So if from one movie a child learns one bit about Napoleon and from another there’s a sight gag about Wellington, and on Animaniacs they get some more Napoleon, who will do better on some standardized-test answer on Napoleon, that kid or one whose mom plunked in a documentary on Napoleon?
问：如果孩子通过一部电影对拿破仑有所了解，从另一部电影对惠灵顿也多少了解了一些，从《狂欢三宝》对拿破仑有更多了解，谁会在关于拿破仑的标准化考试中考得更好，是这个孩子还是反复观看拿破仑纪录片的孩子？
Not the right question. If the goal is doing well on standardized tests then making a child sit through a documentary or read a textbook is better than unschooling.
答：问题问得不好。如果目标是在标准化考试中取得好成绩，那么让孩子观看纪录片或者看课本比非学校教育更好。
But unschoolers want something better than good performance on standardized tests!
不过非学校教育者想要的是比在标准化考试中获得优异成绩更好的东西。
Maybe it’s helpful — rather than thinking in terms of helping kids learn about something that they may not yet be interested in — to think in terms of finding things they will enjoy.
与其认为是帮助孩子学习他们尚未感兴趣的东西——不如认为是寻找他们将会享受的东西，也许更有帮助。
An Animaniacs or Histeria cartoon, or Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure will give them good feelings about Napoleon rather than the “this is boring” feelings the “important” facts in a textbook or forced documentary might. The first will likely stay in their heads and cause their ears to prick up when they hear more bits about Napoleon. The second will likely leak out as soon as they are free to forget and will cause them to shut their ears when they hear more bits about (dry, boring) Napoleon.
《狂欢三宝》、Histeria漫画或《比尔和泰德历险记》会让他们对拿破仑感觉很好，而不像课本或被迫观看的纪录片里的“重要”事实那样“乏味”。前者会停留在他们的头脑中，而且会让他们听到拿破仑的信息就竖起耳朵。而后者会在孩子一有自由忘记时就被遗忘，而当他们再听到（枯燥乏味）的拿破仑时，充耳不闻。
I just don’t have the first CLUE where to begin!
问：从何处着手，我毫无头绪！
Begin with your kids. What do they like? Don’t even think in terms of school. What do they do over the summer? What kind of things make them happiest?
答：从孩子入手。他们喜欢什么？别按照学校的思路去想。他们暑假做什么？什么让他们最开心？
Sometimes it’s tough to determine what schooled kids like because a great deal of their off time is spent doing things to recover from school pressures. Probably what my mother would have listed for me is watching TV and reading Nancy Drew — which isn’t much indicative of anything other than being stressed by school!
有时，很难确定在校学生喜欢什么，因为他们大部分休息时间都花在恢复学校压力上。可能我妈妈应该给我列的清单包括看电视，看《南希•朱尔》——这没有任何意义，只不过说明学校压力很大！
Live life with them. Do things that they enjoy because that’s where their interests lie and where they will draw their careers, jobs and direction their lives will take from.
和他们一起生活。做他们喜欢的事情，因为那是他们的兴趣所在，也是他们决定职业、工作，生活方向的东西。
And you’ll need time for deschooling. They need to recover from being told what to do, when to do it and how to do it for 11 years. They may not even know what their interests are since they haven’t had time to leisurely explore anything.
而且脱离学校教育需要时间。他们需要休息，不想11年都让别人滔滔不绝地告诉他们做什么，什么时候做，怎么做。因为还没有时间悠闲地探索其他任何事情，他们可能还不知道自己的兴趣所在。
Someone mentioned The Teenage Liberation Handbook. Excellent book! Try to get the 1998 edition since she did some extensive reworking on it.
有人提到过《青少年解放手册》。这是本好书！最好能找到1998年版的，因为她又进行了很多修改。
Sandra said: “Instead of thinking of it as ‘quitting school,’ think of it as welcoming her to real life early!” I really like that! It’s scary getting released from school. You realize how little you know about life after being locked away for 12 years. But of course most of us are still convinced it was all necessary. (12 years of being told how important it is is pretty good brainwashing.) But the stuff we need will be the stuff we use which is the stuff we would have learned anyway doing the things that interest us.
