Let kids use their natural curiosity and love of learning.

让孩子们利用他们天生的好奇心和对学习的热爱之情。

“Our culture lies. They say they want to encourage and reward individuality and creativity, but in practice they try to hammer down the pointy parts, and shame off the different parts.” – Sandra Dodd

“我们的文化在撒谎。他们说他们想鼓励奖赏个性化和创造力，但实际上他们枪打出头鸟，打击异己。” – Sandra Dodd

Going through the traditional school system (in California, Washington and Guam) was never my favorite thing as a kid, but as a parent, I’ve grown to realize that the whole system is upside down.

作为孩子，经历传统教育体系绝非我最喜欢的事情，但作为家长，我逐渐意识到整个系统颠倒了。

Not the system of any particular state or nation, but system of education as a concept.

不是哪个州或全国的教育体系，而是教育体系这个概念。

Traditionally, schools use this model:

传统上，学校采用如下模式：

1. Decide on what kids need to know to prepare them for adulthood.
2. Prepare a curriculum based on this.
3. Give students a schedule based on this curriculum.
4. Have educated teachers hand them the info they need, and drill them in skills.
5. The student reads, memorizes the info, learns the skills, and becomes prepared.
6. Students must follow all rules or be punished. This is actually more important than the info and skills, although it’s never said that way.

1. 决定孩子们需要知道什么，以便为成年做准备。
2. 根据上述决定，准备课程。
3. 根据课程，给孩子课表。
4. 让受过训练的老师给他们需要的信息，然后练习技能。
5. 学生阅读，记忆信息，学习技能，有所准备。
6. 学生必须遵守所有规则，否则就要被惩罚。这其实比信息和技能更重要，虽然大家从不这么说。

Unfortunately, this isn’t a great model. Mostly because it’s based on the idea that there is a small group of people in authority, who will tell you what to do and what you need to know, and you must follow this obediently, like robots. And you must not think for yourself, or try to do what you want to do. This will be met with severe punishment.

很不幸，这种模式乏善可陈。主要是因为其背景思想是有一群权威人士会告诉你做什么，你需要知道什么，而你必须像机器人一样顺服。你不能自己思考，也不能做自己想做的。否则，会遭到严重惩罚。

This is ideal if you’re going to be a corporate employee, and need certain skills in order to work for the corporation — mostly skills of obedience, actually. This isn’t ideal for the workplace of the coming decade, when people are less likely to be employed by a large corporation, and more likely to work for themselves. And have to think for themselves. And figure out, for themselves, what they want to do. And learn new things for themselves, without a teacher.

如果你要成为企业员工，需要某些技能在企业工作——其实最主要是顺服的技能。对于未来数十年的工作场所，这差强人意，到那时，人们不太可能被大企业雇佣，更可能地是在家为自己打工。必须自己为自己思考。然后还要想明白自己想做什么。在没有老师的情况下，自己学习新东西。

Things are changing faster than ever before. Every month, new technology is announced that alters the way people work, or will work in the future, and we need to be able to learn and adapt to this ever-changing landscape.

事物以前所未有的速度变化。每个月，都会宣布改变人们当前或未来工作方式的新技术，我们需要有学习能力，需要顺应这种瞬息万变的前景。

How are we to do that, or how are our children to learn that, if they have no authority telling them what they need to know, or how to learn, or what to do?

如果没有权威告诉他们需要了解什么，如何学习，做什么，我们该怎么做，或者，孩子们该怎么学？

People often grow up to be competent learners, and achieve great things, after going through the traditional school system. But this is in spite of the system, not because of it. We are pretty adaptable people, inherently curious, and we can learn without an authority, but the current school system tries to beat this down. It usually fails to some degree, but to the degree it succeeds, it harms people.

在经历了传统教育体系之后，人们通常成长为合格的学习者，学到很多东西，但这并非教育体系的功劳。我们本是相当变通的人，有着天生的求知欲，没有权威我们也可以学习，可当前学校体系试图颠覆这一点。通常，学校体系通常会失败，但也存在成功的概率，这便是症结所在。

Schools fail not because they don’t impart knowledge or skills, but because they kill curiosity, smother excitement for learning, club down with a furious brutality our desires to be independent, to think for ourselves, to learn about things that actually interest us.

