TED演讲:我们不要一成不变的教育(7)

 　　Because in my older years, I've become somewhat of a clairvoyant¹. 到了我这把年纪，我可以说是已经开了慧眼了。

　　I can predict school scores. You take me to any school. 我可以很容易地预测到某所学校的成绩的。只要你把我带到任何一所学校。

　　I'm really good at inner city schools that are struggling. 我尤其善于预测市区那些办学水平不怎么样的学校。

　　And you tell me last year 48 percent of those kids were on grade level. 只要你告诉我去年学校有48%的学生取得及格以上的学业成绩就行。

　　And I say, "Okay, what's the plan, what did we do from last year to this year?" 我会问：“那你们今年的计划是什么？你采取的措施和去年的有什么不同？”

　　You say, "We're doing the same thing." I'm going to make a prediction. 如果你告诉我：“我们和去年的做法差不多。”那我就可以帮你预测一下了。

　　This year, somewhere between 44 and 52 percent of those kids will be on grade level. And I will be right every single time. 今年，你的及格以上的人数大约在44%到52%之间。而我每次的预测都全中。

　　Right? So we're spending all of this money, but we're getting what? 我们花了这么多钱，可我们得到了些什么？

　　Teachers need real information right now about what's happening to their kids. 老师们需要的是及时的信息和数据--关于他们的学生学习真实情况的数据啊。

　　The high stakes is today, because you can do something about it. 不过，亡羊补牢为时不晚，因为我们还可以为此做些事情。

　　So here's the other issue that I just think we've got to be concerned about. 由此我想到了另外一个问题，我们得关心这个事情。

　　We can't stifle² innovation in our business. We have to innovate³. 在教育改革中，我们不能扼杀创新。我们必须创新。

　　And people in our business get mad about innovation. 可我们很多人会对创新抱抵触的情绪。

　　They get angry if you do something different. 如果你要做些改变他们会很不爽。

　　If you try something new, people are always like, "Ooh, charter schools." 如果你想尝试些新东西，总会有人说：“哦，又弄来一间特许的实验学校了。”

　　Hey, let's try some stuff. Let's see. This stuff hasn't worked for 55 years. 但至少你让我们来做些尝试吧。我们现行的制度55年来都没起什么作用啊。

　　Let's try something different. And here's the rub. Some of it's not going to work. 让我们来尝试些新的东西行不行呢？可这也有难处。有些特许的实验学校也不成功。

　　You know, people tell me, "Yeah, those charter schools, a lot of them don't work." 要知道，也有人告诉我：“唉，那些特许学校有很多也是不成功的啊。”

　　A lot of them don't. They should be closed. I mean, I really believe they should be closed. 那些不成功的学校，就应该关掉。说实话，我真的认为它们应该关掉。

　　But we can't confuse figuring out the science and things not working with we shouldn't therefore do anything. Right? 但我们不能将科学和那些不起作用的东西混在一起，然后说，我们什么也不用做啊。是吧？

　　Because that's not the way the world works. 因为这个世界本来就不是那样子的。

1 clairvoyant   

adj.有预见的；n.有预见的人

参考例句：

• Love is blind,but friendship is clairvoyant.爱是盲目的，友谊则能洞察一切。
• Those whom are clairvoyant have often come to understand past lives.那些能透视的人们已能经常理解死去的生命。

2 stifle   

vt.使窒息；闷死；扼杀；抑止，阻止

参考例句：

• She tried hard to stifle her laughter.她强忍住笑。
• It was an uninteresting conversation and I had to stifle a yawn.那是一次枯燥无味的交谈，我不得不强忍住自己的呵欠。

3 innovate   

v.革新，变革，创始

参考例句：

• We must innovate in order to make progress.我们必须改革以便取得进步。
• It is necessary to innovate and develop military theories.创新和发展军事理论是必要的。