A number of commentators over the last decade maybe two decades have talked about
在过去的十几二十年里 大量的评论家都谈论到
what I think of as skills development meaning do you have the requisite skills to be able to enter your first job.
我所认为的技能的发展是你是否拥有你第一份工作所要求的你需要具备的能力
Can you read well?
例如你阅读能力怎么样
Can you write well?
写作能力
Do you have the ability to code, et cetera?
编写代码的能力等等
I actually think we often times confused skills and skills development with education.
实际上我认为 我们经常会混淆了技能和技能发展与教育之间的关系
An education is actually designed to actually encourage the individual to consider questions they hadn't considered before,
教育实际上是用来鼓励个体去思考前人没有思考过的问题

to actually be able to assemble a vast array of information and then to synthesize that information
让个体真正有能力把大量的信息进行处理整合
and to come up with perhaps what one would think of as new answers.
进而总结出他认为是全新的答案
It's not about learning the most recent technique.
教育并不是使人学习最新的技术
And the challenge is that if you only talk about skills development the way knowledge is produced these days a generation is 18 months.
这其中的问题在于 如果你只学习现成的知识而新一轮知识的产生只需要18个月
And so that means by the time you've actually finish school often times you're already behind the curve
因此这就意味着 等到你实际上结束学业的时候很多时候你已经落后于潮流
and some of that information is obsolete.
学的一些知识也已经过时
If you're really truly educated you then learn and you know how to go about pursuing the new acquisition of information
如果你接受了真正的教育 然后你知道如何去获取新的知识和信息
and that information that you can then synthesize and apply to what you already know
并且你可以将那些信息进行整合处理 进而应用于你所了解的事物上
means then that you're not behind the curve, you're keeping pace with the change
这就意味着你永远紧跟时代变化的步伐 尔不会落后于潮流
that's always occurring in both technology and other aspects of American life.
尽管科技领域和美国人生活的其他方面一直在发生变化
I love STEM: science, technology, engineering and math.
我爱STEM： 科学、技术、工程和数学
I actually can remember circa 1998 being at a meeting at the National Science Foundation
实际上 我记得大约在1998年 我在美国国家科学基金会的一个会议上
and it wasn't even STEM yet, it was SMET: science, math, engineering and technology.
那时候这个单词还不是STEM 而是SMET： 科学 数学 工程和技术
And we were all sitting there going are you sure you want to call it SMET?
我们当时都坐在那讨论要不要叫它SMET
And we came back a year later and it turned from being SMET to STEM and we go why is it now STEM and not SMET?
然后一年之后回首 这个单词由SMET变成了STEM 于是我们追问为什么现在是STEM而不是SMET
And they said well, believe it or not we were up on Capitol Hill asking for money for SMET
他们说 嗯 不管你们相不相信 我们去了国会为SMET要资金
and one congress person's aid goes, "Why do we want money for smut?"
一个国会议员的助理问：“为什么你们要为淫秽小说要钱？”
Misunderstanding and miss hearing what was being said and they realized at that point that they need to re-order the alphabet.
助理听错并误解了所说的内容他们在那时意识到 他们需要调整字母顺序
And so hence was born STEM.
由此产生了STEM
The long story is that actually it still took another six or seven years for STEM to actually gain some traction
实际上 STEM还花了六七年时间才真正获得一些关注
because a lot of both public policy makers and others thought of STEM as related to stem cell research
因为许多公共政策制定者和其他人把STEM看作是类似干细胞的研究
and they were hesitant to get into the political cultural wars over stem cell and stem cell research.
他们对干细胞没多大兴趣也不想涉及干细胞研究的政治文化论战中
My colleagues in the sciences persevered and we now hear all over the place
但通过科学界的同事们的坚持不懈 现在我们可以在所有地方听到它
we need to make investments in science, technology, engineering and math.
