为什么硅谷精英让子女远离科技？

 

硅谷精英比其他人更了解：技术能够增强智力，也会阻碍智力发展，而人类文明是教育和灾难之间的一场竞赛。

 

 

Hidden behind the unremarkable frontage of a low-rise warehouse in the Mission district of San Francisco is one of the most innovative education experiments in the US. Now in its seventh year, Brightworks is turning education on its head with an approach that makes the pupil entirely responsible for shaping their own learning experience. A private school for children of all ages, Brightworks is unusual in that there are no exams, no testing or SATs, no formal curriculum, no learning objectives and no teachers, only “collaborators”. 

在旧金山教会区(Mission District)一栋不起眼的低层仓库内，隐藏着美国最创新的教育实验之一。已进入第七年的Brightworks正在颠覆教育方法，其做法是让学生全权负责设计自己的学习体验。Brightworks是一所接收各年龄段孩子的私立学校，它的与众不同之处在于没有测验，没有考试或SAT（美国大学入学考试），没有正式的教学大纲，没有学习目标，也没有老师，只有“协作者”。

 

Children come to school to work on projects they devise entirely by themselves — often using power tools, drills, hammers and saws. Whether inside, creating extraordinary large-scale metal works, or outside on field trips around the Bay Area and beyond, the emphasis is on playful stress-free learning.

孩子们来到学校，投入完全由自己设计的项目——往往会使用电动工具、电钻、锤子和锯子。无论是在校内制作令人惊叹的大型金属作品，还是在湾区(Bay Area)和更远的地区进行实地考察，重点是让孩子们在无压力的情况下边玩边学习。

 

① drill [drɪl] n. 演习；电钻 v. 钻孔；训练

例句：There have been proposals to drill for more oil.

有人提出了钻探更多石油的建议。

 

 

 

Brightworks’ rip-up-the-rulebook approach reflects a set of complex tensions currently consuming education. Many parents worry that conventional education is failing to develop the creative intelligence people will need in the age of the so-called fourth industrial revolution — characterised by technological innovation in areas such as artificial intelligence, robotics and connectivity.

Brightworks打破常规的方法，反映了当前困扰教育领域的一系列复杂的紧张局面。许多家长担心，在以人工智能、机器人和互联互通等领域的技术创新为代表所谓的第四次工业革命时代，常规教育未能培养孩子们将会需要的创造性智力。

 

With Google chief executive Sundar Pichai earlier this year at Davos pronouncing AI to be “more important than fire or electricity”, the stage is set for an urgent debate around technology, humanity and the kind of education we give our children.

今年早些时候，谷歌(Google)首席执行官桑达尔•皮查伊(Sundar Pichai)在达沃斯(Davos)论坛上指出，人工智能将会“比火或电力更重要”。此言为一场紧迫的辩论搭起舞台，其焦点问题是关于科技、人性和我们给孩子们提供的教育。

 

② rip up 撕碎，撕毁

例句：If we wrote, I think he would rip up the letter.

如果我们写信，我想他会把信撕得粉碎。

 

 

 

The popularity of the alt-education movement’s “low-tech, high-play” ethos can be seen as a first response to rote-learning and exam-focused schooling by trendsetters who can afford to do things differently. The more conspiratorially minded have suggested the shift towards tech-free education for the Silicon Valley “technoscenti” is merely a sign of self-interest — in the way that all dynastic groups always seek to ensure their continued dominance.

另类教育运动的“少用技术设备、多玩耍”信条如此受欢迎，可以被视为是那些有能力以不同方式做事的潮流人士对死记硬背和应试教育的第一反应。更具阴谋意识的人已提出，硅谷“技术粉”转向少用技术的教育方式，只是自利的一个迹象——就像所有王朝群体都会寻求确保自己的主宰地位一样。

 

The tech savvy understand better than anyone how technology can enhance human intelligence but also how it can impede its development, the argument goes. They are looking to ensure their own children are   while the rest slip into tech dependency.