桑德拉说，“别想着是‘辍学’，把这当成是提前欢迎她回到真实生活！”我真得很喜欢这种说法！离开学校确实很吓人。在被关闭了12年之后，你会意识到你对生活的了解是如此至少。当然我们大多数人都认为这样做完全有必要。（12年来别人不停地鼓吹这有多重要是非常有效的洗脑。）但我们需要的东西将是我们使用的东西，也是只要我们做自己感兴趣的事情，都能学会的事情。
You’ve talked a lot about what he isn’t doing. You haven’t told us anything that he is doing.
问：你一直喋喋不休地说他没有做的事情。你还没有告诉我们他做了什么。
Real learning doesn’t look like academics. It looks like playing. That’s why kids do it
答：真正的学习看上去不像学究。看上去像游戏。那才是孩子们学习的原因。
Don’t think in terms of field trips. Field trips are for schools. Think about fun places to go that you and he might normally do on a weekend or over the summer if you were already confident that the school were handling his education. Go for walks. Go shopping and stop and admire his admiration of what he calls you to see. Take him to places where he can do the kinds of things he enjoys doing (rollerblading, biking, whatever). Go for leisurely trips to museums and just look at the stuff he wants to.
不要考虑实地考察。实地考察针对的是学校。想想那些如果你很有信心学校会把他教育得很好，你和他通常可以周末或者暑假去的好玩的地方。出去散个步。去购物，他叫你注意他崇拜的东西时，你就驻足崇拜。带他到他可以做喜欢事情的地方去（轮滑，骑车等等）。到博物馆随意逛逛，看看他想要什么。
I suspect he’s picking up the nervousness that’s coming through loud and clear in your post. He can feel you hovering over him waiting for him to do something that will calm your fears.
我怀疑他染上了你的文字中流露出的紧张情绪。他能感觉到你虎视眈眈等着他做能够平息你恐惧的事情。
Calming your fears isn’t his job. Your fears are your own. His “job” is to live the life of an 8 year old. Let him do and be an 8 year old rather than a product in preparation for adulthood. Kids spend way too much time training to be adults. There’s a reason kids are 8. It’s a stage they need to pass through and he only gets one chance at it! He needs to be involved in 8 yo things. His 8 yo things. Nintendo. TV. Games. Puzzles. Tickling. Seeing if he can cram a whole hamburger into his mouth. Playing with friends.
平息你的恐惧不是他的事。你的恐惧是你自己的事。他的“正事”是过8岁儿童的生活。就让他过自己的生活，做个8岁儿童，而不是为成年准备的产品。孩子们花了太多时间受训成为成人。孩子之所以8岁，是有道理的。这是他们需要过渡的阶段，而他只有一次！他需要关注8岁儿童需要关注的事情。他的8岁生涯，任天堂、电视、游戏、拼图、搔痒，看看能不能把整个汉堡塞进自己的嘴里，跟伙伴们玩耍。
Don’t hand him books. Snuggle up on the couch under a quilt and hot chocolate and read to him. Put books on tape on in the car. Watch movie versions of favorite books and talk about what you liked and didn’t like. Your job isn’t to make him read. Your job is to make sure he has pleasurable experiences with reading. And has reasons that are meaningful to him to read. (Like if he likes to play video games, make sure he has the guides. It will be reading for meaning.)
别把书塞给他。依偎在沙发上，盖着被子，喝着热巧克力，给他读书听。在车上放有声读物。看根据他最喜欢的书改编的电影，说说你们喜欢什么，不喜欢什么。你的职责不是让他读书，你的职责是确保读书对他是愉悦的体验。而且要给他合理的阅读理由。（就好像他喜欢玩电玩，确保他有指导指南。这就是为了理解意思而阅读。）
I am very relaxed about what she reads, I just want her to read!
问：她读什么我一点不紧张，我只是想让她阅读！
How about turning your concerns around and looking at them from a different point of view.
答：转移一下你的注意力，从不同角度看问题，如何？
Husband: “I don’t care what my wife reads, I just want her to read!”
丈夫：“我不在乎我妻子读什么。我只要她看书就好！”
“My wife basically just wants to do the things that interest her all day, without ANY of the things I think are worth while for her to do.”
