【TED演讲98】寒门学子需要克服障碍 演说者：Anindya Kundu​

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比起家境好或是条件好的同学，家境不好或是一般的学生在学校里面需要面对的可能就不单单是学业问题，还需要面对其他方面的差距。那么寒门学子怎么做才有逆袭，或是出人头地的机会呢？光靠努力就够了吗，来听听社会学家是怎么分析的吧。

演说题目：

The boost students need to overcome obstacles

寒门学子需要克服障碍 演说者：Anindya Kundu

中英对照演讲稿

So, I teach college students about inequality and race in education, and I like to leave my office open to any of my students who might just want to see me to chat. And a few semesters ago, one of my more cheerful students, Mahari, actually came to see me and mentioned that he was feeling a bit like an outcast because he's black. He had just transferred to NYU from a community college on a merit scholarship, and turns out, only about five percent of students at NYU are black. And so I started to remember that I know that feeling of being an outsider in your own community. It's partially what drew me to my work.

我在学校教授在教育界中的不公平和种族问题。我办公室的大门总是向想见我、想和我聊天的学生敞开。几个学期之前， 我的一个非常开朗的学生，马哈里来到我的办公室， 提到了他在学校感觉到有些被排斥，因为他是黑人。他刚刚带着优秀生奖学金从一个社区大学转学到纽约大学， 结果发现在纽约大学，只有5%的学生是黑人。于是我开始想起，我知道在自己的社区，作为一个局外人的那种感觉。那也是我在这个领域工作的一部分原因。

At my university, I'm one of the few faculty members of color, and growing up, I experienced my family's social mobility, moving out of apartments into a nice house, but in an overwhelmingly white neighborhood. I was 12, and kids would say that were surprised that I didn't smell like curry.

在我的学校， 我是少数有色人种的教职工之一， 在长大的过程中，我经历了家庭的社会流动性， 从一个公寓搬到一个很漂亮的房子， 但是这个居住区的居民绝大多数是白人。我12岁， 那时的小孩会跟我说， 他们很惊讶我闻起来没有咖喱味。

That's because school is in the morning, and I had Eggo waffles for breakfast.

那是因为我们只有上午上学， 而我的早餐是鸡蛋和华夫饼。

Curry is for dinner.

晚上才吃咖喱。

So when Mahari was leaving, I asked him how he was coping with feeling isolated. And he said that despite feeling lonely, he just threw himself at his work, that he built strategies around his grit and his desire to be successful. A mentor of mine is actually Dr. Angela Duckworth, the psychologist at UPenn who has defined this stick-to-itiveness of grit as being "the perseverance and passion for long-term goals." Angela's book has become a bestseller, and schools across the country, particularly charter schools, have become interested in citing "grit" as a core value. But sometimes grit isn't enough, especially in education. So when Mahari was leaving my office, I worried that he might need something more specific to combat the challenges that he mentioned to me.

当马哈里准备离开的时候， 我问他，他是如何处理这种被孤立的感觉的。他告诉我尽管感觉到很孤独， 但他会将自己沉浸在工作中， 他的策略是建立在他的韧性和对成功的追求之上。我的一个导师是安琪拉 · 达克沃斯 （Angela Duckworth）博士， 宾州大学的心理学家， 她对韧性的定义是 “为了实现长期目标 所怀有的坚持和激情”。安琪拉的书成为了畅销书， 全国范围内的学校， 尤其是特许学校， 开始热衷于引用“韧性” 作为其办学的核心价值。但有时候光有韧性是不够的， 尤其是在教育界中。所以当马哈里离开我办公室的时候， 我依然担心他可能需要一些更具体的东西， 去应对他所提到的挑战。

As a sociologist, I also study achievement, but from a slightly different perspective. I research students who have overcome immense obstacles related to their background. Students from low-income, often single-parent households, students who have been homeless, incarcerated or perhaps undocumented, or some who have struggled with substance abuse or lived through violent or sexual trauma.