按照这种观点的逻辑，掌握高新技术的人士比其他人更了解这样一点，那就是技术能够增强人类智力，也会阻碍人类智力的发展。他们希望确保自己的孩子能经受住未来的考验，而其他孩子陷入对科技的依赖。

 

③ rote [rəʊt] n. 死记硬背

例句：Critics said the country's education system dangerously depends on rote memorization and rigid testing.

批评人士说，中国教育体系依赖死记硬背和僵化的考试内容，非常危险。

 

④ conspiratorial [kən,spɪrə'tɔrɪəl] adj. 阴谋的；阴谋者的

例句：His voice had sunk to a conspiratorial whisper.

他的声音降到密谋低语的程度。

 

 

In March, Apple beamed its latest product launch live from a Chicago high school. It announced new educational iPads and apps to “edutain” the next generation of schoolchildren. At the same time, a group of influential Apple shareholders was putting pressure on the company to embed controls into its smartphones to restrict children’s screen access time. 

今年3月，苹果公司(Apple)在芝加哥一所高中直播了最新产品发布。该公司发布新款“教育版”iPad和应用，让下一代学生“在娱乐中受教育”。与此同时，一些有影响力的苹果股东向该公司施压，要求其在智能手机中嵌入控制功能，以限制儿童盯着屏幕的时间。

 

The company’s late co-founder Steve Jobs was a tech-refusenik when it came to his own children. In a New York Times article in 2011 he memorably let slip that his children had never used an iPad. Similarly, Bill and Melinda Gates have been open about their children’s decidedly low-tech upbringing.

如果事关自己的孩子，该公司已故联合创始人史蒂夫•乔布斯(Steve Jobs)也是一位拒绝使用科技的人。在《纽约时报》(New York Times) 2011年刊登的一篇文章中，他无意中说漏了嘴：他的孩子从未使用过iPad。同样，比尔(Bill)和梅琳达•盖茨(Melinda Gates)一直公开支持孩子的低科技成长过程。

 

⑤ refusenik [rɪ'fjuznɪk] n. 拒绝服从指令（或法规）的人；反抗者

例句：When I got home, I was a guidebook refusenik.

在我结束旅程回到家后，我开始拒绝使用书质旅游指南了。

 

 

The role of modern education and the technology debate is something 68-year-old Liverpudlian educationist Sir Ken Robinson has spent much of his professional life exploring. His belief is that play and natural learning promote the skills we need most. An unlikely mix of comedian, rock star, head teacher and guru, he gave a TED talk in 2006, “Do Schools Kill Creativity?”, that has been viewed online more than 50m times.

关于现代教育和技术所扮演角色的辩论，是68岁的利物浦教育家肯•罗宾逊爵士(Sir Ken Robinson)在他的职业生涯中花了很多时间来探索的问题。他认为，玩耍和自然学习可以培养我们最需要的技能。他是集喜剧演员、摇滚明星、班主任和大师于一身的令人难以置信的混合体。他在2006年做了一次TED演讲，题为“学校会扼杀创造力吗？”。他的演讲在网上被点播超过5000万次。

 

Now a resident of California, the one-time education adviser to former UK prime minister Tony Blair is calling for a complete remake of the education system, rather than piecemeal reform. He argues for a return to a more active, problem-solving, play-based schooling that allows every child to gain the full benefits of early childhood and to develop a sense of who they are and what they are good at.

曾担任英国前首相托尼•布莱尔(Tony Blair)教育顾问、目前居住在加州的罗宾逊，呼吁彻底重建教育体系，而不是进行零碎的改革。他主张回归一种更活跃、注重解决问题、且基于游戏的教育方式，让每个孩子充分获得幼儿期带来的裨益，培养他们的自我意识，认识到自己擅长什么。

 

⑥ guru ['ɡʊruː] n. 大师；专家

例句：Fashion gurus dictate crazy ideas such as squeezing oversized bodies into tight trousers.

