PBS高端访谈:自我重塑还是被人改造

AMNA NAWAZ: It's graduation season, and the memoir¹ "Educated" is the may pick for the "NewsHour" Book Club, in collaboration² with The New York Times, Now Read This. Its author, Tara Westover, had no formal education until she attended college. The unlikely path that led her there was entirely³ self-made. Tonight, she shares her Humble⁴ Opinion on how an education has very little to do with the schools you attend.

TARA WESTOVER, Author, "Educated": During my first semester of college, I raised my hand in a class and asked the professor to define a word I didn't know. The word was holocaust⁵, and I had to ask, because, until that moment, I had never heard of it. I had been raised in the mountains of Idaho by a father who distrusted many of the institutions that people take for granted: public education, doctors and hospitals, and the government. The result was, I was never put in school to taken to the doctor. I didn't even have a birth certificate until I was 9 years old, which meant that, according to the state of Idaho, I just didn't exist. My older brother bought textbooks and was able to teach himself enough to go to college. When I was 16, he returned and told me to do the same thing. I taught myself algebra⁶ and a little grammar, and somehow I scraped a high enough score on the ACT to be admitted to Brigham Young University, even though I had no formal education. That is how I came to be in that lecture hall, asking aloud, what is a holocaust? Because I had never been allowed to go to school, the only history I had learned was the history my father taught me. His perspective was my perspective. He said pharmaceuticals⁷ would permanently⁸ damage my body, so I had never taken so much as a Tylenol. He said the government had been corrupted⁹ by the illuminati, so I said that, too. His ideas had become my ideas. His fears had become my fears also. Once I discovered education, I studied for 10 years. I sought out as many ideas and perspectives as I could find, and I used that body of knowledge to try to construct my own mind. This pursuit would take me to some of the most respected universities in the world, to Cambridge, to Harvard. But it would also take me away from my family. I would become a different person, and that person could no longer go home. What I would come to understand from this journey is that an education is not the same thing as a school. A school is merely the institution through which an education is offered. An education is something you take for yourself. It's a process of becoming. That is the power of it, and that is the danger of it. For some, the word educated has come to mean institutionalized, but it doesn't have to mean that. An education is the remaking of a person. You can submit to that remaking passively, or you can take an active part. To choose the second is to remake yourself. To choose the first is to be made by others.

AMNA NAWAZ: To hear more from Westover, you can join our book club through our Facebook group, Now Read This. And right now, online, Westover shares insight into how she writes, what she reads and why -- quote -- "Inspiration is a myth." That's at PBS.org/NewsHour.

阿姆纳·纳瓦兹：现在是毕业季，"NewsHour" 读书俱乐部为您带来回忆录《教育之谜》，本栏目与纽约时报作者泰拉·威斯奥佛在上大学之前没有受过正规教育。那条道路令人难以置信，而且全靠自己。今晚，她做客Humble Opinion栏目，分享观点：教育与你所就读的学校几乎无关。

泰拉·威斯奥佛，《教育之谜》作者：我上大学的第一个学期，曾在课上举手，请教授讲一下我不会的那个单词。那个单词是“大屠杀”，我当时非问不可，因为，此前我从未听过。我在爱达荷州山区长大，很多人们认为理所当然的机构，我父亲都持怀疑：公立教育机构、医疗机构，还有政府机构。结果，我没上过学，没去看过医生。我9岁前，甚至连出生证明都没有，这意味着，根据爱达荷州的法律，我根本就不存在。我哥哥买了课本，自学考上大学。我16岁那年，他回来告诉我，让我学他。我自学了代数和一点语法，不知怎的，尽管我没有接受过正规教育，我还是以优异的ACT成绩，考上了杨百翰大学。所以我得以坐到那个演讲厅，大声问出，“‘大屠杀’一词是什么意思”。因为此前我从未有过上学的机会，我所了解的历史都是我父亲教的。他的观点就是我的观点。他说药物会永久性地损害我的身体，所以我甚至没吃过泰诺。他说政府已经遭到了光照派的破坏，所以我也这么说。那时他的想法成了我的想法。他的恐惧也成了我的恐惧。后来我发现了学校，一学就是10年。我尽己所能探寻观点与主张，我用知识来构建我自己的思想。这种追求会指引我抵达世上最受尊敬的学府，剑桥，哈佛。但也会让我远离家人。我会变得判若两人，而那个人再也不能回家。这样的经历使我明白，教育和学校不是一回事。学校仅仅是提供教育的机构。而教育则是你为自己所做的事情。这是一个培养的过程。这正是它的力量所在，也是它的危险所指。对一些人来说，教育这个词已经意味着制度化，但其实未必。教育就是改造一个人。你可以被动地接受这种改造，或者你也可以积极投身其中。选择后者就是自我重塑。选择前者则是被他人改造。

阿姆纳·纳瓦兹：想要了解威斯奥佛为您带来的更多内容，您可以通过脸谱网Now Read This加入我们的读书俱乐部。现在来看NewsHour线上节目：威斯奥佛分享了她关于如何写作，阅读书目，以及为什么“灵感是一个神话”的见解。就在PBS.org/NewsHour。

1 memoir   

n.[pl.]回忆录，自传；记事录

参考例句：

• He has just published a memoir in honour of his captain.他刚刚出了一本传记来纪念他的队长。
• In her memoir,the actress wrote about the bittersweet memories of her first love.在那个女演员的自传中，她写到了自己苦乐掺半的初恋。

2 collaboration   

n.合作，协作；勾结

参考例句：

• The two companies are working in close collaboration each other.这两家公司密切合作。
• He was shot for collaboration with the enemy.他因通敌而被枪毙了。

3 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

4 humble   

adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低

参考例句：

• In my humble opinion,he will win the election.依我拙见，他将在选举中获胜。
• Defeat and failure make people humble.挫折与失败会使人谦卑。

5 holocaust   

n.大破坏；大屠杀

参考例句：

• The Auschwitz concentration camp always remind the world of the holocaust.奥辛威茨集中营总是让世人想起大屠杀。
• Ahmadinejad is denying the holocaust because he's as brutal as Hitler was.内贾德否认大屠杀，因为他像希特勒一样残忍。

6 algebra   

n.代数学

参考例句：

• He was not good at algebra in middle school.他中学时不擅长代数。
• The boy can't figure out the algebra problems.这个男孩做不出这道代数题。

7 pharmaceuticals   

n.医药品；药物( pharmaceutical的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• the development of new pharmaceuticals 新药的开发
• The companies are pouring trillions of yen into biotechnology research,especially for pharmaceuticals and new seeds. 这些公司将大量资金投入生物工艺学研究，尤其是药品和新种子方面。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 permanently   

adv.永恒地，永久地，固定不变地

参考例句：

• The accident left him permanently scarred.那次事故给他留下了永久的伤疤。
• The ship is now permanently moored on the Thames in London.该船现在永久地停泊在伦敦泰晤士河边。

9 corrupted   

（使）败坏( corrupt的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）腐化； 引起（计算机文件等的）错误； 破坏

参考例句：

• The body corrupted quite quickly. 尸体很快腐烂了。
• The text was corrupted by careless copyists. 原文因抄写员粗心而有讹误。