一本关于抚养和教育孩子的精彩指南 | 盖茨书评

比尔盖茨 · 公众号 · 科技自媒体 · 2019-12-13 12:00

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What if you were given the chance to design a new school from scratch? And there was no need to follow the typical education model: a teacher at the front of a classroom lecturing to 25 to 30 seated students. No need to follow an existing curriculum, either. You could completely re-imagine what a good education is all about.

假如你有机会从无到有设计一所新学校，你会怎么做？而且你无需遵循典型的教育模式（一名老师在讲台上对着座位上25-30个学生讲课），也无需遵循现有的课程。你可以完全重新考虑什么才是良好教育应该具有的。

What kind of school would you make?

你会创办什么样的学校？

One person who took that question on—and came up with an intriguing answer—is Diane Tavenner, founder of Summit Public Schools, which operates some of the top-performing schools in the nation.

有一个人对这个问题进行了思考，并给出了一个有趣的答案——她名叫戴安·塔文纳，是教育机构“高峰公立学校”（Summit Public Schools）的创始人，该机构运营着一些全美表现最好的学校。

In her new book, Prepared: What Kids Need for a Fulfilled Life, Diane shares the story of how she designed a new kind of charter school with a simple but very ambitious goal: “We wanted to teach kids not just what they needed to get into college, but what they needed to live a good life.”

在她的新书《准备好：孩子们需要什么来获得有满足感的生活》（Prepared: What Kids Need for a Fulfilled Life，中文名暂译）中，戴安分享了她如何设计出一种新的特许学校（译注：指在政府的相关法律许可下，将办学权授予一些非政府组织或个人并由其来开办经营的公立学校），使其具有一个简单却又雄心勃勃的目标：“我们不想只教孩子考大学需要什么，而是想教他们过好生活需要什么。”。

A few years ago, I had a chance to visit one of the Summit schools to see how Diane had turned this vision into reality. I was blown away. It was unlike any school I had visited before. Some students worked on their own, moving at their own pace through their courses. Others worked together on projects. Instead of lecturing at the front of a class, teachers acted like coaches, providing one-on-one guidance to students. Everyone was engaged.

我曾在几年前有机会访问了其中一所学校，看看戴安是如何把这个愿景变成现实的。我被震撼到了。它与我以前去过的任何一所学校都不一样。有些学生自己学习，按照自己的节奏学习课程，而其他人则组成学习小组一起学习。老师不会在教室前面讲课，而是像教练一样，为学生提供一对一的指导。每个人都被充分调动。

Summit schools are rooted in the unshakeable belief that all students have the potential for success. This belief fuels the staff’s relentless drive to test new approaches to continuously improve the student experience, so they graduate prepared for college and life.

高峰学校扎根于一个无法撼动的信念：所有学生都有成功的潜力。这种信念激发了教职员工尝试新方法的动力去不断改善学生体验，从而让他们在毕业时已经为上大学和今后的生活做好准备。

As Diane explains in her book, Summit’s unique model is built on three key elements:

正如戴安在她的书中所解释的那样，高峰学校的独特模式建立在三个关键要素上：

Self-directed learning 自我引导式学习

With the support of their teachers, all students are responsible for setting their own learning goals, developing learning plans, testing their knowledge, and assessing their performance. The personalized learning approach allows students to learn at their own pace. This is an incredibly important skill that will benefit them throughout their lives.

在老师的支持下，所有学生都要负责设立自己的学习目标、制定学习计划、测试自己的知识和评估自己的表现。个性化的学习方法让学生能够按照自己的节奏学习。这是一项非常重要的技能，将使他们一生受益。

Project-based learning 项目式学习

Summit schools emphasize hands-on project-based learning, allowing students to dive deep into a topic and collaborate with other students, building skills that employers are looking for in today’s workplace.

高峰学校强调亲自动手的项目式学习，允许学生深入研究一个话题并与其他学生合作，培养当下职场上雇主们在寻找的技能。

Mentoring 辅导

All students have a dedicated mentor. More than a guidance counselor, these mentors meet regularly one-on-one with their students, building a deep relationship that can help students achieve their personal and academic goals.

所有学生都有一个专门的辅导员。这些辅导员不只是提供些指导，而是要定期与学生进行一对一谈话。他们与学生之间建立的深厚关系，可以帮助学生实现个人和学业目标。

What I love about Summit is that its vision of success is bigger than getting students to master skills in reading, writing, and mathematics. Those skills, of course, are incredibly important, but there are also other, very necessary skills that will serve them their entire lives, such as self-confidence, the ability to learn, ability to manage their time, and a sense of direction to help them determine what they want to do with their lives. I think the kids who get to attend one of the Summit schools are lucky to go there.

