TED演讲：学校扼杀创造力(4)

 　　What these things have in common is that kids will take a chance. 以上例子的共同点就是孩子们愿意冒险。

　　If they don't know, they'll have a go. Am I right? 对于未知的事物，他们愿意去尝试。难道不是吗？

　　They're not frightened of being wrong. I don't mean to say that being wrong is the same thing as being creative.  即使尝试的结果是错误的，他们也不惧怕。当然，我并不认为错误的尝试等同于创新。

　　What we do know is, if you're not prepared to be wrong,  但我们都知道，如果你不打算做错误的尝试，

　　you'll never come up with anything original -- if you're not prepared to be wrong. 你永远不会创造出新东西。如果你不想让孩子们做错误的尝试，

　　And by the time they get to be adults, most kids have lost that capacity¹. 等他们长大了，多数孩子就会丧失创新的能力。

　　They have become frightened of being wrong. And we run our companies like this. We stigmatize² mistakes.  那就会使他们也变得惧怕错误的尝试。这种情况也存在于公司经营方面。我们不能容忍任何错误。

　　And we're now running national education systems where mistakes are the worst thing you can make.  这就使得现在的教育体系成为最不能容忍错误的领域。

　　And the result is that we are educating people out of their creative capacities³. 这样做的后果就是，我们的教育体制正在扼杀孩子们的创造力。

　　Picasso once said this, he said that all children are born artists. 毕加索曾说过: “孩子们是天生的艺术家”。

　　The problem is to remain an artist as we grow up.  问题是我们长大后能否继续保有艺术灵感。

　　I believe this passionately⁴, that we don't grow into creativity, we grow out of it. 我坚信：我们随着年龄的增长而丧失了创造力。

　　Or rather, we get educated out of it. So why is this? 甚至可以说，是我们所受的教育让我们丧失了创造力。为什么会这样？

　　I lived in Stratford-on-Avon until about five years ago. In fact, we moved from Stratford to Los Angeles. 五年前，我住在Stratford-on-Avon。现在我已经搬到了洛杉矶。

　　So you can imagine what a seamless transition⁵ that was. 可想而知，这是个多么合乎逻辑的移居。

　　Actually, we lived in a place called Snitterfield, just outside Stratford, which is where Shakespeare's father was born. 其实，那时我们住在Snitterfield，就在Stratford郊外，那里是莎士比亚父亲的出生地。

　　Are you struck by a new thought? I was.  你有过灵感吗？我曾经有过。

　　You don't think of Shakespeare having a father, do you? Do you? 你没把莎士比亚和他的父亲联想在一起，对吗？

　　Because you don't think of Shakespeare being a child, do you? 因为你忽略了莎士比亚也曾经是个孩子，对吗？

　　Shakespeare being seven? I never thought of it.  莎士比亚七岁时什么样？我从没想过。

　　I mean, he was seven at some point. He was in somebody's English class, wasn't he? 他七岁时的某个特定场景。比如他在上英语课，想想他在上英语课。

1 capacity   

n.能力，力量，接受力；容量，能量，容积

参考例句：

• She is employed by the president in an advisory capacity.她被总裁聘为顾问。
• This carriage has a seating capacity of 120 people.这节车厢定员120人。

2 stigmatize   

v.污蔑，玷污

参考例句：

• Children in single-parent families must not be stigmatized.单亲家庭的孩子们不应该受到歧视。
• They are often stigmatized by the rest of society as lazy and dirty.他们经常被社会中的其他人污蔑为懒惰、肮脏。

3 capacities   

容量( capacity的名词复数 )； 才能； 性能； 生产能力

参考例句：

• It's important to draw out a child's potential capacities. 发掘孩子的潜在能力是很重要的。
• Silo usually have individual capacities of 1000 to 2000 tons. 竖仓单个的容量通常是1000到2000吨。

4 passionately   

ad.热烈地，激烈地

参考例句：

• She could hate as passionately as she could love. 她能恨得咬牙切齿，也能爱得一往情深。
• He was passionately addicted to pop music. 他酷爱流行音乐。

5 transition   

n.转变，变迁，过渡

参考例句：

• Adolescence is the period of transition between childhood and adulthood.青春期是童年与成年之间的过渡时期。
• They all support a peaceful transition.他们全部都支持和平过渡。