“我妻子基本上就只想成天做她感兴趣的东西，根本不做我认为值得她做的事情。”
How would you want him to spark interests in you?
你想让他怎么点燃你的兴趣？
If it were me, I wouldn’t want my husband watching me and judging that what I was doing wasn’t good enough and judging that I should be more interested in things he thinks are worth while!
如果是我，我可不想让我先生盯着我，判断我做得够不够好，判断我是否应该对他认为值得的事情更感兴趣！
Unschooling doesn’t look like kids pursuing academic things on their own. It really does look like play. The reason kids like to play is because that’s how they’re hardwired to learn.
非学校教育不像孩子自己进行学习，看上去更像游戏。孩子们喜欢游戏的原因在于那就是他们天生的学习方法。
Unschooling can be frustrating for parents because it doesn’t look like it’s headed anywhere.
非学校教育对家长而言是个挫折重重的经历，因为看上去好像毫无进展。
Unschooling is a kind of balance between letting them be and providing access to the world. If you aren’t pursuing interests on your own for your own enjoyment, then is it reasonable to expect her to? It’ll work a lot better if you do things and provide access because you want to share things with her and because you think they’re enjoyable not because you want her to be interested. You may end up going to the same places and doing the same things you would if you were more school oriented, but your attitude will be different. She won’t unconsciously pick up any pressure that this is something you want her to do.
非学校教育是顺其自然与为他们提供接触世界的机会之间的平衡。如果你自己都没有追求自己的兴趣，让她这么做，合理吗？如果你做事情，提供接触机会，不是因为你想让她感兴趣，而是因为你想和她分享，因为你觉得很享受。如果你更倾向于学校教育，可能也是殊途同归，但你的态度不同。她不会无意识地承担因为你想让她做而带来的任何压力。
And you might want to reassess what her interests are. It’s what she plays and what she does in her free time that’s important.
也许你想重新评估一下她的兴趣是什么。重要的是她在空闲时间玩什么，做什么。
So what does she play when alone and with friends? What kind of things does she do on her own? What kind of programs or movies are her favorites? What kind of books does she read when she does choose something? (Do you still read to her? Kids’ listening level tends to be at a higher level than their reading level so we shouldn’t stop reading to them when they can read. Books on tape are good too, especially when doing crafts and sometimes for cleaning too.)
那么，她独自玩耍和与朋友一起游戏时，都做些什么？她一个人时做什么？她最喜欢的节目或电影是什么？当她要读书时，她读哪一类书？（你还读给她听吗？孩子的听力水平比他们的阅读水平要高，所以当他们可以读书时，我们不应该停止读书给他们。有声读物也很好，尤其是当你做手工或者做清洁时。）
Maybe it’s an oversimplification, but sometimes I think unschooling is not all that different from schooly stuff, just in its pace and timing. Any thoughts?
问：可能这过于简化，但有时，我觉得非学校教育与学校教育并非截然不同，只是节奏和时间不同而已。对吗？
The huge difference is that the interest is child owned. How the parent then facilitates the child exploring that interest will be different for each child and each parent. It may at times resemble something kids would do in school. Most times it won’t.
答：最明显的差别在于兴趣是孩子自己的。家长如何帮助孩子探索那个兴趣，对于每个孩子及每位家长都不同。有时，可能和孩子在学校做的东西类似。大多数时候都不一样。
Maybe, as a beginning point, look at it as how you’d like your husband to help you explore an interest.
作为起点，也许可以看看你希望你先生怎么帮助你探索一个新兴趣。
You’d probably appreciate it if he happened to notice a book or video or article or event that might interest you and point them out to you or buy them for you. You wouldn’t want him to take over the interest and feel your learning was his responsibility and how much you learned depended entirely on how well he performed for you. You wouldn’t want him to overwhelm you with an itinerary of things to do. You wouldn’t want him hovering over you to see how much and how well you were learning. I think you’d appreciate being left alone to explore at your own pace, to delve as deeply or shallowly as whimsy strikes you. Any help he gave you would be a gift with no strings attached.
