经济学人88:压力下的父母 取消小提琴补习班

 Stressed parents压力下的父母Cancel that violin class取消小提琴补习班Helicopter moms and dads will not harm their kids if they relax a bit揠苗助长的父母们，放松点，对孩子没坏处。

WELL-TO-DO parents fear two things: that their children will die in a freak accident, and that they will not get into Harvard. The first fear is wildly exaggerated. The second is not, but staying awake all night worrying about it will not help—and it will make you miserable¹.

富裕家庭的父母害怕两件事情：一件是他们的孩子死于意外事故，另一件是，孩子进不了哈佛读书。第一件可能过分的夸张，第二件则绝对真实。但是担心得夜不能寐起不到任何帮助作用，只会让你觉得痛苦。

Modern parents see risks that their own parents never considered. They put gates at the top of stairs, affix² cushions to table corners and jam plastic guards into sockets³ to stop small fingers from getting electrocuted. Those guards are “potential choking hazards”, jests Lenore Skenazy, the author of “Free-Range Kids”. Ms Skenazy let her nine-year-old son ride the New York subway on his own. He was thrilled; but when she spoke⁴ about it on TV, a mob of worrywarts called her “America's worst mom”.

现在的父母看到了他们上一辈从未注意到过的危险。他们把大门安在楼梯顶上，给桌子安上桌角防撞贴，给插座插上保护盖以防止孩子的小手指触电。 《自由放养孩子》一书作者Lenore Skenazy开玩笑的说，这些防护装置有潜在的窒息危险。Skenazy让她九岁的孩子自己乘坐纽约的地铁。孩子因此非常激动，但当Skenazy在电视上讲到此事，一群杞人忧天人士则说她是“美国最糟糕的母亲”。

压力下的父母.jpgYet in fact American children are staggeringly safe. A kid under five in the 1950s was five times as likely to die than the same kid today. The chance of a child being kidnapped and murdered by a stranger is a minuscule⁵ one in 1.5m.

然而，事实上美国的孩子们异常安全。在二十世纪五十年代，5岁以下孩子死亡率是现在的5倍。孩子被陌生人绑架、谋杀的可能性只有微不足道的150万分之一。

What about academic success? Surely the possibility of getting into Harvard justifies⁶ any amount of driving junior from violin lesson to calculus⁷ tutor?

那学术上取得成功又是怎么样的呢？进入哈佛的可能性当真证明了有从小提琴到微积分都很厉害的孩子？

Bryan Caplan, an economist⁸ at George Mason University, says it does not. In “Selfish Reasons To Have More Kids”, he points to evidence that genes⁹ matter far more than parenting. A Minnesota study found that identical twins grow up to be similarly clever regardless of whether they are raised in the same household or in separate ones. Studies in Texas and Colorado found that children adopted by high-IQ families were no smarter than those adopted by average families. A Dutch study found that if you are smarter than 80% of the population, you should expect your identical twin raised in another home to be smarter than 76% but your adopted sibling¹⁰ to be average. Other twin and adopted studies find that genes have a huge influence on academic and financial success, while parenting has only a modest effect.

乔治梅森大学的经济学家Bryan Caplan说，事实并非如此。在《多要孩子的自私原因》一书中，他拿出证据指出，基因的影响力远大于教养的影响力。明尼苏达州的一项研究表明，同卵双胞胎不论是否在同一家庭环境中成长，他们长大后的聪慧程度是相似的。德克萨斯州和科罗拉多州的研究发现，被高智商家庭收养的孩子并没有比普通家庭收养的孩子聪明。荷兰一项研究发现，如果你比80%的人聪明，那么你生的、在别的人家抚养起来的同卵双胞胎，将会比76%的人聪明，而你自己领养的孩子则是平均水平。其他关于双胞胎和领养的研究显示，基因对学术和经济上的成功有着巨大的影响，而教养只有轻微的作用。

The crucial caveat¹¹ is that adoptive parents have to pass stringent¹² tests. So adoption¹³ studies typically compare nice middle-class homes with other nice middle-class homes; they tell you little about the effect of growing up in a poor or dysfunctional household.

关键的警告是，养父母必须经过严格的测试。因此，领养研究通常在不错的中产家庭之间比较，并没有说明在贫穷或非正常家庭中成长会有什么影响。

The moral, for Mr Caplan, is that middle-class parents should relax a bit, cancel a violin class or two and let their kids play outside. “If your parenting style passes the laugh test, your kids will be fine,” he writes. He adds that if parents fretted¹⁴ less about each child, they might find it less daunting¹⁵ to have three instead of two. And that might make them happier in the long run. No 60-year-old ever wished for fewer grandchildren.

对Caplan来说，其意义就是中产家庭父母应当放松点，取消一两个小提琴班，让孩子在外面玩玩。他在书中写到：“如果你的养育形式通过了欢乐测试，你的孩子就会很棒。”他补充说，如果父母少焦躁的对待孩子，父母可能会发现三个孩子比两个孩子更好。这会使他们在长期内更加快了。60岁的人（代指老年人）都希望有更多的孙辈。

Does over-parenting hurt children? Probably not; but it exhausts parents. Hence the cascade¹⁶ of books with titles like “All Joy And No Fun” and “Go The F**k To Sleep”. Kids notice when their parents are overdoing¹⁷ it. Ellen Galinsky, a researcher, asked 1,000 kids what they would most like to change about their parents'schedules. Few wanted more face time; the top wish was for mom and dad to be less tired and stressed.

