镜中之脸—我在IB课程中学到了什么

Faces in the Mirror and What I Learnt Studying the IB Diploma

镜中之脸—我在IB课程中学到了什么

作者 Adrian Tang 译 苏媛

 这是“我们只谈K12"第十四篇原创文章，欢迎转发分享，未经公众号授权请勿转载。

作者简介：邓同学，UC Berkerley本科在读，IB 双语文凭44分考生，香港政府卓越奖学金（100万港币）2016年度首批获得者，香港地区模拟联合国负责人之一。

For the students who worked through the International Baccalaureate, I must think that it's simple to bemoan the course as a Sisyphean ordeal of myth and lore: weighed down by the nameless Rock of suffering, man's choice is to offer an empty self-congratulations or to accept his fate in absurdity with scorn. Yet I have to also think that solely the satisfaction from a difficult - if pointless - "job well done", or the defiance of Camus' heroes, is a poor excuse to spend two years of my life.

对于那些曾经熬过IB课程的学生来说，我觉得这个课程简直就是神话传说里西西弗斯承受的苦修：他每天把大石球推上山顶，然后石球照例滚落下来。遭受着苦难之石永无休止的惩罚，人类能做的无非是庆祝庆祝毫无意义的成功，或者自嘲着接受命运的荒谬。但是我必须要考虑一下，如果单单是为了那种征服困难之后巨大的满足感就用去我人生中两年宝贵的时光是不是值得：不管是听到一句“干得漂亮”的赞叹，还是终于可以比肩加缪笔下那个英雄了。

Three months graduated, I've found the IB's academic preparation of some use at University - but hardly proportionate to the effort spent acquiring it. So rather, I have to consider the entire context of the course: the social, mental and personal repercussions of a time wholly devoted to a mad rush toward top-tier universities, a shining 45 (not reached) and the No. 1 spot in, well, anything defined under 'extracurriculars'.

毕业已经三个多月了。我发觉IB教育为我的大学学习还是提供了一些帮助的，虽然这些好处跟我当年洪荒之力的付出已不成比例。不过在回顾这段教育的时候，我想我还是应该看得更全面一点儿，想想在刚刚过去的那场朝着顶尖牛校的疯狂冲刺中，IB课程对我社交，心理，和生活方方面面潜移默化的影响；想想那霞光万道的45分满分（尽管我没能拿到），和我摆在简历里各种课外活动方面的闪光点。

I come away with three lessons - about myself, not the world - the Baccalaureate taught me; of value perhaps commensurate to the time and energy spent.First, I saw a hint of the good and ugliness that follows every real-world competitive environment. You learnt to be sincerely grateful to the one Friend who would show genuine gladness at your achievements that he did not have. You learnt to accept and tolerate the scorn, jealousy, scheming, crudity and dirty elbowing of another Competitor in the race to put "Debate Champion", "Scholarship Awardee" or "Valedictorian" on the CV; for He is one with many faces.

IB教育了我三堂课。这三堂课很重要，让我认清我自己；这三堂课很重要，抵得上我付出的所有辛勤劳动。首先，在各种实实在在的竞争面前，我渐渐可以分辨出善恶美丑。你有那么好的朋友，他肯在你获得成就，他却没有获得的时候真心为你高兴。你慢慢学会感谢他们。你有各色面孔的竞争者们，在你抢着把“辩论赛冠军”，“奖学金得主”，或者“毕业典礼报告人”这类头衔放进简历的时候，他们嘲笑你，嫉妒你，引风吹火，站干岸儿，推倒油瓶不扶……你慢慢学会接受他们，原谅他们。

You'd see a little bit of yourself in them, and make a conscious decision for who - what - you wanted to be one day.

