現(xiàn)在是一名記者。在他的《孩子怎樣能贏》這本書中，為我們解答了這些復(fù)雜難懂的疑問。這部新作品內(nèi)容大膽、文筆優(yōu)美，現(xiàn)在在英國出版。書中他指出，學(xué)術(shù)成就被認(rèn)為是認(rèn)知能力（一種在IQ測試中被評估的理解力）的產(chǎn)物，這也是問題所在。該觀點(diǎn)促進(jìn)了兒童益智玩具市場的活躍，同時(shí)也引起了努力對測驗(yàn)分?jǐn)?shù)進(jìn)行的教育改革運(yùn)動。但是大量的經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)家、心理學(xué)家、神經(jīng)學(xué)科學(xué)家以及教育家的最新研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，看一個(gè)學(xué)生是否能通過并超過大學(xué)的技能與學(xué)生的智力水平無關(guān)，更多的是普通的人格特質(zhì)，比如說集中精力和克制沖動的能力。KIPP項(xiàng)目中大學(xué)畢業(yè)的學(xué)生并不是學(xué)術(shù)尖子，而是那些能吃苦耐勞的人，他們一直努力地解決問題并下定決心要做的更好。
So non-cognitive skills like persistence and curiosity are highly predictive of future success. But where do these traits come from? And how can they be developed? In search of answers, Mr Tough first looks at the problem on a neurological level. Apparently medical reasons explain why children who grow up in abusive or dysfunctional environments generally find it harder to concentrate, sit still and rebound from disappointments. The part of the brain most affected by early stress is the prefrontal cortex, which is critical for regulating thoughts and mediating behaviour. When this region is damaged—a common condition for children living amid the pressures of poverty—it is tougher to suppress unproductive instincts.
所以，諸如堅(jiān)持和好奇心等非認(rèn)知能力才能準(zhǔn)確地預(yù)測未來能否成功。但這些特質(zhì)是怎樣形成的？又該如何培養(yǎng)呢？為了找到答案，Mr Tough首先從神經(jīng)學(xué)角度來看這個(gè)問題。為何在充斥著咒罵或者不正常的環(huán)境中成長的孩子更難集中精力、靜坐和從失望中走出來，醫(yī)學(xué)的原因?qū)Υ私o出了明顯的解釋。大腦中的前額皮質(zhì)層受早期壓力的影響最大，前額皮質(zhì)對于日常思考和行為調(diào)節(jié)起到重要的作用。如果該區(qū)域受到損傷——對于生活中飽受貧困壓力的孩子來說這很常見——他們抑制那些毫無益處的本能更困難。
The science seems daunting, but it also points the way forward. Studies show that early nurturing from parents or caregivers helps combat the biochemical effects of stress. And educators can push better habits and self control. The “prefrontal cortex is more responsive to intervention than other parts of the brain,” writes Mr Tough. It stays malleable well into early adulthood. Character can be taught.
科學(xué)上的解釋似乎令人氣餒，但也給我們指明了前進(jìn)的方向。研究顯示，早期父母或看護(hù)的培養(yǎng)有助于戰(zhàn)勝壓力產(chǎn)生的生物化學(xué)影響。并且，教育者能夠促進(jìn)孩子形成更好的習(xí)慣和自制力?！按竽X中對行為干預(yù)起最重要作用的部分是前額皮質(zhì)層，”Mr Tough如是寫道。童年早期時(shí)前額皮質(zhì)層仍然是容易改變的。性格能被調(diào)教出來。
But schools have experience creating classes that raise test scores. Figuring out the best way to help youths develop “grit”—a passionate dedication to a goal—is trickier. Psychological interventions require more sophistication than teaching maths, and one of the big problems facing underperforming schools in America is a shortage of good teachers. But Mr Tough highlights some promising efforts to take these lessons about non-cognitive skills on board. A fascinating chapter considers the work of a young chess instructor in Brooklyn who turns unmotivated low-income students into chess champions by teaching them new ways to solve problems and recover from failures. In Chicago a programme called OneGoal, launched in 2009, is preparing struggling high-school students for college by stressing the link between hard work and destiny. And KIPP schools are now experimenting with something called a character report card, designed to show students that such traits can improve with time.
不過在開設(shè)提高測驗(yàn)分?jǐn)?shù)的課程上，學(xué)校富有經(jīng)驗(yàn)。找到培養(yǎng)青少年“持之以恒”精神的最佳方式——對實(shí)現(xiàn)目標(biāo)的全身心投入——需要更高的技巧。當(dāng)前美國表現(xiàn)不佳的學(xué)校面臨的大難題之一就是缺乏好老師，而心理干預(yù)需要的比數(shù)學(xué)教學(xué)更為復(fù)雜。但是Mr Tough書中強(qiáng)調(diào)了一些關(guān)于開設(shè)非認(rèn)知技能課程的可行努力。其中有一章講述了布魯克林的一位年輕象棋教官，通過教授解決問題和走出失敗的新方法，將毫無動力的低收入家庭的學(xué)生訓(xùn)練成了象棋冠軍，引人入勝。2009年，“目標(biāo)”計(jì)劃在芝加哥啟動，它強(qiáng)調(diào)了刻苦學(xué)習(xí)和命中注定之間的聯(lián)系，讓努力奮斗的高中生為上大學(xué)做好準(zhǔn)備。KIPP項(xiàng)目當(dāng)前還對性格成績報(bào)告單進(jìn)行實(shí)驗(yàn)，這份報(bào)告單告訴了學(xué)生那些花時(shí)間能夠改善的品質(zhì)。
Replicating such initiatives on a grand scale will be hard, not least because they all seem to be run by uniquely talented and dedicated teachers and reformers. But at a time when ever more American children are living in poverty, better schools remain the most powerful anti-poverty tool available. After decades of failed efforts to improve the lives of poor students, Mr Tough has written a fine and provocative book about the kind of work that seems to be making a difference.
大規(guī)模地如法炮制上述舉措會十分困難。不單是因?yàn)樗鼈兊膶?shí)施看上去都需要具有獨(dú)特才能并且專注認(rèn)真的老師和改革者。更是由于當(dāng)今的美國貧困兒童達(dá)歷史空前之多，更好的學(xué)校仍然是最行之有效且最有力的反貧困工具。Mr Tough致力于改善貧窮學(xué)生的生活狀況，在他十多年的努力失敗后，創(chuàng)作出這部激勵(lì)人心的佳作，似乎將對我們產(chǎn)生重大的影響。
From the print edition: Books and arts