时装大师们常表达离奇的想法，例如把肥硕的身子塞进紧身裤中。

 

⑦ piecemeal ['piːsmiːl] adj. 逐渐做成（或发生）的；零敲碎打的

例句：Happily, though, this piecemeal existence did not last for long.

不过，幸运的是这种零碎的状态没有持续很久。

 

 

Robinson was an adviser to an initiative announced in January at the World Economic Forum called the Real Play Coalition — a collaboration between Unilever, the Lego Foundation, Ikea and National Geographic that will aim to raise awareness of the importance of play in education. 

在今年1月举行的世界经济论坛(World Economic Forum)上，宣布了一项名为“真正的玩乐联盟”(Real Play Coalition)的倡议，罗宾逊是其顾问。该倡议由联合利华(Unilever)、乐高基金会(Lego Foundation)、宜家(Ikea)和《国家地理》(National Geographic)杂志联合发起，旨在提高人们对玩耍在教育中所发挥重要作用的认识。

 

The argument is that a lack of outdoor play spaces, solitary screen-based activities and a well-intentioned but misguided belief that children need more structured learning activities in their lives to enhance academic attainment is responsible for play disappearing from schools and from homes. The resulting play deficit is, according to Robinson and other leading academics, hurting child development. It is precisely these skills that Silicon Valley’s tech-savvy parents are prioritising in their own children.

他们的论点是，缺乏户外游戏空间、单独在屏幕上完成的活动，以及一个善意但受到误导的想法（即孩子们在生活中需要更多结构化的学习活动来提高学业成绩）是导致孩子们在学校和家中都不能玩耍的原因。因此，罗宾逊和其他领先学者认为，由此导致的“玩耍赤字”伤害了儿童的发展。这些技能正是为人父母的硅谷科技精英希望自己的孩子们优先掌握的。

 

⑧ solitary ['sɒlɪt(ə)rɪ] adj. 独自的；单独的

例句：He gave me a detailed account of the relative merits of solitary confinement in various prisons.

他给我详细对比了各地监狱单独禁闭室的优劣点。

 

 

 

 

Despite the debate around play, technology and development, Robinson says we must not get sidetracked from the main questions of equality and fairness in education.

尽管有围绕玩耍、技术和发展的辩论，但罗宾逊说，我们不能偏离平等和公平这两个有关教育的主要问题。

 

“We face a lot of significant problems as a species and will need a lot of smart people to help solve them,” he says. “Helping all children, wherever they are, to become the best versions of themselves . . . has to be the real purpose of education now because — and I like to quote HG Wells on these occasions — ‘civilisation is a race between education and catastrophe’.”

“作为一个物种，我们面临着许多重大问题，需要很多聪明的人来帮助解决这些问题，”他说。“帮助所有的孩子，无论他们身在何处，成为最好的自己……必须是教育的真正目的——我喜欢在这些场合引用赫伯特•乔治•威尔斯(HG Wells)的话——‘人类文明是教育和灾难之间的一场竞赛’。”

 

⑨ sidetrack ['saɪd.træk] v. 使转变话题；使转移目标

例句：The corrupt officials tried to sidetrack our investigation.

这些贪官污吏企图岔开我们的调查。

 

词组拓展

 

在说“反xx”这样的词汇时，我们通常会想到用anti-xx，但是今天的文章里有一个新的单词，用于书面表达，可以供你选择~

 

refusenik是名词，意为“拒绝服从指令（或法规）的人”，这个单词最初来源于俄语词汇，意为“被拒绝移民者”，也可写作refusednik。

 

以“名词+refusenik”的形式就可以表达“反xx”的意思。

例如：

①The recent general election in Finland propelled a loan-refusenik party, the True Finns, to third place in the polls.

在最近的芬兰大选中，一个反对贷款援助计划的政党——TrueFinns——被推选至第三大党派的地位。

②When I got home, I was a guidebook refusenik. 

在我结束旅程回到家后，我开始拒绝使用书质旅游指南了。

 

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