外籍老師看中國教育：創(chuàng)造力教育仍任重道遠

外籍教師伊莫金·韋斯特-奈茨在中國進行5周的戲劇教學，他發(fā)現(xiàn)：中國正努力推行創(chuàng)造力教育，卻有些力不從心。

In the auditorium of Beijing Bayi School, on a cold morning thick with smog, props are broken, lines unlearnt and the mechanical curtain has blown a fuse.In four hours, my cast of 22 Chinese 14-year-olds, who have never acted before, will perform Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to an audience of 1,500—in English.All their education has told them that drama is an irrelevance.As I race around the theatre, trying to track down an absent Grandpa Joe and a missing Golden Ticket I ask myself, not for the first time：what am I doing here?

寒冷而濃霧彌漫的早晨，北京市八一學校（Beijing Bayi School）的禮堂里，道具是壞的，演員忘記臺詞，機械大幕的保險絲也燒斷了。還有四個小時，我挑選的22名沒有任何表演經(jīng)驗的14歲中國小演員，將為1500名觀眾表演《查理與巧克力工廠》（Charlie and the Chocolate Factory）——用英語。他們所接受的全部教育都告訴他們，戲劇是個無關(guān)緊要的東西。當我在劇場里跑來跑去，努力尋找缺席的喬爺爺（Grandpa Joe）和無影無蹤的金獎券（Golden Ticket）時，我又一次問自己：我在這兒干嘛呢？

Chinese education has increasingly been hailed as “superior” to the way we teach in the west in recent years.Its success in global tests for 15-year-olds reinforced this sense of a world tilting to the east：in the 2012 round of the Programme for International Student Assessment tests （Pisa）, Shanghai, representing China, came first in science, reading and mathematics.Fretful western governments took note, amid mounting concern that China's educational success would inevitably pave the way for economic and cultural dominance.Or, as the former UK government minister Michael Gove baldly stated when he was secretary of state for education, the UK can either “start working as hard as the Chinese, or we'll all soon be working for the Chinese”.

近年來，中國教育越來越被盛贊為“優(yōu)于”西方教育方式。在2012年的國際學生評估項目（Pisa）測試中，代表中國參賽的上海地區(qū)在科學、閱讀和數(shù)學三個科目中均奪得第一。中國在面向全球15歲學生的Pisa測試中的成功，更加深了世界的天平正在向東方傾斜的印象。焦慮的西方政府對此事非常重視——人們原本就日益擔憂，中國教育的成功將不可避免地為其在經(jīng)濟和文化上取得主導(dǎo)地位鋪平道路。換句話說，如前英國政府大臣邁克爾·戈夫（Michael Gove）在擔任教育大臣時所直言，英國要么可以“開始像中國人一樣努力，要么我們很快就要為中國人打工了?！?/p>

For many, the solution is simple：whatever they are doing, we need to do it too.In July last year, it was announced that 8,000 primary schools in the UK would be given funding to adopt the “mastery” maths teaching technique, the method used in China, in which students are always taught, unstreamed, as a whole class, with stronger students helping weaker ones to keep up.A BBC documentary, Are Our Kids Tough Enough? Chinese School, followed an academy in Hampshire as it turned over some of its students to a cohort of Chinese teachers, to see if they could boost results.This autumn, the first dual language English-Chinese private prep school is to open in London.

在許多人看來，解決方案很簡單：無論他們做什么，我們照做就是。去年7月，有報道稱英國8000所小學將獲撥款，用以實行中國所使用的數(shù)學教學法——“熟練掌握”法?！笆炀氄莆铡狈ń虒W總是整個班一起教，不按學習程度對學生進行分組，這樣好學生會幫助差學生跟上進度。漢普郡的一所中學做了一個實驗，將部分學生交給一群中國教師，看看他們能否提高成績，英國廣播公司（BBC）的紀錄片《我們的孩子足夠堅強嗎？中式學?！罚ˋre Our Kids Tough Enough? Chinese School）跟拍了這一過程。今年秋天，倫敦將開設(shè)第一所英漢雙語的私立預(yù)備學校。

In the minds of many middle-class western parents, the supposed rigours of a Chinese education have taken on mythic status.The impact of Amy Chua's 2011 book, Battle Hymn of The Tiger Mother, highlighted concerns that their children are hobbled by their liberal western education, and risk being unable to compete against their hard-working Chinese peers.