学校失败不是因为他们不传授知识或技能，而是因为他们扼杀了求知欲，窒息了学习的劲头，残忍无情地鞭笞了我们想要独立、独立思考、学习我们真正感兴趣的东西的愿望。

“I suppose it is because nearly all children go to school nowadays, and have things arranged for them, that they seem so forlornly unable to produce their own ideas.” – Agatha Christie

“我认为这是因为如今几乎所有孩子都上学，一切都有人给他们安排妥当，所以他们才看上去如此悲惨，无法独立思考、创造。” – Agatha Christie

But Teachers are Great

不过老师们很了不起

Yes, I agree, they are. My wife was a middle school teacher, of English, and she worked tirelessly with her students’ interests at heart. She really wanted to teach them to love reading, and did everything in her power to do so. Unfortunately, she was frustrated by the authoritarian nature of school administration, and left. She now homeschools our kids, and is trying to give them the freedom to learn on their own.

是的，我同意，老师们很了不起。我妻子曾是中学英语教师。她不知疲倦地工作，把学生利益放在首位。她真得很想教他们热爱阅读，每件事情都全力以赴。不幸的是，学校管理的独裁本质让她受挫，她离开了。现在她在家教育我们的孩子，让他们有自学的自由。

My grandmother was a teacher for decades. My aunt is a teacher, first of elementary and middle schools, now of children in a juvenile detention center, and is wonderful at getting kids to love reading. My father is an artist teaching others to love art, and to do it well. I love teachers, and have the highest respect for them.

我祖母当了多年的老师。我姑姑是老师，先是小学老师，然后是中学老师，现在是少年管教所的老师，她很擅长让孩子们热爱阅读。我父亲是位艺术家，教别人热爱艺术，在艺术上有杰出表现。我热爱老师，对他们有着最崇高的敬意。

I just think they’re in a system that doesn’t work. That cannot work, given the nature of what the world has become.

我只是觉得他们置身于无效的系统中。考虑到当今世界的变化，这样是行不通的。

How can we prepare children for a future we cannot foresee? How do we know what skills they will need, what knowledge will be important, in 10 years, or 15? We have no idea what the world will be like then. I sure don’t. Do you? Does anyone know how people will be working 15 years from now?

我们怎么能够让孩子们为我们无法预测的未来做准备？我们怎么知道他们需要什么，在未来10年、15年里，什么知识会很重要？我们压根不知道那时世界会怎样。我肯定不知道。你呢？有没有人知道15年以后大家怎么工作？

I submit this is impossible. And what’s more, it always has been impossible. The workplace now is vastly different than it was when I was a lad in shortpants three decades ago running around in the schoolyard, wiping snot from my nose and learning about the Cold War. People then didn’t have computers in the workplace, at least not most of them, and those who did have computers didn’t have anything resembling what we have today. Most people used electric typewriters, and fax machines weren’t in offices yet. Fax machines.

我认为这不可能。而且，从来就不可能。与30年前我穿着短裤在学校操场上疯跑，擦着鼻涕，学习冷战时相比，如今的工作场所发生了天翻地覆的变化。那时人们上班的地方没有计算机，至少大多数人都没有，而就算有计算机的人所有的东西也和我们如今所拥有的不能相提并论。大多数人使用电动打字机，而传真机尚未出现。

So yes, I love teachers, and think they are incredible at what they do. What I think they need to do, though, is not be teachers, but facilitators.

所以，没错，我爱老师，我认为他们所作的事情无与伦比。不过，我觉得他们需要做的，不是当老师，而是做一名引导师(facilitator)。

Don’t direct learning, because when students grow up they won’t be directed in their learning, they’ll be self-taught. Think about it: when you learn things today, as an adult, do you learn from a teacher, or do you learn things on your own? And isn’t learning on your own more fun? Don’t you love learning new things? Doesn’t that make the learning stick with you for longer than when you had to memorize things in school?

不要指导学习，因为当学生们长大成人之后，没人会指导他们的学习，他们得自学。想想：现在作为成人当你学东西时，你是跟老师学还是自学？而且，自学难道不更有趣吗？你不喜欢学习新东西吗？你学到的东西不比你在学校死记硬背时停留得久？

What we learn in school isn’t nearly as important as how we learn, because how to learn is the lesson of school.

我们在学校里学什么不及我们如何学重要，因为“如何学习”才是学校应有的课程。

“The founding fathers in their wisdom decided that children were an unnatural strain on their parents. So they provided jails called school, equipped with tortures called education.” – John Updike

“开国元勋以自己的理解认为孩子们是家长不自然的负担。所以他们提供了名为学校的监狱，还装备了名为教育的折磨。” – John Updike

How to Learn

如何学习

And the way we’re taught to learn is as receivers of information, non-thinkers. Follow the rules. Read pages 100-132. Do the exercises. Memorize the information. Spit it out in a test. Do this project, because we tell you to, not because it’s fun or interesting.

