Education is far less about a set of facts than a way of thinking, than learning how
教育不仅仅是关于既定事实的学习，更多的是思维方式和学习如何
to critically think. And therefore what I always think should be the basis of education
批判地思考。因此我认为教育的基础应该是
is not answers but questions. We should teach kids how to question. Now having said that
提问而不是回答。我们应该教育孩子如何去提问质疑。如今，
of course to be a productive adult there are certain skills that are required – reading,
要成为一个知识丰富的成年人就必须具备一些技巧，如读
writing and in the old fashioned days we used to say arithmetic. Now we say mathematics.
写和在以前被称作算术，我们现在所说的数学
And it’s important that we provide students those basic skills. And in that sense I’m
给学生提供基础的技巧是很重要的。从这方面来讲，我
in favor of a common core because I think there are certain things that most reasonable
支持一种共同核心的观点，因为我认为大多数通情达理的

educators and most reasonable mathematicians and scientists and historians would agree
教育家，数学家，科学家还有历史学都会赞成
are a part of what every modern literate person should have as a tool to go out and look at the outside world.
每一个现代受过教育的人都应该有走出去，看世界的工具
I am in favor of saying okay, let’s get teams of educators and experts in certain
我认为这是可以的，让我们就某些教育家和专家的
disciplines to say what are the basic things that we think are an essential part of an
一些原则来讲，我们所认为的基础就是人类早期教育必不可少的一部分
early education for people. Put them together and create as well as possible a set of goals
把工具和基础放在一起，可能还会创造出一系列的目标
and tools to learn those things. One thing I cannot understand and people are probably
和工具去学习这些基础。有一件我不能理解的，人们对此也
going to be upset about this is why local school boards have control over educational
可能很失望的事，就是当地的校董为什么要控制教育
content. Because local school boards are inevitably made up of individuals without any training.
内容。因为当地校董无可避免地都是是由一些没有经过任何培训的个体组成的
One of the reasons we send kids to school is to help protect them from their parents
从好的方面来说，我们送孩子上学的原因之一就是让他们远离父母
– in a good sense. I mean most parents want their kids to learn good but the point is
我的意思是大部分父母希望他们的孩子学好但关键是
the reason kids are outside the house is so they can get exposure to things that might
孩子离家在外的原因是他们能够因此
take them beyond the biases that they learn at home. And if we send them to school we
抛掉在家里所学到的偏见去处理问题。如果我们送他们去学校，我们
should take them beyond the biases that are present in local school board members. There
就应该让他们远离校董的偏见
should be standards that are based – that are determined by educators, not by people
我们应该有一些作为基础的标准，这些标准由教育家决定，而不是那些
who for one reason or another run for election to a local school board. So a common core
为了某种原因或为了当地校董选举的人来决定。因此我赞同一个共同核心的说法
is something I’m in favor of. What I’m not in favor of by the way is standardized
然而，我不赞成标准化的考试
tests however. Testing always inevitably means you teach students to be able to do tests.
考试必然能够说明你教的学生能够通过考试
And I’ve seen it at all levels including by the way at graduate school. We have many
我见过很多不同水平的测试包括研究生的学校，我们有许多
grad students say from China who are excellent at taking physics tests but when they want
毕业生说中国擅长于物理测试，但是当他们想要
to become researchers just being able to regurgitate information is not what makes you a creative
当他们成为研究人员时只能反刍信息而不能使你创造性地
researcher. And I think the same is true for a young person. Being able to know specifics
研究者。我认为对于一个年轻人也一样。能够清楚地知道
to pass a test is not the same as being able to understand how to go about answering those questions.
通过考试并不等于就能够明白如何去回答那些问题