在許多西方中產(chǎn)階層父母心中，嚴格的中國教育已經(jīng)成了神話。2011年蔡美兒（Amy Chua）一本《虎媽戰(zhàn)歌》（ Battle Hymn of The Tiger Mother）造成的巨大影響，突出了西方父母的擔憂——他們擔心自己的孩子被自由的西方教育耽誤了，面臨無力與勤奮的中國同齡人競爭的風險。

這真的意味著中國教育是成功的嗎？

As I can confirm from my five weeks at Bayi School last year, school days are definitely a lot longer than in the west.Older pupils started at about 7.30am and continued until 6pm, usually backed up by evening self-study classes.Most schools have classes on Saturdays, too.If they don't, middle-class parents will arrange private lessons with tutors.Asia is the fastest-growing market in the global private tuition industry, which is forecast by Global Industry Analysts to be worth nearly $200bn by 2020.Students in Shanghai also spend almost 14 hours a week on homework, close to three times the average given by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

憑借我去年在八一學校那五個星期所見，我可以肯定地說，中國學生在校時間肯定比西方孩子長得多。小學高年級學生早上7:30到校，一直待到下午6點，通常還要再上晚自習。大多數(shù)學校周六也要上課。如果學校周六不上課，中產(chǎn)階層父母們就會給孩子安排課外輔導(dǎo)。亞洲是全球課外輔導(dǎo)行業(yè)增長最快的市場，據(jù)Global Industry Analysts預(yù)測，到2020年該行業(yè)的價值將接近2000億美元。上海的學生每周要花近14個小時寫家庭作業(yè)，是經(jīng)合組織（OECD）平均水平的近三倍。

Classes themselves are also very different：students sit in rows of individual desks, often arranged by class ranking.In such a single-minded environment there is not much scope for creative input from the students.One day I sat in on a Chinese class, which began with pupils standing to recite the passage of literature they were studying, after which they took notes from a teacher's lecture for the duration of the lesson.This, apparently, is typical.

班級本身也很不一樣，學生們坐在一排排單人書桌后，座位通常根據(jù)班級排名安排。在這種目標單一的環(huán)境里，沒有太大空間讓學生發(fā)揮創(chuàng)意。有一天我聽了一堂語文課，學生們先起立背誦他們正在學習的文章片段，然后在接下來的課堂時間里記錄老師的上課筆記。這顯然是典型的一堂課。

Testing is frequent and rigorous, at least four times a year in every subject, in preparation for the college entrance exam, the gaokao.This annual test is the only means of gaining entry to Chinese universities and it is brutal—two exams lasting a total of nine hours, and including compulsory papers in maths, Chinese and a foreign language, with your score determining which rank of university you attend.Family investment in a student's gaokao results is enormous.

考試頻繁且嚴格，每年每科至少考四次，為“高考”——大學入學考試——做準備。一年一度的高考是進入中國大學的唯一方法，這項考試很殘酷，持續(xù)兩天，共計9個小時，必考科目包括數(shù)學、語文和外語?？荚嚪謹?shù)決定了考生可以上的大學檔次。家長為提高孩子的高考成績所作出的投資是巨大的。

More than a decade ago, the Chinese Ministry of Education issued a statement denouncing the “exam-oriented education” of China.In the past few years, the ministry has introduced a policy calling for the formal encouragement of “creativity” and “innovation” in schools.The school where I taught has clearly taken heed.Among sections about a “military training that builds spirit” and “an education in Communism”, its prospectus boasts of Bayi's commitment to “encourage creative awareness and creative acts”.

十多年前，中國教育部發(fā)表聲明譴責中國的“應(yīng)試教育”。在過去幾年里，中國教育部出臺政策，呼吁在學校里正式鼓勵“創(chuàng)造力”和“創(chuàng)新”。我任教的學校顯然注意到了這種呼吁。除了“軍魂鑄人”和“共產(chǎn)主義教育”的部分以外，八一學校還在簡介中自豪地承諾要“鼓勵創(chuàng)新意識和創(chuàng)新實踐”。

I had four weeks—and eight hours a week—to teach my class drama from scratch and put on a final show.It was obvious from the outset how unfamiliar the idea of a drama lesson was to them （most Chinese schools do not offer the subject）.One of the school's English teachers showed me the lecture theatre that would be my classroom, and indicated it would be perfect because there were enough desks for all of the students.She looked baffled when I said all the desks would need to be removed.