过度的教养伤害到孩子了吗？可能并没有。但是它让父母筋疲力尽。所以有一连串像《所有的快乐与不快乐》和《去他妈的睡觉》这样的书名。孩子会注意到父母们什么时候过头了。一名为Ellen Galinsky的研究员询问了1000名孩子，问他们最想改变其父母时间表上的哪些东西。很少有孩子想要跟父母见面的时间。最大的心愿是，让爸爸妈妈不再那么紧张劳累。

1 miserable   

adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的

参考例句：

• It was miserable of you to make fun of him.你取笑他，这是可耻的。
• Her past life was miserable.她过去的生活很苦。

2 affix   

n.附件，附录 vt.附贴，盖(章)，签署

参考例句：

• Please affix your signature to the document. 请你在这个文件上签字。
• Complete the form and affix four tokens to its back. 填完该表，在背面贴上4张凭券。

3 sockets   

n.套接字，使应用程序能够读写与收发通讯协定(protocol)与资料的程序( Socket的名词复数 )；孔( socket的名词复数 )；（电器上的）插口；托座；凹穴

参考例句：

• All new PCs now have USB sockets. 新的个人计算机现在都有通用串行总线插孔。
• Make sure the sockets in your house are fingerproof. 确保你房中的插座是防触电的。 来自超越目标英语 第4册

4 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

5 minuscule   

adj.非常小的；极不重要的

参考例句：

• The human race only a minuscule portion of the earth's history.人类只有占有极小部分地球历史。
• As things stand,Hong Kong's renminbi banking system is minuscule.就目前的情况而言，香港的人民币银行体系可谓微不足道。

6 justifies   

证明…有理( justify的第三人称单数 )； 为…辩护； 对…作出解释； 为…辩解（或辩护）

参考例句：

• Their frequency of use both justifies and requires the memorization. 频繁的使用需要记忆，也促进了记忆。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓
• In my judgement the present end justifies the means. 照我的意见，只要目的正当，手段是可以不计较的。

7 calculus   

n.微积分；结石

参考例句：

• This is a problem where calculus won't help at all.对于这一题，微积分一点也用不上。
• After studying differential calculus you will be able to solve these mathematical problems.学了微积分之后，你们就能够解这些数学题了。

8 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

9 genes   

n.基因( gene的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• You have good genes from your parents, so you should live a long time. 你从父母那儿获得优良的基因，所以能够活得很长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Differences will help to reveal the functions of the genes. 它们间的差异将会帮助我们揭开基因多种功能。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 生物技术的世纪

10 sibling   

n.同胞手足(指兄、弟、姐或妹)

参考例句：

• Many of us hate living in the shadows of a more successful sibling.我们很多人都讨厌活在更为成功的手足的阴影下。
• Sibling ravalry has been common in this family.这个家里，兄弟姊妹之间的矛盾很平常。

11 caveat   

n.警告； 防止误解的说明

参考例句：

• I would offer a caveat for those who want to join me in the dual calling.为防止发生误解，我想对那些想要步我后尘的人提出警告。
• As I have written before,that's quite a caveat.正如我以前所写，那确实是个警告。

12 stringent   

adj.严厉的；令人信服的；银根紧的

参考例句：

• Financiers are calling for a relaxation of these stringent measures.金融家呼吁对这些严厉的措施予以放宽。
• Some of the conditions in the contract are too stringent.合同中有几项条件太苛刻。

13 adoption   

n.采用，采纳，通过；收养

参考例句：

• An adoption agency had sent the boys to two different families.一个收养机构把他们送给两个不同的家庭。
• The adoption of this policy would relieve them of a tremendous burden.采取这一政策会给他们解除一个巨大的负担。

14 fretted   

焦躁的，附有弦马的，腐蚀的

参考例句：

• The wind whistled through the twigs and fretted the occasional, dirty-looking crocuses. 寒风穿过枯枝，有时把发脏的藏红花吹刮跑了。 来自英汉文学
• The lady's fame for hitting the mark fretted him. 这位太太看问题深刻的名声在折磨着他。

15 daunting   

adj.使人畏缩的

参考例句：

• They were faced with the daunting task of restoring the house.他们面临着修复房子的艰巨任务。
• Starting a new job can be a daunting prospect.开始一项新工作有时会让人望而却步。

16 cascade   

n.小瀑布，喷流；层叠；vi.成瀑布落下

参考例句：

• She watched the magnificent waterfall cascade down the mountainside.她看着壮观的瀑布从山坡上倾泻而下。
• Her hair fell over her shoulders in a cascade of curls.她的卷发像瀑布一样垂在肩上。

17 overdoing   

v.做得过分( overdo的现在分词 )；太夸张；把…煮得太久；（工作等）过度

参考例句：

• He's been overdoing things recently. 近来他做事过分努力。 来自辞典例句
• You think I've been overdoing it with the work thing? 你认为我对工作的关注太过分了吗？ 来自电影对白