新奇事件簿 孩子们上学是为了什么

What is school for? This may seem an easy question to answer, but a poll¹ taken in the USA shows people have different opinions on why kids go to school. The poll is called the 'Public’s Attitudes Toward the Public Schools'. It is from a global association of education professionals called PDK International. PDK asked Americans to name the biggest purpose of school. Just 45 per cent of people who took part in the poll said the main goal of school was to prepare students to pass exams. Around a quarter of people said the main purpose was to get kids ready to join the workforce². Just over 26 per cent of Americans believed the biggest reason for school was to teach children about citizenship³.

学校是做什么的？这个问题看上去很容易回答。但是美国进行的一次民意测验显示，关于孩子们为何去上学人们有着不同的看法。这次民意测验题为“公众对公立学校的态度”，由全球教育专家联合会PDK International进行。PDK要求美国人指出学校最主要的目标。只有45%的受调查者表示学校的主要目标是让孩子们通过考试。大约四分之一的人表示主要目的是让孩子们做好进入职场的准备。只有超过26%的人表示上学最大的目的是教孩子们如何成为合格的公民。

Johsua Starr, CEO of PDK, said the poll questioned whether today's schools were doing the right thing. He said: "One has to really question whether the direction we've been going is consistent⁴ with what the public wants." He quoted from author James Baldwin, who said in 1963 that the purpose of school is "to ask questions of the universe and learn to live with those questions." Students had different ideas about what school was for. Elena Brankov, 15, said school was to teach children to be creative, to share ideas with others and to use technology to make the world a better place. Lyndon Bailey, also 15, said school, "is just to make poor kids into robots who work and make rich people richer".

PDK首席执行官Johsua Starr表示，这次民意测验提问，如今的学校所做的事情是否正确。他说：“我们应该问的是，我们一直努力的方向是否与公众的意愿一致。”他引用的是作家詹姆斯·鲍德温(James Baldwin)的说法。鲍德温曾于1963年说，学校的目标是“询问关于宇宙的问题，学会带着这些问题生活。”关于上学是为了什么学生们有不同的看法。15岁的Elena Brankov表示，学校是为了教会孩子们有创造力，与其他同学分享看法，利用科技让世界变得更好。同样15岁的Lyndon Bailey说，“上学是为了让穷人的孩子变成工作的机器人，让有钱人变得更有钱。”

1 poll   

n.民意测验，民意调查，选举投票

参考例句：

• The result of the poll won't be known until midnight.选举结果要到午夜才能揭晓。
• They expected a heavy poll.他们期望会有很高的投票数。

2 workforce   

n.劳动大军，劳动力

参考例句：

• A large part of the workforce is employed in agriculture.劳动人口中一大部分受雇于农业。
• A quarter of the local workforce is unemployed.本地劳动力中有四分之一失业。

3 citizenship   

n.市民权，公民权，国民的义务(身份)

参考例句：

• He was born in Sweden,but he doesn't have Swedish citizenship.他在瑞典出生，但没有瑞典公民身分。
• Ten years later,she chose to take Australian citizenship.十年后，她选择了澳大利亚国籍。

4 consistent   

adj.坚持的，一贯的，一致的，符合的

参考例句：

• He has been a consistent friend to the Chinese people.他是中国人民始终如一的朋友。
• His action is always consistent with his words.他始终言行一致。