5岁男孩15页简历走红网络,引发中国教育大讨论
BEIJING — The young applicant is described as confident and courageous. His résumé, at 15 pages, is glittering, complete with performance reviews (“full of energy”), a map of his travels (trips to Tokyo and Bali) and a list of books he has read this year (408 in total).
北京——这位年轻申请人有自信、勇敢的性格。他长达15页的简历熠熠生辉,有好的表现评语(比如“敢拼”)、旅行去过的地方(东京和巴厘岛),以及今年已经读过的书(408本)。
But the applicant is not a seasoned job seeker. He is a 5-year-old boy from southern China applying for a spot in first grade at a Shanghai private school.
不过,这个申请人并不是一名经验丰富的求职者,而是中国南方的一名五岁男孩,这是他想成为上海一所私立学校一年级新生的入学申请。
“I hope I can outperform my parents,” the boy is quoted as saying, between photos showing him playing the piano, swimming and driving a toy car.
“我要青出于蓝胜于蓝,”男孩在简历中说,还附上了他弹钢琴、游泳、开玩具车的照片。
The résumé, which was leaked and shared widely online this week, has provoked a mix of fascination, indignation and debate about whether children in China’s test-crazed education system are being raised as soulless strivers.
这份本周在网上泄露出来,并被广泛流传的简历引发了各种反响,有人好奇,有人愤怒,也有人辩论这样的问题:中国的应试教育体系培养出来的孩子是否都是没有灵魂的奔命者。
Some called for the parents of the boy to be arrested. Others wondered whether today’s children would know true happiness, given the intense pressure to perform well and land good jobs.
有些人要求把男孩的父母抓起来。也有些人想知道,在需要表现出色、找到好工作的巨大压力下,如今的孩子是否知道真正的幸福。
“Only 5 years old?” one user wrote on Weibo, a Twitter-like site. “So scary.”
“这五岁?”一位用户在微博上写道。“太可怕。”
Still, some defended the parents, saying they were trying to promote their child’s best interests in a flawed system.
尽管如此,一些人还是为孩子的父母进行了辩护,称他们是在一个糟糕的体系里尽力为孩子争取利益。
By Thursday evening, tens of thousands of people had weighed in, and a hashtag about the boy had been viewed more than 38 million times.
截至周四晚,已有成千上万的人加入到这个讨论中来,一个与该男孩有关的话题已被浏览了逾3800万次。
Yong Zhao, a professor of education at the University of Kansas, said the debate reflected widespread anxiety among Chinese parents about getting their children into top schools. In China’s test-dominated system, exam scores determine where students go to college and what careers they can pursue.
堪萨斯大学(University of Kansas)教育学教授赵勇说,这场辩论反映出中国家长在让孩子进顶尖学校方面普遍有焦虑感。在中国的应试教育体系中,考试成绩决定了学生上哪所大学,以及他们能够从事的职业。
“No matter how many good schools there are, people are always shooting for the best,” he said. “Where their children go to school represents an achievement, an accomplishment for parents. But many don’t know what a good education is.”
“不管好学校有多少所,人们总是在追求最好的,”他说。“孩子上什么学校代表着一种成就,一种父母的成就。但很多人不知道什么是好的教育。”
It is unclear who prepared the résumé, which was addressed to the Shanghai Starriver Bilingual School. As in urban school districts in the United States and elsewhere, it is common for parents in Chinese cities to hire coaches to help their children gain admission to selective schools.
这份简历是写给上海星河湾双语学校的,目前还不清楚简历是什么人制作的。与住在美国及其他地方城市学区的家长一样,中国城市的家长为了帮助孩子进入重点学校,通常会聘请辅导。
A staff member at Shanghai Starriver declined to comment, except to say that the school did not accept résumés from parents as part of the admissions process. The boy’s father also declined to comment, saying he did not want to draw attention to his son.
星河湾学校的一名工作人员拒绝发表评论,只是说学校的录取程序不接受家长发的简历。男孩的父亲也拒绝评论,说他不想让人们过多地关注自己的儿子。
The competition for seats at top schools in China is notoriously cutthroat. In some cities, the wealthy and well connected pay large sums of money, sometimes described as “donations,” to secure placements in top programs.
在中国,争取被顶尖学校录取的竞争出了名的残酷。在一些城市,为确保孩子能上重点学校,富人和有关系的人会支付有时被称为“赞助费”的大笔资金。
Xiong Bingqi, deputy head of the 21st Century Education Research Institute in Beijing, said China needed to distribute education resources more evenly and to begin evaluating students on more than just test scores.
北京21世纪教育研究院副院长熊丙奇说,中国需要更平等地分配教育资源,也需要改变仅用考试成绩评估学生的做法。
“There is a competition to rank every student,” he said. “Under these circumstances, of course parents want their kids to rank in the top. Then it worsens this kind of anxious competition.”
“竞技化就是把所有学生排队,”他说。“在排队情况之下,当然家长肯定希望孩子排在最前面了,那就加剧了,就出现这种焦虑竞争。”
The boy’s résumé reads like a PowerPoint presentation, complete with growth charts and stick-figure clip art. It includes discussion of his adversity quotient and his artistic talents. It also provides details of his schedule — time for memory training, English diary class, sports and piano — and samples of his artwork, including drawings of dogs and fish.
男孩的简历读起来就像是一份PowerPoint演示文稿,上面有成长图表和简笔人物画贴图,以及对他的逆境商数和艺术才华的讨论。简历还给出了他详细的时间表——记忆训练的时间,上英文日记课、体育课和钢琴课的时间——以及他的艺术创作样品,包括他画的狗和鱼。
“I never cry when I get shots,” the résumé says. “Starting when I was a year and a half old, I would get up by myself when I fell down. Everyone praised me as brave.”
“我从小打针就不哭,”他在简历中说。“从一岁半开始,摔倒了就自己爬起来,大家都夸我勇敢。”
The résumé closes with a list of English books the boy has read, including “The Hungry Squirrel” and “Bubbles in the Sky.” It shows a picture of him with his head resting on his hand, a pensive look on his face.
简历的结尾处列出了男孩读过的英文书,包括《饥饿的松鼠》(The Hungry Squirrel)和《天空中的泡泡》(Bubbles in the Sky)。在简历上一张照片里,他手托着头,脸上露出沉思的样子。
A caption alongside a photograph of the school’s terra-cotta facade reads, “When will Shanghai Starriver open its gates to me?”
简历上还有一张星河湾赤褐色校门的照片,旁边配了一个问题:“什么时候星河湾的校门才会对我打开呢?”
本文作者赫海威(Javier C. Hernández)是《纽约时报》驻京记者。
Albee Zhang自北京,Carolyn Zhang自上海对本文有研究贡献。
翻译:Cindy Hao
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