我有4周時間（每周8小時）從零開始教我的班級排演戲劇，并拿出最后的演出。顯然他們從一開始就很不了解什么是戲劇課（大多數(shù)中國學校不開設(shè)這種課程）。八一學校的一位英文教師領(lǐng)我看了供我教學使用的大教室，并暗示稱，這個教室非常完美，因為里面有足夠所有學生使用的課桌。當我說所有這些課桌都需要搬出去的時候，她看起來非常困惑。

Initially, the class was very shy：silent unless instructed to be otherwise, they were especially anxious when they had to perform individually.We held informal auditions to decide on casting, which they took extremely seriously：more than one student was so nervous they found it difficult to breathe.Fortunately, they were already familiar with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, as the school had devoted two English lessons to watching the latest film adaptation in preparation.In the early rehearsals there was much concern among the students that the five-foot-nothing boy in little black spectacles whom I had cast as Willy Wonka did not sufficiently resemble Johnny Depp.His English name was Harry, chosen “to match the Prince of England”.

學生們一開始在課堂上非常害羞：他們只有在被要求發(fā)言時才會說話，在單獨表演時尤其緊張。我們舉行了非正式的試演來決定角色分配，這讓他們感到極為緊張：不只一個學生緊張得都喘不過氣來。幸運的是，他們已經(jīng)熟悉了《查理與巧克力工廠》（Charlie and the Chocolate Factory），因為學校已經(jīng)安排了兩節(jié)英文課讓他們觀看這個故事最新的電影版。在早期的排練中，學生們很擔心，我指定為威利·旺卡（Willy Wonka）扮演者的那個戴著黑框小眼鏡、身高5英尺整的男孩不太像約翰尼·德普（Johnny Depp）。他的英文名字是哈里（Harry）——之所以起這個名是“因為英國王子也叫哈里”。

Throughout the course, form teachers repeatedly inquired about how the children were performing, and whether or not they were good.Initially I found this strange：one of the mainstays of drama classes in the west is the notion that mistakes are OK, as long as you are trying things out—an idea about as far away as you can get from Chinese educational principles.

整個課程期間，各班主任反復(fù)詢問孩子們在臺上表現(xiàn)如何，出不出色。起初我覺得這很奇怪：西方戲劇課的基礎(chǔ)理念之一就是只要肯嘗試、犯錯也無所謂——這種理念與中國的教育原則可謂截然相反。

Although courses such as the one I was teaching are approved by the government, they are neatly compartmentalised and clearly separated from the usual test-driven schooling, which continued apace.It was perhaps more telling that the teachers referred to our lessons as “drama training” and, even within these lessons, the instinct to apply rote-learning was overwhelming.One of the form tutors assured me that she and her colleagues had been drilling all the students on their lines.In the corridor one afternoon I walked past her scolding Charlie Bucket for mispronouncing the words “Whipple-Scrumptious Fudgemallow Delight”.

盡管類似我在教的這類課程得到了政府的批準，它們被與那些快速推進的應(yīng)試課業(yè)精心區(qū)分和明確隔離開來。也許更能說明問題的地方在于，老師們將我們的課程稱為“戲劇訓練”。還有就是，即使是在這些課程里，采用死記硬背辦法的本能依然強大。一位班主任曾寬慰我稱，她和她的同事一直在讓所有學生排練他們的臺詞。一天下午，我在走廊里從她身旁走過時，她正在訓斥“查理·巴克特”（Charlie Bucket）的飾演者，因為他把“Whipple-Scrumptious Fudgemallow Delight”（指《查理和巧克力工廠》中的高級惠普爾奶油巧克力軟糖——譯者注）這個詞念錯了。

Two hours of mentally demanding and alien activity on top of their already punishing workload began to take their toll; my students were visibly tired at the end of sessions.But their determination to make the play a success was no less intense than their approach to any other aspect of school life.One night, after a long dress rehearsal, I came back into school to collect something and found the cast, several teachers and even some parents in the auditorium, running the play without me.I went backstage where our Veruca Salt told me matter-of-factly they often did this after I had left.How late do they stay? Oh, not so late, she said.Maybe 10pm.

在已然十分沉重的課業(yè)負擔之外，還要開展兩小時要求精神高度集中而又充滿陌生感的活動，這種狀況開始產(chǎn)生惡果——課程結(jié)束時我的學生們明顯十分疲憊。不過，他們成功表演該劇的決心，一點也不遜于他們對待學校生活其他方面的態(tài)度。一天晚上，在當天的漫長彩排后，我回學校取點東西，卻發(fā)現(xiàn)演員們、幾位教師、甚至還有部分家長都在禮堂里，在我不在場的情況下排練該劇。我走進后臺，“維露卡·索爾特”（Veruca Salt）泰然自若地告訴我，他們經(jīng)常在我離開后接著練。我問他們會待到多晚？她回答說，哦，不太晚，可能到10點。

北京八一學校參加《查理和巧克力工廠》演出的演員們和他們的戲劇課老師伊莫金·韋斯特-奈茨。攝影：伊莫金·韋斯特-奈茨

In the days leading up to the final show, the lead members of the cast and I were interviewed for the Bayi School TV channel.When it was my turn, the student crew wanted to know the point of doing drama.Easy enough, I thought, explaining how studies have shown that it builds confidence, enhances social skills, encourages imaginative thought and empathy, supplements understanding of literature.But the question itself underlined the chasm between two cultures：in the west, it is taken for granted that there is inherent value in studying arts subjects, cultivating creativity and independence of thought.

