东西方教育

Education: East and West

The following passage is the first of three articles which compare Eastern and Western education styles. These comparisons are made from the point of view of a parent, a student and a teacher.The first article is written by Mary Hynes, a British woman who lives in China and has a child attending a Chinese school. She tells Bilingual Time about her decision to give her son a Chinese education and the difference between Chinese and British schools.

My husband, my son and I moved to Shanghai two years ago because of my husband's job. We will be based in China for another six years. Moving one's family to another country is a big step and presents one with a variety of difficult decisions.

I think the most important decision we had to make was concerning the education of our son, who was thirteen when we arrived here. Our choice was that we either send him to an international school or a local school. Most foreign families in Shanghai send their children to international schools, which is understandable. At the international schools their children can follow the same syllabus as at home and also attend classes in Chinese language and culture.

However, we decided to send our son to a local school. We felt that living in a country with a culture that is very different to ours is something which would be a great advantage to a teenager and that by sending him to an international school we would in someway be sheltering him from this experience. By sending him to a local school we would be helping him to open his mind to a foreign culture as well as ensuring that he became fluent in a foreign language at a young age. We believe that by doing this, he will be more open minded and cosmopolitan by the time he reaches university age. It doesn't matter which culture we expose him to; experiencing any foreign culture at that age will have a positive effect.

Of course, it has not all been smooth sailing. Sometimes we feel that the teachers treat him differently because he is a foreigner. This is something we would be worried about because we don't want him to feel that he is somehow special or deserves more attention than others. I suppose that is to be expected, after all he does stand out a bit, and to be fair, the longer he studies in the school the more he is treated the same as the other students. It could also be said that being treated differently has been an advantage to him. When he first started attending classes there, the language barrier was a big problem and all of the teachers ①made allowances for him until he could catch up. Some teachers even offered him extra tuition in Chinese to help him.

Another worry is that by concentrating too much on rote learning he is not developing the analytical and critical skills that he would in a British school. This is a common complaint of Western parents who have children in Asian schools. They worry that memorizing vast amounts of information without understanding it deeply will not be useful to their child, especially if they return to the West to attend university or work. In British schools the students do not have to repeat what they learn in their textbooks but are required to focus on certain aspects of topics and exercise their own ability to understand and criticize different points of view.

One of the most obvious differences between a Chinese and British school is that in the Chinese school there is less emphasis placed on the individual needs of each student. Getting high exam scores is the common goal and the teacher will tell the students the information they need to do this. In the British school, it is believed that each student has different strengths and weaknesses and that each child should be educated according to his or her own needs. For this reason, the students are encouraged to give different opinions and class discussions are common. My husband and I got quite a shock when we went to our first parent-teacher meeting and discovered that it was to be conducted in the form of a group, with each child's case being discussed in front of other parents. In Britain, this would be unthinkable. These meetings are always carried out ②in private. Sending our son to a Chinese school has been a cultural experience for us too! On the other hand, the Chinese teachers do pay individual attention to the students if they are having difficulties and are very receptive to parent's concerns. It's just that in China this seems to be done in a more informal way than the West.

We are very impressed with the professionalism and dedication of the teachers at the school. It is clear that they are career teachers who believe that being an educator is a vocation. Another major advantage is the level of safety and discipline in the school. We don't have to worry about him getting involved with gangs and drugs which is a huge headache for parents in the West.

All in all, we are happy with our decision. Our son has adapted to a very different system of education. He has learned that people from different countries respond to education and instruction in different ways. In the process, he has mastered a very difficult foreign language and that has opened up a rich culture to him as well as allowing him to build friendships with Chinese people of his own age, further enriching his experience. In fact, at fifteen he has experienced and learned more about the world than most of his peers back home and certainly a whole lot more than I did at that age.

东西方教育

下文是三篇对比东西方教育方式的文章中的首篇之作。这些对比是以家长、学生和教师的观点来完成的。第一篇文章的作者是玛丽・海斯，一位在中国生活、有一个孩子在中国学校上学的英国女性。她向《双语时代》讲起了她让其子接受中国教育的决定以及中英学校间的差异。

因为我丈夫工作的原因，我丈夫、我儿子和我在两年前搬到了上海。我们还将在中国呆上六年的时间。将自己的家搬到另一个国家是一件大事，使人们面临着许多艰难的决定。

我想，我们不得已做出的最重要的决定，与我们儿子的教育有关，他13岁时就随我们来到此地。我们的选择是，要么送他去国际学校，要么送他去当地学校。在上海，大多数外国家庭都把他们的孩子送到国际学校，这是可以理解的。在国际学校，他们的孩子可以遵循与家乡同步的教学大纲，而且还可以参加中国语言和文化的课程。

