2. Education Matters

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1938671-4,00.html

2. Education Matters


On a recent Saturday afternoon, at a nice restaurant in central Shanghai, Liu Zhi-he sat fidgeting at the table, knowing that it was about time for him to leave. All around him sat relatives from an extended family that had gathered for a momentous occasion: the 90th birthday of Lius great-grandmother Ling Shu Zhen, the still spry and elegant matriarch of a sprawling clan. But Liu had to leave because it was time for him to go to school. This Saturday, as he does every Saturday, Liu was attending two special classes. He takes a math tutorial, and he studies English.
Liu is 7 years old.
上周六下午，在上海市中心一个很不错的餐厅里，刘志何很烦躁地坐在桌子旁，因为知道他得走了。坐在旁边的都是些大家庭里的亲戚，为90岁的刘志何的老 祖母庆祝生日，这是很重要的时刻。他的老祖母叫林淑珍，还很精神和优雅，是这个大家族里的家长。但刘得走了，因为到时间去上学了。这个周六，像以往一样， 刘上了两个特教班。他有一个数学的家教，还学英文，他只有7岁。

A lot of foreigners — and, indeed, a fair number of Chinese — believe that the obsession (and thats the right word) with education in China is overdone. The system stresses rote memorization. It drives kids crazy — arent 7-year-olds supposed to have fun on Saturday afternoons? — and doesnt necessarily prepare them, economically speaking, for the job market or, emotionally speaking, for adulthood. Add to that the fact that the system, while incredibly competitive, has become corrupt.
许多外国人，其实还有许多中国人，认为中国教育的逼迫性太过了。这制度让人死记硬背，把孩子逼疯了。7岁的孩子不是应该在周六的下午玩耍的吗？没必要 为他们的就业和成年时的事情准备。另外，这异常激烈的竞争制度，已经变得恶化了。

All true — and all, for the most part, beside the point. After decades of investment in an educational system that reaches the remotest peasant villages, the literacy rate in China is now over 90%. (The U.S.s is 86%.) And in urban China, in particular, students dont just learn to read. They learn math. They learn science. As William McCahill, a former deputy chief of mission in the U.S. embassy in Beijing, says, "Fundamentally, they are getting the basics right, particularly in math and science. We need to do the same. Their kids are often ahead of ours."
确实，是这样，但对于最重要部分，这些是不要紧的。在几十年对覆盖到最边远的农村的教育系统的投资后，中国的识字率已超过了90%（美国是86%）， 而在中国城市，学生们不仅学习阅读，还有数学、科学。就像美国驻北京大使馆的前副局长William McCahill说的，“根本上，他们正享受最基本的权利，特别是在数学和科学上，我们也需要这样做，他们的孩子走在我们的孩子之前。”

What the Chinese can teach are verities, home truths that have started to make a comeback in the U.S. but that could still use a push. The Chinese understand that there is no substitute for putting in the hours and doing the work. And more than anything else, the kids in China do lots of work. In the U.S., according to a 2007 survey by the Department of Education, 37% of 10th-graders in 2002 spent more than 10 hours on homework each week. Thats not bad; in fact, its much better than it used to be (in 1980 a mere 7% of kids did that much work at home each week). But Chinese students, according to a 2006 report by the Asia Society, spend twice as many hours doing homework as do their U.S. peers.
中国人教的是真理、家庭观，这些在美国又开始流行，但还是需要一些推动力。中国人明白这些毫无疑问是需要花时间去做的工作。而且，中国孩子做很多的作 业。 2007年美国的教育部调查显示，美国37%的10年级学生在2002年每周花超过10个小时的时间做功课，这个挺好，比之前要好得多（1980年仅仅有 7%的学生达到这个），但中国的学生呢，根据2006年亚洲协会的报告，比美国学生多花了一倍的时间在作业上。