我们受教的学习方式是作为信息的接收者，而非思考者。遵守规章。阅读100至132页。做练习。背诵。考试时把信息背出来。做这个项目，因为我们告诉你们这样做，不是因为好玩或有趣。

The way we need to be taught to learn is completely different. It’s this: learn about what interests you, gets you curious, gets you excited. Figure out where to get the information you need. Read about it, talk to someone about it, find out about it. Try it. Do it, make mistakes. Figure out how to correct the mistakes. Figure out how to solve the problems you encounter. Repeat.

我们需要别人教我们学习的方式截然不同。这种方式应该是：了解什么让你感兴趣，让你好奇，让你激动；明白在何处找到你需要的信息；阅读相关内容，和别人交谈，寻找相关信息；尝试，实践，犯错；明白如何纠错；明白如何解决你遇到的问题。循环往复。

In other words, find problems that interest you, and figure out how to solve them.

换言之，找到吸引你的问题，然后解决问题。

Sometimes, you’ll have to solve problems that aren’t so interesting, just to solve problems that do interest you. That’s OK. That’s how things work.

有时为了解决你感兴趣的问题，你不得不解决无聊的问题。这也可以。事情就是这样运作的。

And here’s a secret: we already know how to do this. From birth. This method of learning is innate in all of us. It’s built in.

秘密是：我们已经知道如何做。打出生起。这种学习方式是我们每个人都固有的。是天生的。

When a toddler wants to do something, like get a stash of chocolate you’ve hidden on top of the fridge, he’ll figure it out. He’ll find ways to move a chair to the fridge, or climb up onto a counter near the fridge, in order to get the candy. Along the way he’ll learn a thing or two about cabinet doors and fridge doors and why you shouldn’t lean too far in one direction on a chair if you don’t want to fall and get bruises.

当蹒跚学步的孩子想做某件事，比如找到你藏在冰箱上面的巧克力，他会找到办法。为了拿到糖果，他会想方设法把椅子挪到冰箱跟前，或者爬到冰箱旁边的柜台上。在此过程中，他对柜子门和冰箱门有了一点了解，也知道如果不想摔得鼻青脸肿，就不能站在椅子上往一个方向倾斜太多。

When a kid wants to play a video game, she’ll learn things like how to set up and turn on the PS3, how to navigate menus, how to get started with the game, how to convince mother that she’ll clean her room later and that her homework is pretty much all done so that she can play the game now.

当孩子想打游戏时，她会学习如何设置，如何打开PS3游戏机，如何导航菜单，如何开始游戏，如何说服妈妈她稍后会打扫自己的房间，而且作业也基本做完了，这样，她可以现在就打游戏。

Kids know how to solve problems, when they want to do something.

当孩子们想做某件事时，他们知道如何解决问题。

We don’t need to teach them to learn. We need to get out of their damn way.

我们不需要教他们学习。我们只要别挡着他们的路。

And that’s the problem with schools. They can’t motivate kids to learn, because they’re forcing it. They’re trying to impart on them a rigid system of authority that kids naturally rebel against. In fact, this is the main problem kids face, and they come up with all kinds of incredibly creative ways to solve it, from skipping school and smoking pot to drawing incredible doodles in notebooks instead of listening to a history lecture to finding ingenius ways to communicate with peers, through technologies like texting and iPhones and through old technologies like passing notes and so on.

而且那是学校的问题。他们无法调动孩子学习，因为他们强迫孩子学习。他们试图给孩子们传授他们天生就反抗的严格的权威制度。实际上，这是孩子们面对的主要问题，他们发明了各种不可思议的创造性方法来解决这个问题，从逃学到吸毒，不听历史讲座而在笔记本上涂鸦，找各种天才方法与同伴沟通，既有短信和iPhone等技术，也有传统技术如传纸条，诸如此类。

Creativity isn’t dead in our kids. It’s alive, but it’s being marshaled to beat the forces that are beating them down.

孩子们并没有丧失创造力。他们的创造力生机勃勃，只不过用作抵抗那些打压他们的各种力量而已。

“No use to shout at them to pay attention. If the situations, the materials, the problems before the child do not interest him, his attention will slip off to what does interest him, and no amount of exhortation of threats will bring it back.” – John Holt

“冲他们大呼小叫让他们集中注意力，这根本不管用。如果孩子面前的情况、资料、问题引不起他的兴趣，他的注意力就会溜到他感兴趣的东西上，多少威胁与劝诱都拉不回。” – John Holt

Turn Education on Its Head

彻底改变教育

So how to prepare our kids for tomorrow? Better people than I have written on this. Look up Unschooling — it’s already been invented, and it’s what I’d recommend.