然而，我们却决定把我们的儿子送到一家当地学校。我们觉得，在一个与我们的文化相差很大的国家中生活，对一个青少年来说将会是一个巨大的优势，而送他到国际学校的话，我们就在某种程度上使他错过了这种体验。通过送他到当地学校的方式，我们会帮助他去包容一种异域文化并确保他在年轻的时候就能精通一门外语。我们相信，这么一来，在他到了上大学的年纪时他就会更加开通、更加国际化。我们让他接触哪种文化并不重要；在那个年纪去体验任何一种异域文化都会产生积极的效果。

当然，并非总是一帆风顺的。有时，我们觉得老师们就因为他是一个外国人而对他区别对待。这就是我们所担心的事情，因为我们不想让他感觉他在某种程度上是特殊的或者比别人更值得关注。我认为，那还是会发生的，毕竟他确实有点儿不一样，而客观来讲，他在学校学习的时间越长，他就越会像其他学生一样被一视同仁。话又说回来，被区别对待，对他来讲也是一种优势。当他第一次开始在那里上课的时候，语言障碍是一大问题，而且在他能跟上之前所有老师都在迁就他。有些老师甚至对他进行特别的汉语辅导来帮助他。

另一个担心之处在于，由于过分注重死记硬背式的学习，他就不能培养出他在英国学校中能培养出来的那种分析和判断能力。这是那些有子女在亚洲学校就学的西方父母的普遍抱怨所在。他们担心，记忆大量的信息而不加以深入理解，对他们的孩子是没有好处的，尤其是在他们要回西方上大学或工作的前提下。在英国的学校里，学生不需要对他们在课本上所学的加以复述，不过却被要求对课题的某些方面进行关注并且要锻炼他们自己对于不同观点的理解和判断能力。

中英学校间最明显的差别之一是，在中国学校，对每个学生的个人需要关注得比较少。考试得高分是共同的目标，老师会把学生考高分所需的信息告诉给他们。而在英国学校，其看法则是，每个学生都有不同的优缺点，而且每个孩子都应按照他/她的需要来接受教育。基于这个原因，学生们被鼓励发表不同的看法，课堂讨论司空见惯。当我丈夫和我第一次参加家长会，发现那是以团体形式进行并且会当着其他家长的面来讨论每个孩子的情况时，我们着实吃了一惊。在英国，这是不可想象的。这类会议总是以私下的方式来进行。把我们的儿子送到一所中国学校对我们来说也是一种文化体验！而另一方面，如果学生们有困难，中国老师确实会给予他们单独的关照，并且非常理解家长们的忧虑。只不过，比起西方来，这在中国似乎是以更不规范的方式来进行的。

对于校方老师的专业化和奉献精神，我们的印象是极其深刻的。显然，他们是那种认为当教员是一项职业的职业教师。（送孩子到当地学校上学的）另一个重要好处在于安全水平和校风校纪。我们不必担心他加入团伙和吸毒，而这在西方是令家长们极其头疼的事情。

总而言之，我们对我们的决定感到高兴。我们的儿子已经适应了一个非常不同的教育体制。他已经明白了，不同国家的人对教育和教学的处理方式是不同的。与此同时，他已经掌握了一门很难的外语，而那就使他接触到了一个丰富的文化并使他能够与他的中国同龄人建立起友谊，从而进一步丰富他的阅历。事实上，在15岁时，与他在家乡的同龄人相比，他已然对世界有了更深的感受并学到了更多，当然比我在那个年纪时还要多得多。

syllabus /`sil9b9s/ n.教学纲要

cosmopolitan /,k4zm9`p4lit9n/ adj.世界性的

barrier /`b2ri9/ n.障碍

tuition /t(`iH9n/ n.教授；学费

rote /r9ut/ n.死记硬背

analytical /,2n9`litik9l/ adj.分析的；解析的

conduct /k9n`d7kt/ v.处理；实施

unthinkable /`7n`FiMk9bl/ adj.不能想象的

receptive /ri`septiv/ adj.善于接受的；敏悟的

professionalism /pr9`feH9n9,liz9m/ n.专业主义；

职业化

enrich /in`ritH/ vt.使富足

peer /pi9/ n.同等的人；同辈

① make allowance for为……留余地

② in private 私下；秘密地