Part of the reason is family involvement. Consider Liu, the 7-year-old who had to leave the birthday party to go to Saturday school. Both his parents work, so when he goes home each day, his grandparents are there to greet him and put him through his after-school paces. His mother says simply, "This is normal. All his classmates work like this after school."
部分原因是家庭督促。想想刘，一个7岁的小孩，不得不为周六补课而离开生日聚会。他的父母都工作，所以当他每天回到家时，他的奶奶会督促他的放学后的 功课。他的妈妈非常坦白地说“这个很正常。他的同学放学后都这样。”

Yes, big corporate employers in China will tell you the best students coming out of U.S. universities are just as bright as and, generally speaking, far more creative than their counterparts from Chinas élite universities. But the big hump in the bell curve — the majority of the school-age population — matters a lot for the economic health of countries. Simply put, the more smart, well-educated people there are — of the sort that hard work creates — the more economies (and companies) benefit. Remember what venture capitalist Tam said about China and the electric-vehicle industry. A single, relatively new company working on developing an electric-car battery — BYD Co. — employs an astounding 10,000 engineers.
对，中国大企业老板会告诉你，最好的学生来自于美国大学，通常要比中国的要更具创造性些。但贝尔曲线的大驼峰--最主要的学龄人口--对于国家的经济 健康尤为重要。简而言之，把越多的比较聪明的，受过良好教育和那些努力工作精英放在一起，越能为经济（企业）创造价值。想起风险投资家Tam说的关于中国 和电动汽车产业：一个单一的、相对较新的发展电动车电池的公司BYD，雇佣了令人惊讶的10,000个工程师。

China, critics will point out, doesnt produce (at least not yet) many Nobel Prize winners. But dont think the basic educational competence of the workforce isnt a key factor in its having become the manufacturing workshop of the world. It isnt just about cheap labor; its about smart labor. "Whether its line workers or engineers, were finding the candlepower of our employees here as good as or better than anywhere in the world," says Nick Reilly, a top executive at General Motors in Shanghai. "It all starts with the emphasis families put on the importance of education. That puts pressure on the government to deliver a decent system."
评论家指出，中国没有很多（至少现在还没有------译者注：其实这篇新闻出来不久就出现一个中国诺贝尔和平奖了，呵呵）诺贝尔奖获得者。但不要认 为劳动力的基础教育对于成为一个世界制造工厂不是一个重要因素。这不仅仅是关系到廉价劳力，还关系到精英劳力。“不管它是流水线工作还是工程师，我们将在 这里找到跟世界上任何地方一样好，甚至更好的雇员的希望。”这全都源自于家庭对教育的重视，这迫使政府建立一个比较好的体系。

And the Chinese government responds to that pressure in some intriguing ways. It insists that primary-school teachers in math and science have degrees in those subjects. (Less than half of eighth-grade math teachers in the U.S. majored in math.) There is a "master teacher" program nationwide that provides mentoring for younger teachers. Zhang Dianzhou, a professor emeritus of mathematics at East China Normal University in Shanghai who co-chaired a committee charged with redesigning high school mathematics programs across the country, says recent changes have begun to reflect more of a "real-world emphasis." Computer-science courses, for example, have been integrated into the math curriculum for high school students. And China is placing even more importance on teaching young students English and other foreign languages. If you think Chinas willingness to constantly fine-tune its educational system is not going to have much of an impact 20 years from now, theres a 7-year-old boy in Shanghai whod be happy to discuss the issue with you. In English.
中国政府对这个压力有一些很有趣的反应。要求小学教育的数理科老师在那些科目上有学位证明（不到一半的8年级数学老师在美国主修数学），有一个“高级 教师”的项目，在全国范围对年轻老师提供指导。张典舟（音译），一位上海的华东师范大学退休教授，与一个委员共同重新修订全国高中数学，他说，“近代变化 已经开始更多的反映现实生活。”例如，计算机教程，在高中，已经与数学融为一体，中国现在更重视年轻学生的英文和其它外文学习。如果你认为中国不断调整它 的教育体系对将来20年没有大影响的话，上海的一位7岁的小男孩就能用英文来跟你讨论这个问题。