在正式演出前的幾天里，八一校電視臺（Bayi School TV channel）采訪了主要演員和我。輪到我的時候，學生采訪組想知道戲劇表演的意義何在。我想，這個問題很容易回答。我解釋說，研究表明戲劇表演會建立自信心、提高社交技能、鼓勵想象思維和同理心，增進對文學作品的理解。不過，這個問題本身凸顯了兩種文化的巨大差異：在西方，學習藝術(shù)類科目、培養(yǎng)創(chuàng)造力和獨立思考能力的內(nèi)在價值被認為是不言而喻的。

Or it used to be.The irony is that the UK places less and less value on liberal humanities, and ever-fewer resources are devoted to their teaching.Subjects that are hard to measure through results, such as art, music and drama, are a steadily declining presence on school curriculums in the UK in particular.“Just as other countries are getting it we are ungetting it,” bemoans John Kampfner, head of the UK's Creative Industries Federation.

或者說至少過去如此。諷刺之處在于，英國越來越不重視人文學科的價值，投入這類學科教學的資源越來越少。尤其是在英國，類似藝術(shù)、音樂和戲劇這樣很難用結(jié)果衡量的學科，在課表中的分量正在穩(wěn)步下滑。英國創(chuàng)意產(chǎn)業(yè)聯(lián)合會（Creative Industries Federation）主席約翰·坎普夫納（John Kampfner）慨嘆道：“就在其他國家意識到這種價值的時候，我們卻在遺忘它?！?/p>

China and the west may broadly be moving in opposite directions with regards to creativity.But the underlying reasons are the same, and they are economic.Western governments think they are protecting their interests by changing their education so that western citizens don't end up “working for the Chinese”, as Mr Gove put it.The Chinese, meanwhile, are seeking to learn how to be more innovative, primarily as a means to boost their economy.Jiang Xueqin, a Beijing-based education researcher and writer, tells me that a drive for creativity in Chinese education translates primarily into encouraging innovation in a business and scientific context.“Unfortunately, the government interprets creativity in very narrow terms,” he says.

在創(chuàng)造力方面，中國和西方可能正朝著相反的方向前進。但潛在原因是相同的，都是出于經(jīng)濟考慮。西方政府認為，它們是在通過改革教育維護本國利益，這種改革的目的是讓西方公民不會像戈夫所說的那樣，到頭來“為中國人打工”。與此同時，中國正尋求學習如何更具創(chuàng)新性，主要是作為促進經(jīng)濟的一種手段。北京教育研究者和作家江學勤告訴我，中國教育中推動創(chuàng)新的行動主要轉(zhuǎn)化為鼓勵商業(yè)和科技領(lǐng)域的創(chuàng)新?！斑z憾的是，政府對創(chuàng)新的定義非常狹隘，”他說。

Foreign Policy網(wǎng)站在一篇名為《為什么中國人缺少創(chuàng)造力》（‘Why Do Chinese Lack Creativity?'）中引用翻譯了知乎用戶的回答，表示中國人不是缺少創(chuàng)造力，而是這種創(chuàng)造力沒有影響力。其中列出了以下原因：

Photo Credit：Zhihu user

First, our innovations lack depth.Products such as the cigarette case/cell phone are what we can call combination-type innovation, simply merging the functions of two different products.It's using someone else's advanced technology in different circumstances.This kind of innovation has no technological barriers and is easily recreated or even surpassed by others.It relies on novelty to occupy a market; as soon as someone else does the same thing but with better execution, the market will quickly shrivel and price wars ensue.

首先，我們的創(chuàng)新缺少深度：類似上面的煙盒手機的產(chǎn)品是我們所稱的組合型創(chuàng)新，只是簡單的把兩個產(chǎn)品的功能組合在一起。這種創(chuàng)新就是別人有一個先進技術(shù)，我們拿來用在一個某個特殊場合。這種沒有深度一拍腦袋就能想到的創(chuàng)新，沒有任何技術(shù)壁壘也很容易被別人復(fù)制甚至超越。這種缺乏深度的創(chuàng)新先驅(qū)可以一下子憑借新鮮勁占領(lǐng)某個市場，但是當別人的執(zhí)行力更好，做出更精致的產(chǎn)品時，市場就迅速萎縮只有靠拼價格在低層次上競爭了。

In addition, our creativity has not reached industrial scale.An industry must reach a certain size before it can mobilize large-scale participation by outside enterprises such as chip, software, and interface design and algorithm research.Again using the cigarette case mobile phone as an example, we see that such an invention does not have any lasting influence on the further development of either cell phones or cigarette cases.With only this kind of superficial innovation, it's impossible to construct an expansive industrial system, take the mobile phone industry to the next level, or draw more diverse companies into the cigarette case cell phone market （if this market actually exists）.

