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We Should Cherish Our Children's Freedom to Think--Kie Ho

Kie Ho, who grew up in Indonesia and is now a Southern California business executive, argues in the following article that the educational system in the United States is good because it teaches students to think and to experiment with ideas. The author criticizes educational systems that rely solely on memorization and rote learning, because those methods stifle creative impulses.

Americans who remember "the good old days" are not alone in complaining about the educational system in this country. Immigrants, too, complain, and with more up-to-date comparisons. Lately I have heard a Polish immigrant express dismay that his daughter's high school has not taught her the difference between Belgrade and Prague. A German friend was furious when he learned that the mathematics test given to his son on his first day as a freshman included multiplication and division. A Lebanese boasts that the average high-school graduate in his homeland can speak fluently in Arabic, French and English. Japanese businessmen in Los Angeles send their children to private schools staffed by teachers imported from Japan to learn mathematics at Japanese levels, generally considered at least a year more advanced than the level here.

But I wonder: If American education is so tragically inferior, why is it that this is still the country of innovation? I think I found the answer on my short trip to the Laguna Beach Museum of Art, where the work of schoolchildren was on exhibit. Equipped only with colorful yarns, foil paper, felt pens and crayons, they had transformed simple paper lunch bags into, among other things, a waterfall with flying fish, Broom Hilda the witch and a house with a woman in a bikini hiding behind a swinging door. Their public school had provided these children with opportunities and direction to fulfill their creativity, something that people in this country tend to take for granted.

When I was 12 in Indonesia, where education followed the Dutch system, I had to memorize the names of all the world's major cities, from Kabul to Karachi. At the same age, my son, who was brought up a Californian, thought that Buenos Aires was Spanish for "good food." However, unlike many children of his age in Asia and Europe, my son had studied creative geography. When he was only 6, he drew a map of the route that he traveled to get to school, including the streets and their names, the buildings and traffic signs and the houses that he passed.
　
American parents forget that in this country their children are able to experiment freely with ideas; without this they will not really be able to think or to believe in themselves.

In my high school years, back in Indonesia, we were models of dedication and obedience; we sat to listen, to answer only when asked, and to give the only correct answer. Even when studying word forms, there were no alternatives. In similes, pretty lips were always as red as cherries, and beautiful eyebrows were always like a parade of black clouds, Like children in many other countries in the world, I simply did not have a chance to choose, to make decisions. My son, on the contrary, told me that he got a good laugh—and an A—from his teacher for creating his own simile "the man was as nervous as Richard Pryor at a Ku Klux Klan* convention."

There's no doubt that American education does not meet high standards in such basic skills as mathematics and language. And we realize that our youngsters are ignorant of Latin, put Mussolini in the same category as Dostoevski, cannot recite the Periodic Table by heart. Would we, however, prefer to stuff the developing little heads of our children with hundreds of geometry problems, the names of rivers in Brazil and 50 lines from "the Canterbury Tales?" Do we really want to retard their impulses, frustrate their opportunities for self-expression?

When I was 18, I had to memorize Hamlet's "To be or not to be" speech flawlessly. In his English class, my son was assigned to write a love letter to Juliet, either in Shakespearean or modern language. (He picked the latter; his Romeo would take it Juliet to an arcade for video games).

Here in America a history student can take the role of Lyndon Johnson in an open debate against another student playing Ho Chi Minh. But it is unthinkable that a youngster in Japan would dare to do the same regarding the role of their Hirohito in World War II.

Critics of American education in this country cannot grasp one thing, something that they don't truly understand because they take it for granted: freedom. This most important measurement has been omitted in the studies of the quality of education in this century, the only one, I think, that extends even to children the license to freely speak, write and be creative. Our public education certainly is not perfect, but it does have its advantages.

参考译文

珍惜孩子自由思考的自由--Kie Ho

不只是那些怀念“美好往日”的美国人在抱怨美国的教育制度，移民们也在抱怨，使这种抱怨有了更多的当代式的对比。最近我听到一个波兰移民的沮丧地说，女儿的高中不再教贝尔格莱德和布拉格的区别。一位德国朋友很生气，因为他听说儿子大一第一天的数学考试里有乘法和除法。一个黎巴嫩人夸耀说自己祖国一般的高中毕业生都能流利讲阿拉伯语、法语和英语。在洛杉矶的日本商人把孩子送到私立学校，那里有来自日本的教师以日本的水平教数学，那通常被认为本洛杉矶当地学校教的数学高出一学年的水平。

但是我惊讶的是：如果美国的教育如此悲惨地低劣，为什么美国还是一个创新的国度呢？在拉古纳滩艺术博物馆进行了短暂访问后，我想我找到了答案。这个博物馆里展览着学生们的作品。只用彩色纱线、铝箔纸、毡笔和蜡笔，学生们就把简单的午餐袋做成缀以飞鱼的瀑布、扫帚希尔达巫婆，或是一座房子，一位穿着比基尼的妇女藏在弹簧门后。公立学校为孩子们提供了机会去实现创造力，而这恰恰是人们总是认为理所当然的事。