如果他碰巧注意到你可能会感兴趣的一本书、一部录像、一篇文章或一个活动，然后指给你看，或者帮你买下，你可能会很感激。你不希望他接管这个兴趣，觉得你学习是他的责任，你学习多少完全取决于他为你所做的如何。你不想让他用待做事件清单让你抓狂。你不想让他监视你，看看你学了多少，学得如何。我想你会感谢他让你一个人，按照自己的节奏探索，深浅都由你的意愿决定。他给你的任何帮助都只是礼物，没有附加条件。
Of course kids are different. Younger kids generally aren’t scanning the list of week’s activities in the newspaper and may not even care to look up books at the library. (The process of finding the information and sorting out the useful from the not useful can be overwhelming.) So we need to be more active, but still recognize that the child owns the interest and should have the freedom to explore as deeply or shallowly as he or she wishes. We just make sure the resources are available. (And if we get frustrated with them not digging deep enough, then we should dig deeper for ourselves
当然，孩子们千差万别。年幼的孩子一般都不会看报纸上的一周活动清单，可能也不喜欢在图书馆看书。（寻找信息，从没用的信息中找到有用信息，这个过程让人无法抵御。）所以，我们需要更积极，但也要认识到兴趣是孩子们的，他们应当有自由按着自己的意愿或深或浅地探索。我们只需要确保资源到位。（如果我们因为他们发掘的不够深而受挫，那么我们应该自己去深入发掘。）
How does this happen? How do our kids just learn?
问：怎么会这样？孩子们怎么就学会了呢？
How did they learn to speak English? This is an incredibly amazing process that kids start out without even realizing language exists and within a few years have mastered it. We shrug it off as mysterious but trivial because all kids do it.
答：他们怎么学英语的？孩子们早在没有意识到语言存在就开始学习，几年之内就掌握了，这个过程非常奇妙，令人难以置信。我们觉得这神奇但又不值一提，因为所有孩子都这么做。
But I think we really need to pay attention to that incredible process. They learn English purely as a side effect of living life and trying to get what they want. A bit of English is a useful tool they happened to pick up and use one day because it was more effective than pointing. And the more they find it useful and the more they pick it up the better at it they get. (And then compare how effective that process is to how effective formal foreign language instruction is.)
可我觉得，我们真需要留意这个神奇的过程。他们学习英语纯粹是生活以及试图得到自己想要得到的东西的副产品。一点英语基础是他们某天碰巧捡起来的有用工具，因为这比指指点点更有效。他们越觉得语言有用，他们拾到得越多，也就越擅长。（然后，比较这个过程和正式的外语教学哪个更有效。）
Everything is like that. Math and science and history and writing are all tools we use to get what we want and explore the world. Adding 15+23 isn’t important. What’s important is who is winning the game. And how much allowance they have acc.lated versus how much they need. And how far away this trip is compared to a trip they know well. And how much longer until Daddy gets home. And how can we double 3/4 cup so we can make a double batch of cookies. Kids pick up how numbers work (and nature and people and communication) by using the tools. Despite what years of torturous math instruction has led us to believe, kids don’t need to be told to work numbers in order to work them. They figure them out. Just as they figured out the intricacies of the English language.
所有事情都如此。数学、科学、历史、写作都是我们用于得到自己想要的东西，探索这个世界的工具。计算15+23并不重要。重要的是谁赢了比赛，他们存的零花钱和他们需要的零花钱的比较，这次未知旅行和他们经历过的旅行的比较，以及爸爸还要多久才能回家。我们怎样再来一份3/4杯的料，这样可以做两批曲奇。孩子们通过使用工具了解数字（还有自然、人、沟通）的运作。尽管多年来，痛苦的数学教学想让我们相信，孩子们需要大人督促才能学习，但情况并非如此。他们自己能明白。正如他们自己理解英语的错综复杂一样。
He is concerned about, how do kids just know what to learn. (This is a very hard question to ask, the words aren’t coming.)
问：他关心的是，孩子们怎么知道该学什么。（这个问题很难问，就是找不到合适的词。）
Unlike what school leads us to believe, they don’t need to know what they’ll need ahead of time. They just grab what they need as they need it. Each piece slowly builds into a larger picture. And because they’re interested, they will be absorbing stuff other just because it’s interesting.