此外，我們的創(chuàng)新沒有形成產(chǎn)業(yè)規(guī)模。一個產(chǎn)業(yè)只有達到一定規(guī)模，帶動上下游從算法研究、芯片設(shè)計、軟件設(shè)計、外觀設(shè)計、界面設(shè)計等各個領(lǐng)域的大量優(yōu)秀企業(yè)參與，才能成為有縱深有影響力的創(chuàng)新。還是以上面的香煙盒手機為例，可以想見這種創(chuàng)新不會對手機的發(fā)展、香煙盒的發(fā)展產(chǎn)生任何深遠的影響。因為這種孤零零一個點的創(chuàng)新，構(gòu)不成一個龐大有縱深的產(chǎn)業(yè)生態(tài)系統(tǒng)，無法帶動手機業(yè)上一個臺階，也無法帶動更多的別的廠商加入這樣一個香煙盒手機市場（如果這個市場真的存在）。

We lack an environment conducive to creativity. Innovation is not something that a single person can accomplish by just closing the door and thinking hard.But Chinese are not good at using lively debate to turn a spark of originality into a developed idea, and Chinese companies aren't skilled at using cooperation and competition, or “coopetition,”to innovate.Through cultural and political influence, we have developed the habit of forming alliances with each other, rather than engaging in coopetition driven by profit.

我們?nèi)鄙儆欣趧?chuàng)新的環(huán)境：當今社會的創(chuàng)新很少是一個人閉門冥思苦想就可以做出的。但是中國人不擅長通過熱烈的討論把一些創(chuàng)新的火花逐漸做成有深度的創(chuàng)意，其次中國的企業(yè)也不擅長通過合作競爭做成一個創(chuàng)新。長期文化和政治生活的影響，讓我們養(yǎng)成了習慣基于立場驅(qū)動的聯(lián)盟，而不是利益驅(qū)動的合作競爭。

詞匯總結(jié)

auditorium[??:d??t?:ri?m]

n.觀眾席，聽眾席;禮堂，會堂

In the auditorium of Beijing Bayi School, on a cold morning thick with smog, props are broken, lines unlearnt and the mechanical curtain has blown a fuse.

寒冷而濃霧彌漫的早晨，北京市八一學校（Beijing Bayi School）的禮堂里，道具是壞的，演員忘記臺詞，機械大幕的保險絲也燒斷了。

hail[he?l]

n.冰雹;一陣

vi.下冰雹;如冰雹般地降下

vt.致敬;打招呼;打信號示意（計程車等）停下;贊揚（或稱頌）…為（尤用于報章等）

vt.（牌戲）出王牌贏（一牌或一墩）

Chinese education has increasingly been hailed as “superior” to the way we teach in the west in recent years.

近年來，中國教育越來越被盛贊為“優(yōu)于”西方教育方式。

amid[??m?d]

prep.（表示位置）在…中間;（表示環(huán)境）處于…環(huán)境中;由于存在…情況;（表示讓步）盡管有…的情況

in the 2012 round of the Programme for International Student Assessment tests （Pisa）, Shanghai, representing China, came first in science, reading and mathematics.Fretful western governments took note, amid mounting concern that China's educational success would inevitably pave the way for economic and cultural dominance.

中國在面向全球15歲學生的Pisa測試中的成功，更加深了世界的天平正在向東方傾斜的印象。焦慮的西方政府對此事非常重視——人們原本就日益擔憂，中國教育的成功將不可避免地為其在經(jīng)濟和文化上取得主導(dǎo)地位鋪平道路。

middle-class

adj.

中層社會的，中產(chǎn)階級的

In the minds of many middle-class western parents, the supposed rigours of a Chinese education have taken on mythic status.

在許多西方中產(chǎn)階層父母心中，嚴格的中國教育已經(jīng)成了神話。

single-minded[?s??g?l?ma?nd?d]

adj.專一的;堅定的;誠心的;純真的

In such a single-minded environment there is not much scope for creative input from the students.

英國國家博物館展示了虛擬現(xiàn)實體驗技術(shù)。