我１２岁时在印度尼西亚，那里的教育制度仿照荷兰，我不得不记住全部世界主要城市的名字，从喀布尔到卡拉奇。而同样年纪时，我那个在加利福尼亚长大的宝贝儿子还以为布

宜诺斯艾利斯是西班牙语中的一种食品，或许是炸玉米饼之类的东西。但是，与他那些亚洲、欧洲的同伴不同，我儿子在运用地理知识方面已经有了创造性的进展。他才６岁时，

就画出了一张从家到学校的路线图，包括街道及其名称、大楼、交通标志和他经过的房子。

美国的父母们忘记了，在这里他们的孩子可以自由实践自己的想法，如果没有这些，孩子们将不能思考，并缺乏自信。 　

高中时代，我们是奉献和服从的模范。我们规规矩矩，坐着听课，被动地回答问题，而且只能给出唯一正确的答案。即使学习句型时也没有例外，例如学比喻句，漂亮的嘴唇总是像樱桃一样红，美丽的眉毛总像排排黑云。和世界上很多其他国家的孩子一样，我完全没有机会去选择、去做决定。我儿子恰好相反，他告诉我，他开怀大笑，因为造了这样的句子：“那个人和在三Ｋ党集会上的理查德·普赖尔一样紧张。”老师给了他一个Ａ。

毫无疑问，美国教育在数学、语言等基本技能方面的培训水平不高，我们也意识到，美国青年不懂拉丁语，会把墨索里尼和陀斯妥耶夫斯基归为一类，也不会背诵元素周期表。但是无论怎样，我们真的要把数百道几何题和巴西河流的名字以及《坎特伯雷故事》中的５０行诗句一起都塞进孩子们的小脑袋里吗？我们真的要扼杀他们的冲动、欲望和自我表现的机会吗？

我１８岁时必须准确无误地记住哈姆雷特的“生存还是死亡”的独白，而我儿子上英语课时，则被要求给朱丽叶写一封情书，可以用莎士比亚风格的语言，也可以用现代语言。（他选择了后者；在他笔下，他的罗密欧把朱丽叶带到拱廊上打电脑游戏。）

在美国，历史系的学生可以扮演林德.约翰逊，同另一个扮演胡志明公开辩论。但是难以想像日本的年轻人敢于扮演二战中裕仁天皇的角色这么做。

美国教育的批评者不能忽视的一点是有些他们不能真正理解的东西，因为他们视之为理所当然，那就是自由。在教育质量的研究中，人们已经忽略了本世纪最重要的衡量标准，这个标准，我想就是给孩子自由讲话、书写、创造的权力。当然我们的公共教育并不完美，但确有自身的优势。

词汇释义

1.up-to-date adj. 最新的,现代的

例句：
Up-to-date technology; up-to-date fashions.
最新技术，最近时尚

2.multiplication n. 乘法,增加,乘法表

例句：
My son began to study multiplication when he was six.
我儿子六岁的时候开始学习乘法。

3.division n. 区分,分开,除法,公司,部门，师（军队里）

例句：
Addition and division are forms of computation.
加法和除法都是计算方法.

4.staff vt. 配备员工

例句：
Most of our offices are staffed by volunteers.
在我们大多数办公室任职的是志愿人员。

5.tragically adv. 悲剧地, 悲惨地

例句：
Let the strivings of us all, prove Martin Luther King Jr. to have been correct, when he said that humanity can no longer be tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism

and war.
我们要用我们所有人的努力证实马丁·路德·金的话是正确的。他说，人类再也不能悲惨地走向种族歧视和战争的黑暗之夜。

6.witch n. 女巫,巫婆

例句：
The witch turned the princess into a swan.
巫婆把公主变成了一只天鹅。

7.alternative n. 替换物,取舍

例句：
Please find alternative means of transport.
请另外找一个运输方法。

8.stuff v. 填满,塞满

例句：
He stuffed the apples into the bag.
他把苹果塞进袋子里。

9.unthinkable adj. 不能想的,想像不到的,过份的

例句：
It is unthinkable that we shall allow a nuclear holocaust to occur.
我们若竟让核武器大屠杀的惨剧发生，简直是匪夷所思。

词组解释

1.take for granted vi. 想当然(认为理当如此,对作主观估计)

例句：
It is taken for granted that everyone is equal before the law.
法律面前人人平等是被认为理所当然的。

2.bring up 教育,培养

例句：
Her parents died when she was a baby and she was brought up by her aunt.
她出生後不久父母双亡，是由姑母抚养大的。

3.believe in 相信,信任

例句：
I fervently believe in our eventual victory.
我坚信我们最后会胜利。

4.ignorant of adj. 不知道(无知)

例句：
To say you were ignorant of the rules is no excuse.
说自己不知道规则是不能成为藉口的.

5.by heart 牢记,凭记忆

例句;
Everyone in the class has to learn Lincoln's Gettysburg Address by heart.
班上每个学生都必须默诵林肯葛底斯堡演说词。