那么，该如如何让孩子为明天做好准备？比我更强的人就此写过不少文章（一、二、三）。 看看非学校教育——人们已经发明了它，而这正是我要推荐的。

It’s pretty much just getting out of the way of kids. Let them learn about what they want to learn about, and you know what? They’ll actually care about what they’re learning, because they chose it themselves. They’ll get excited about things, something schools usually fail to achieve.

简单说，就是别拦着孩子们的路。让他们学自己想学的，你知道吗？他们其实很关心自己学什么，因为那是他们自己的选择。他们会对这些事物兴奋，而这是学校通常做不到的。

They’ll learn how to deal with the delicious problem of freedom, a problem most kids don’t have these days. They’ll get some hands-on, down-and-dirty experience with autonomy, something they’ll have in spades as adults.

他们学会如何处理争取宝贵自由的问题，如今大部分孩子都没有这个问题。他们会体验很多实际而又粗暴的自治问题，作为成人，他们肯定会面临这样的事情。

But what if they watch TV or play video games all day? What if they aren’t interested in math or science and never learn them? What if they’re totally unprepared for the workplace?

可是，如果他们成天看电视，打电玩，怎么办？如果他们对数学和科学没兴趣，根本不学，怎么办？如果他们完全没有准备好就业，怎么办？

These are newbie questions in the world of unschooling, and I won’t answer them all here. You’ll have more, in the comments, I’m sure. I’m not the guy to answer those questions. Google unschooling and read up, because many smarter people have answered all your questions and more.

对于非学校教育，这些都是新问题，我在这里也不能一一作答。我相信在评论里你们会有更多问题。我不是能够回答那些问题的人。搜索非学校教育，进行相关阅读，因为很多比我聪明的人都已经回答了你们的问题，而且还不止于此。

I’ll just say a couple things. One, we need to relax and not look at childhood as a time when every minute needs to be filled up with rigid rules and learning. It’s a time that should be enjoyed, and kids should play, and in playing they’ll learn. They’ll learn to play well and work well with each other. They’ll learn how to figure things out for themselves. They’ll learn to love the lovely freedom and its associates, autonomy and responsibility and choice and time management and, yes, passion.

我只说个别问题。其一，我们需要放松，不要把童年当成每一分钟都充满了严格制度和学习的一段时间。这应该是用来享受的时间，孩子们应该游戏，在游戏中他们学习。他们将学习和他人一起开心游戏，开心学习。他们将学习如何自己处理问题，他们将学会热爱可爱的自由及其相关东西，自治、责任、选择、时间管理、当然，还有热情。

Two, remember what we talked about above: we have no idea what the workplace of the future will be, so stop worrying about preparing them for that. In fact, stop worrying so much. Let kids learn how to learn, and learn how to be excited about things. That will prepare them for the future.

其二，记得我们上面已经讨论过：我们不知道未来的工作场所会怎样，所以就不要再担心让他们为将来做好准备。实际上，别再担心那么多。让孩子学习如何学习，学习如何对事情保持兴奋之情。那才是让他们为未来做好准备。

Three, also realize that we don’t need to be hands-off. We can be hands-on, if we’re facilitators instead of directors or dictators. We can help kids find things they’re interested in, expose them to worlds of fun (like science and math), teach them games that they might like, help them solve problems so they’ll learn how to do it on their own, guide them to resources and people who will give them mountains of information. Be there for them, as guides.

其三，还要意识到我们没必要全权放手。我们可以干涉孩子的学习，只要我们是以协助者的身份，而不是指导者或独裁者。我们可以帮助学生找到他们感兴趣的东西，让他们接触有趣的世界（如科学和数学），教他们可能喜欢的游戏，帮助他们解决问题，这样他们将学会如何自己动手，引导他们找到各种资源以及可以给他们提供海量信息的人。陪在他们身边，给他们当向导。

This is a huge topic, and one that I can’t adequately cover in one post. I’ll do another post sometime, talking about homeschooling and unschooling, and how we do it and how to make it work for you. But for today, I just wanted to throw out some thoughts on schooling, and get you riled up a bit perhaps. We could all use some good riling now and then, I think.

这是一个很大的话题，一个帖子无法尽述。以后我将另外发贴，谈论居家教育与非学校教育，我们如何做，让你如何有效进行。不过，今天，我只想就学校教育抛砖引玉。我想，我们随时都可以化愤怒为力量。

“To trust children we must first learn to trust ourselves…and most of us were taught as children that we could not be trusted.” – John Holt

“想要信任孩子，我们必须信任我们自己……而在孩童时期，大人却教育我们，我们不可信。” – John Holt