異類之不一樣的成功啟示錄 第179期:窮孩子的業(yè)余生活

Think back to Alex Williams, the nine-year-old whom Annette Lareau studied.

我們回頭再看亞力克斯·威廉姆斯，這個安妮特·拉里奧研究的9歲孩子，

His parents believe in concerted cultivation. He gets taken to museums and gets enrolled in special programs, and goes to summer camp where he takes classes.

他的父母信奉協(xié)同培養(yǎng)，所以他被帶到博物館，參加一些特殊活動，還去了夏令營，以這些地方為課堂。

When he's bored at home, there are plenty of books to read, and his parents see it as their responsibility to keep him actively engaged in the world around him.

當他在家里感到無聊時，有很多的書籍可以閱讀，他的父母認為有責任讓他積極地融入身邊的社會。

It's not hard to see how Alex would get better at reading and math over the summer.

這樣就不難看到，暑假之后亞力克斯在閱讀和數(shù)學方面做的更好了。

But not Katie Brindle, a little girl from the other side of the tracks. There is no money to send her to summer camp.

但是卡蒂·布琳德爾不是這樣，這個小女孩的生活軌跡正好相反。家里沒有錢送她去夏令營，

She's not getting driven by her mom to special classes, and there aren't books lying around the house that she can read if she gets bored.

她媽媽也不能用車載她一些特殊的學習班，當她無聊時家里也沒有書籍閱讀。

There's probably just a television. She may still have a wonderful vacation, making new friends, playing outside, going to the movies, having the kind of carefree summer days that we all dream about.

也許家里有臺電視，或許她仍然可以過一個愉快的暑假，交到新朋友，在戶外玩，去看電影，去過那種我們都向往的無憂無慮的暑假。

None of those things, though, would improve her math and reading skills, and every carefree summer days she spends puts her further and further behind Alex.

但這些事情不能改善她閱讀和數(shù)學方面的技能，每一天無憂無慮的暑假都使她落后于亞力克斯越來越遠。

Alex isn't necessarily smarter than Katie. He's just out-learning her:

亞力克斯不一定比卡蒂聰明，他只不過比她多了一些額外的學習。

He's putting in a few solid months of learning during the summer months while she watches television and plays outside.

在這幾個月的暑假中，當卡蒂在看電視、嬉戲玩耍的時候，亞力克斯卻正在學習。

What Alexander's work suggests is the way in which education has been discussed in the United States is backwards.

亞歷山大研究后的意見是，美國討論教育的方式后退了。

And enormous amount of time is spent talking about reducing class size, rewriting curricula, buying every student a shiny new laptop, and increasing school funding—

花大量的時間來討論減少班級人數(shù)，重新設置課程，給學生配置人手一臺的掌上電腦，增加學校的基礎建設——

all of which assume that there is something fundamentally wrong with the job schools are doing.

所有這些都是根本上的錯誤。