你会在他们身上看到你自己，你会做出理智的抉择：你将来要变成谁，或者什么。

Second, you learnt about your goals. Sisyphus' toil is companionless. The overriding memory I have of that time is silence: a quiet in the AM hours that spoke of a lonely isolation in your academic pursuits, aims and thoughts. As work began at 8p.m. on the full enormity of an essay or IA, the world outside would sleep: oblivious to your puny struggle, your purposes in attempting it, your little hopes forfulfilling it. It makes one at once insignificant, but a titan inside the walls of his fortress of solitude. So - with that known - we accepted our that our work would always be inconsequential, and decided to make it relevant -personally. Confirming none existed, we wrote our own Reason to labor onward.

第二堂，你明白了你的目标。西西弗斯的修行艰苦，漫长而孤独。回想我学习的经历，记忆里最深刻的词语就是孤寂。XX中学寂静的上午，孤独，勤奋学习的我，目标，和我那个时候想到的。那些日子每天早上八点我开始学习，各种论文和考试排山倒海。校园之外，世界尚在沉睡，对我们渺小的奋斗，渺小的目标，渺小的梦想，毫无察觉。这让人觉得自己卑微可怜，毫无意义，却也让人在自己的城堡里，自己的王国里，变成巨人。从某个时刻起我们下定了决心，面对工作的微不足道，我们努力创造意义；面对人生的前途未卜，我们努力迈步前行。

Third, you learnt about your decisions and how to live with them. You wrote your own schedule, planned tasks, made choices, trained and failed for competitions - all on your own willingness to make sacrifices to work. The tired faces in the mirror and the humiliation of a [30th (Last) Place] were no different - no worse - than at other times in our lives, but they were the first instance we were wholly responsible for. A few let the pressure of making decisions overwhelm them, but most came to a realization - like Camus' Sisyphus - that the Rock is of humanmaking, and the object of scorn is not destiny, parental judgement, or social expectation, but human action.

第三，你学会了如何做决定，以及如何执行它们。你制定你自己的时间表，计划你的任务，做出选择，为了竞争努力训练甚至承受失败——你心甘情愿地做出牺牲，只求成功。镜子里疲惫的面容和不时失败带来的屈辱，虽然跟往常经历过的并没有什么不同，但现在是我们人生中的第一次，对自己所有的成败得失负上全责。一些同伴被巨大的压力压倒了，但我们多数人慢慢地明白了一个道理。就像是西西弗斯那块巨石毕竟出自人造一样，值得臧否的并不是我们的命运，也不是父母替我们做出的决定，更不是社会对我们的期许，而是我们日复一日点点滴滴的那些行动。

Like so many others,I've left the Baccalaureate blinking and staring at the light: clemency is still in doubt; has the great Rock tumbled down for the final time? Surely not.Post-secondary life may certainly have cruel jests for those who saw the timeas a challenge to be surmounted once, and celebrated afterward. And so one has to believe that the two years were not squandered; that the ever-changing shapes in our mirrors - our tired, jealous, pitiful, vulnerable, regretfulfaces - were a reflection of our time, but also attestation to all that we   learnt about ourselves. Sisyphus makes neither a mockery nor a feat of his work. His is the joy of knowing, an ordeal steeped in no loftier meaning than all of his human idiocy and weakness and pride.

就像很多人一样，我已经学完了这个鸭梨山大的课程。这是一种解脱吗？我不知道……西西弗斯那块大石最后滚下山去了吗？一定没有！对于那些刚刚高中毕业就开始庆祝自己人生最困难的日子已经过去了的人，命运一定有很多残酷的玩笑在等着他们。我们要相信这最后两年的中学生活并没有虚度。我们要相信那些我们在镜子里看到的改变，我们那些疲倦的，眼里充满血丝的，令人怜悯的，羸弱的，甚至还有些悔恨的面孔，就正正是我们的这个时代的折射，也正正是我们更加了解自己的明证。西西弗斯不卑不亢地推着石头，既没有蔑视自己的工作，也没有把它认作什么功绩。他有的是因为洞悉一切而带来的快乐。这种快乐其实是一种考验，并不考验什么大的目标，而是他自己人性里的愚蠢，脆弱，和傲慢。