作为一个社会学家， 我也会研究个人成就， 但是是从一个稍微不同的角度。我对克服巨大障碍的学生做了研究， 并将这些障碍和他们的 背景联系起来。来自低收入家庭的学生， 还有来自单亲家庭的孩子，那些没有家的，曾待过监狱的，或者没有合法身份的学生，或者是曾遭受过虐待， 亦或者是经受暴力 或者性侵犯创伤的学生。

So let me tell you about two of the grittiest people I've met. Tyrique was raised by a single mother, and then after high school, he fell in with the wrong crowd. He got arrested for armed robbery. But in prison, he started to work hard. He took college credit courses, so when he got out, he was able to get a master's, and today he's a manager at a nonprofit. Vanessa had to move around a lot as a kid, from the Lower East Side to Staten Island to the Bronx. She was raised primarily by her extended family, because her own mother had a heroin addiction. Yet at 15, Vanessa had to drop out of school, and she had a son of her own. But eventually, she was able to go to community college, get her associate's, then go to an elite college to finish her bachelor's.

让我来说说我见过的两个最有韧性的学生。泰瑞克被单身妈妈带大，高中毕业之后，他开始走上了歧途。他因为持武器抢劫被捕。但是在监狱里，他开始努力工作。他上了一些提供有效学分的大学课程，所以当他从监狱里出来的时候，就可以拿到一个硕士学位，现在他是一个非盈利组织的经理。维纳赛在小的时候经常搬家，从曼哈顿的东区到史泰登岛，再到布朗克斯。她主要是由大家庭带大，因为她的生母有毒瘾。然而在15岁的时候，维纳赛不得不退学，她有了一个儿子。但最终，她去了社区大学， 拿到了副学士学位。然后她去了一所精英大学，完成了学士学位。

So some people might hear these stories and say, "Yes, those two definitely have grit. They basically pulled themselves up by the bootstraps." But that's an incomplete picture, because what's more important is that they had factors in their lives that helped to influence their agency, or their specific capacity to actually overcome the obstacles that they were facing and navigate the system given their circumstances.

有些人听到这些故事也许会说， “是的，这两个人绝对是坚韧的范例。他们基本上是白手起家。” 但这并不是故事的全部，因为更重要的是 在生命中有帮助影响他们环境资源的因素， 或者他们有某种特殊的能力，能够克服他们所面对的障碍，依据他们自身的情况 找到正确的道路。

So, allow me to elaborate. In prison, Tyrique was actually aimless at first, as a 22-year-old on Rikers Island. This is until an older detainee took him aside and asked him to help with the youth program. And in mentoring youth, he started to see his own mistakes and possibilities in the teens. This is what got him interested in taking college-credit courses. And when he got out, he got a job with Fortune Society, where many executives are people who have been formerly incarcerated. So then he was able to get a master's in social work, and today, he even lectures at Columbia about prison reform. And Vanessa ... well, after the birth of her son, she happened to find a program called Vocational Foundation that gave her 20 dollars biweekly, a MetroCard and her first experiences with a computer. These simple resources are what helped her get her GED, but then she suffered from a very serious kidney failure, which was particularly problematic because she was only born with one kidney. 

那么让我来澄清一下。作为一个22岁的雷克斯岛的学生， 刚进监狱的时候， 泰瑞克并没有明确的目标。直到后来一个被拘留者 将他拉到一边， 要求他一起参与一个青年项目。在给年轻人作导师的过程中， 他开始意识到自己在青少年时期所犯的错误，以及所面对的可能性。这使他开始对上提供学分的 大学课程产生了兴趣。刑满释放后， 他在“福利社会”得到了一个工作， 那里的很多执行官都有过 被正式拘留的经历。他后来通过努力拿到了 社会工作的硕士学位， 而今天，他甚至会在哥伦比亚大学 做关于监狱改革的演讲。再看看维纳塞，在她儿子出生之后，她偶然找到一个叫作 职业基金的项目， 可以获得40美金的周薪， 一张交通卡， 以及从零开始学电脑的经历。正是这些简单的资源 帮助她获得了高中水平的教育。但是后来她又患上了 非常严重的肾衰竭， 这个问题对她来说尤为严重， 因为她出生时只有一个肾。