答：不像学校试图让我们相信的那样，他们不需要提前知道将来需要。他们不过是在需要的时候就拣起。每张图片慢慢地构成了更大的一幅画。因为感兴趣，他们会努力吸收各种内容，而不仅仅是因为那个东西有趣。
We are told that we need to understand before we use. But that isn’t true. If it were, toddlers would never learn to speak!
有人说，我们使用之前需要理解，但情况并非如此。否则，幼儿永远也学不会说话！
Unschooling is the way kids teach themselves HTML and Java. It’s they way they learn complex trading card games (like Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokemon) that baffle parents. It’s the way they figure out their way around computers and the internet. It’s the way they learn fancy skateboarding techniques.
非学校教育是孩子们自学HTML和Java的方式。是他们学习让家长们一头雾水错综复杂的卡片交换游戏（如Yu-Gi-Oh和Pokemon）的方式。是他们学会计算机和网络的方式。是他们学习眩人滑板技巧的方式。
They won’t have to figure out everything on their own. They will naturally get together with others who like the same things, they read, we help them out, they watch videos and so on.
他们不需要什么事情都自己弄明白。他们会自然而然地与志同道合的人凑在一起，他们还会阅读，我们也可以帮助他们，他们还可以看视频等等。
One point is that learning that way doesn’t take nearly as long as it does when forced to in school. Plus there aren’t years of experience with learning being dull. If a kid needs math to explore what he wants to in college, he’ll have learned (by using) enough math to get him as far as he is and can build on that understanding to get the rest of what he needs. It won’t take him years. It will take months at most.
他们这样学习要的时间比在学校里被迫学习所要的时间短。而且也没有数年的经历就是学会沉闷。如果孩子需要数学来探索他在大学里所学的东西，他会（通过使用）学习足够的数学知识，而且根据这个理解得到他想要的其他东西。这不需要数年时间。顶多数月而已。
I guess what I am meaning is, if we don’t direct them to say Ancient Egypt or something else, how will they arrive there?
问：我的意思是，如果我们不引导他们说古代埃及或其他东西，他们怎么知道呢？
Do they want to go to Ancient Egypt? If they do it’s because somewhere somehow they stumbled across something about Ancient Egypt that intrigued them.
答：他们想去古埃及吗？如果他们想去，那是因为他们遇到过与古埃及相关的东西，激发了他们的兴趣。
It isn’t up to us to make sure they get Ancient Egypt. It’s up to us to make sure there are interesting things in their lives to encounter. We put interesting things in their paths: books, items, trips to places, movies, conversations, people. Ancient Egypt is just one of many interesting things that include spies and hippopotamuses and Zoombinis and drawing and Dragonball Z and …
让他们找到古埃及不是我们的事，我们的事是确保他们生活中有有趣的事情可以邂逅。我们把有趣的东西为他们沿途摆放：书、东西、出游、电影、谈话、人。古希腊只不过是众多有趣东西比如间谍、河马、蛋头宝宝、绘画和龙珠Z等等之中的一种……
Rarely will the Ancient Egypt they stumble on look like the Ancient Egypt of textbooks. It will look like The Mummy or hieroglyphs kit or a story set around The Great Pyramids at Gaza or hearing that Ancient Egyptians revered cats. It will be one or many things that form an impression that Ancient Egypt is cool.
他们遇到的古埃及人和课本里的古埃及人相同的机会微乎其微。他们会遇到《木乃伊》，或象形文字包，或以加沙大金字塔为背景的故事，或者了解古埃及人崇拜猫。可能是让他们觉得古埃及人很酷的什么事。
Then you’ll say, hmm, maybe if I pointed out a show or brought home a book or a kit on hieroglyphs or pyramids or mummies …. And you can gauge how much more to direct depending on their level of interest.
然后你会说，呣，如果我介绍一部电影或者找本关于象形文字或金字塔或木乃伊的书或工具箱……然后你可以根据他们感兴趣的程度决定还需要提供多少指导。
But their learning won’t be about “topics” like Ancient Egypt. If you see learning as needing to acquire a particular chunk of information you won’t be able to see learning when they’re playing.
不过，他们的学习不像关于古埃及的“话题”。如果你把学习当作需要获得某些具体信息，他们在游戏时，你就看不到他们在学习。