我们需要在科学 技术 工程和数学上投资
While I actually believe we need to do so, I also realize that what I think of are these grand challenges in the world,
而且我也坚信我们需要这样去做 我也意识到我正在考虑的是世界上的一些重大的挑战
these gnarly problems that require us to really mobilize a whole array of talent and research,
这个棘手的问题要求我们运用所有才能和调查来解决
we can't answer those questions only by asking what a scientist would think of it or an engineer.
我们解决不了那些问题 除非我们去找一位科学家或者一位工程师寻求答案
The example I give is one of my favorite examples.
我想举一个我最喜欢的例子
I was in a meeting in Atlanta some years ago when I was still at Emory University
几年前 我出席一个亚特兰大的会议 当时我还在埃默里大学
and we were over at Georgia Tech and our friends at Georgia Tech and colleagues from Emory
在乔治亚理工学院的工作结束了之后 我朋友们和另一些埃默里大学的同事们
and former officials from the CDC were sitting in the room talking about water
以及来自CDC的前职员们当时正坐在房间里谈论水资源
and the need to come up with a solution to clean water.
和我们需要想出一些策略来解决干净水资源这件事
And they were telling a story about a West African village.
他们当时正在讲一个关于一个西非村庄的故事
And in this West African village there was a need for clean water.
这个村庄需要干净的水
The women would trek every day down to the river that was contaminated
那里的妇女每天都要长途跋涉去被污染的河边打水
and that was actually leading to all kinds of infections that could be prevented.
这会导致了各种本可以预防的疾病而开始滋生
So one of the international agencies provided research and dollars for them to then drill a well.
因此一个国际组织开展调查并给他们筹集资金来打井
The engineers came in and did their survey and drilled the well right in the middle of the village.
工程师们来做了调查 然后在村子的正中间打了井
To their surprise the women walked past the well and kept going to the contaminated river.
然而令人惊讶的是 妇女们无视这口井 依旧去被污染的河边打水
And the engineers were mystified.
工程师们大惑不解
Finally the engineers thought well maybe we should bring in some anthropologist and gender experts to talk to the women.
最后工程师们认为他们应该带一些人类学家和性别专家来和妇女们谈谈
They finally did and they asked the women a simple question,
他们这样做了 并且问了妇女们一个简单的问题：
"Why are you walking past a well and perfectly clean water to go to the river with the contaminated water?"
“为什么你们无视一口有着十分干净的水的井而去被污染的河挑水？“
And the women said look, we understand that this water is better here,
妇女们回答道 我们知道这里的水更好
but you don't understand why we walk to the water.
但是并不知道 为什么我们非要去河边
It's not only a utilitarian function of retrieving water,
我们不光是为了打水才去那里的
it's a way for us to get away from the menfolk in the village, from the children,
它也是我们远离村里的男人和孩子们
to break up the routine of the domestic household.
从繁琐的家务中抽出一些时间休闲的一种方式
For us to have this well right there actually doesn't serve our purposes.
其实 对我们来说 有一口井在那里并没有让我们更满意
So they actually moved the well, they drilled it farther away to both assist the women
最后工程师们只有把井填掉 在更远的地方打了井
and allow them to have their cultural practices maintained and to also provide clean water.
这样既让她们保留自己的文化习惯 又提供了干净的水
But it's a case where in this case the scientists need a humanist and the humanists need a scientist.
但是在这个例子中 科学家需要人文学者 人文学者需要科学家
And as I think about the kind of problems that we craft and the ones that we identify,
我的问题是 我们发现并尝试解决的那些问题
it's really about what is the question being posed?
真的只是所提出的问题本身吗
Who are the best interlocutors to be part of answering that question?
谁才是回答这个问题的最好的对话者
And how do we go about assembling the team?
我们又该怎样组成一个团队呢
And so for me at the very list least STEM is important,
对我来说 STEM很重要 但是当我们
but all over the place when we look at those grand challenges, those gnarly problems,
遇到那些很棘手的挑战的问题时
I do come away thinking scientists need humanists and humanists need scientists
我认为 科学家需要人文学者 人文学者需要科学家
and we need both to help us solve these problems.
我们需要他们相互协作来帮助我们解决这些问题