She spent 10 years on dialysis waiting for a successful transplant. After that, her mentors at community college had kept in touch with her, and so she was able to go, and they put her in an honors program. And that's the pathway that allowed her to become accepted to one of the most elite colleges for women in the country, and she received her bachelor's at 36, setting an incredible example for her young son.

她做了十年的透析，只为等待一个成功的移植手术。在那之后，由于她在社区大学的导师一直与她保持联系， 于是她能够参与他们为她安排的荣誉项目。正是这个渠道帮助她进入了对于女性来说全国最精英的大学之一，她在36岁的时候拿到了学士学位，为她年轻的儿子树立了一个不可思议的榜样。

What these stories primarily indicate is that teaching is social and benefits from social scaffolding. There were factors pushing these two in one direction, but through tailored mentorship and opportunities, they were able to reflect on their circumstances and resist negative influences. They also learned simple skills like developing a network, or asking for help -- things many of us in this room can forget that we have needed from time to time, or can take for granted.

这些故事主要暗示的是，育人是一个社会行为，而且能从社会框架中收益。有一些因素在推动，这两个人朝着同一方向前进，但是他们各自遇到的导师和机会却因人而异，他们能够反省自己的处境，拒绝消极的影响。他们也学到了简单的技能，比如发展人脉，或者寻求帮助—— 这些是我们在场的很多人 经常需要，却很容易忘记，或者认为理所当然的。

And when we think of people like this, we should only think of them as exceptional, but not as exceptions. Thinking of them as exceptions absolves us of the collective responsibility to help students in similar situations. When Presidents Bush, Obama and now even Trump, have called education "the civil rights issue of our time," perhaps we should treat it that way. If schools were able to think about the agency that their students have and bring to the table when they push them, what students learn can become more relevant to their lives, and then they can tap into those internal reservoirs of grit and character.

当我们想到这样的人的时候，我们应该只认为他们 是出色的，而不是个例。把他们当作个例， 就等于免除了我们帮助在相似处境中的学生的集体责任。当总统布什，奥巴马以及现在的特朗普， 都把教育称作 “我们时代的民权问题”， 也许我们的确应该这样做。如果学校能够想到 他们的学生所拥有的环境资源， 当他们推动学生进步的时候，将这一因素放到台面上，学生所学习的技能就可以 与他们的生活更息息相关，这样一来他们就可以实现 更深层的韧性和性格。

So this here -- My student Mahari got accepted to law school with scholarships, and not to brag, but I did write one of his letters of recommendation.

那么这是—— 我的学生马哈里， 被法学院录取，还获得了奖学金，我并不是在炫耀，但我确实是他的推荐人之一。

And even though I know hard work is what got him this achievement, I've seen him find his voice along the way, which as someone who's grown up a little bit shy and awkward, I know it takes time and support. So even though he will rely a lot on his grit to get him through that first-year law school grind, I'll be there as a mentor for him, check in with him from time to time, maybe take him out to get some curry ...

即使我知道是辛勤工作使得他有了今天的成就，我也曾目睹他一路上如何找到了自己的声音，作为一个在长大过程中有一点害羞和古怪的人，我知道这需要时间和支持。所以即使他需要经常 依赖他的韧性，才能艰难地度过 在法学院的第一年，我会始终作为他的导师， 时不时地跟进他的状态， 也许带他去尝尝咖喱……

so that he can keep growing his agency to succeed even more.

帮助他不断扩充身边的资源， 从而取得更大的成功。

Thank you.

谢谢。