我喜欢高峰的一点是，它对成功的追求并不满足于让学生掌握阅读、写作和数学等方面的技能。当然，这些技能是非常重要的，但还有其他一些非常必要的、将使他们终身受益的技能，比如自信心、学习的能力和管理时间的能力，以及帮助他们决定要过什么样生活的方向感。我认为能够进入高峰学校的孩子是幸运的。

Like everything in education, Summit’s schools are not without controversy. Some parents and educators are wary of Summit’s focus on computer-enabled learning, a key tool for the school’s personalized-learning approach.

就像教育领域的所有事一样，关于高峰学校并非没有争议。一些家长和教育工作者对其关注计算机辅助学习的做法持谨慎态度，而这是高峰个性化学习方法的一个重要工具。

Since opening its first school in 2003, Summit now operates 11 schools in California and Washington state. And I expect many readers of Diane’s book will wonder how their kids can have the same extraordinary learning experiences as Summit students. That’s also a question we have at our foundation, where we are working with Summit to help share some of its most innovative practices, like tailoring instruction to meet students’ individual needs, with other schools in the country.

自2003年开办第一所学校以来，高峰目前在加利福尼亚州和华盛顿州开办了七所学校。我猜很多读过戴安这本书的人会很想知道，他们的孩子该如何才能像高峰的学生一样拥有非凡的学习经历？这也是我们基金会在思考的问题。我们正在与高峰合作，帮助与美国其他学校分享高峰的一些最创新的做法，比如以满足学生个体需求为目的定制教学辅导。

What’s so striking about Diane is how incredibly modest she is about what she’s accomplished. And she doesn’t make any grand claims that she has all the answers. Much of the book is deeply personal. Diane shares stories of her childhood, growing up in a troubled family. She recounts her years as a young, idealistic teacher and administrator. And she opens-up about her own experience as a parent, raising her teenage son, Rett, as he navigates his path to adulthood.

戴安身上十分突出的一点是，她对自己取得的成就非常谦虚，也没有大张旗鼓地宣称她知道所有的答案。这本书的大部分内容都非常个人化。戴安分享了自己在一个问题家庭中成长的童年往事，回顾了自己作为一个年轻而具有理想主义的教职员的岁月。她还敞开心扉讲述了自己为人父母的经历，如何养育自己十几岁的儿子瑞特，伴随他探索走向成年的道路。

Many of the most memorable parts of the book focus on Diane and her husband wrestling with challenges all parents will appreciate. Diane shares the story, for example, about their struggle to get Rett to do his homework. You can find out how she found a solution in the free book excerpt above.

这本书最令人记忆深刻的部分，都是在讲戴安和她的丈夫努力应对所有父母都会重视的挑战。例如，戴安分享了他们千辛万苦让瑞特去写作业的故事。

In the final section of her book, Diane offers some parenting advice she’s developed over the years at Summit, guiding thousands of students to graduation. I expect many parents will flip to the end of the book to read this brief but useful list of tips. Much of her advice is based on her belief that parents should support their child’s independent growth. Parents need to mentor, not direct. They should seek out their child’s opinions, encourage them to be self-directed learners, and expose them to as many new ideas, people, places and things as possible.

在这本书的最后部分，戴安提供了一些她多年来在高峰领悟出的育儿建议，这些建议正指导着数千学生成功毕业。我想许多家长都会翻到结尾来阅读这些简短但有用的建议。她的许多建议都是基于她的一个信念，即父母应该支持孩子独立成长。父母需要教导而不是指挥孩子。他们应该寻求孩子的意见，鼓励他们成为自我引导式的学习者，并让他们接触尽可能多的新思想、新朋友、新地方和新事物。

I know from my own experience as a father that I’ve enjoyed watching my children get curious about a topic and then seeing how their knowledge deepens and grows. And the most rewarding part is when they can teach me about what they’ve learned.

从我自己作为一个父亲的经验来讲，我很喜欢看着我的孩子们对一个话题产生好奇，然后看着他们如何增长和加深自己的知识。而最有获得感的时刻是，他们可以教给我他们学到的东西。

Preparing our kids for college, a career, and life is a long journey. And as any parent or teacher will tell you, it’s not always easy. Diane has written a wonderful guidebook to help all of us make the most of the adventure.

为我们的孩子上大学、工作和生活做准备是一个漫长的旅程。而且就像任何一个家长或老师都会告诉你的那样，这并非易事。戴安写了一本很棒的指南，帮助我们所有人充分享受这次冒险的旅程。

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