I never thought I’d have to come to China for a breath of fresh air.
我从没想过我会为了呼吸一口新鲜空气而来中国。
But that is exactly what I got last week by traveling to the China-Myanmar border area to visit Chinese village schools with the leaders of Teach for All, the network of 32 countries that have adopted the Teach for America model of recruiting highly motivated college graduates to work in their country’s most underprivileged schools. What was so refreshing about spending four days with leaders of Teach for Lebanon, Teach for China, Teach for India and all the others was the fact that, since 9/11, I’ve spent so much time writing about people who are breaking things and so little time covering people who are making things. This was a week with the makers.
但上周同美丽世界(Teach for All)的领导者一起到中缅边境地区参观中国农村学校，我得到的正是这个。全球教育行动是一个覆盖32个国家的组织，这些国家采用美丽美国(Teach for America)的运行模式，招募有着极高热情的大学毕业生，到他们国家最贫困的学校工作。美丽黎巴嫩、美丽中国、美丽印度以及所有其他分支机构的领导者相处的四天令人精神振奋，原因就在于：9·11之后，我花了很多时间写有关破坏者的故事，却没怎么花时间写那些进行创造的人。而上周正是我和创造者相处的一周。
Indeed, I could not help but remark to Wendy Kopp, the founder of Teach for America and C.E.O. of Teach for All, that Teach for All is “the anti-Al Qaeda.” It is a loose global network of locally run teams of teachers, who share best practices and target young people in support of a single goal. But while Al Qaeda and its affiliates try to inspire and enable young people to be breakers, Teach for All tries to inspire and enable them to be makers. Yes, plenty of terrorists are also well educated, but their ability to resonate and enlist followers diminishes the more people around them have the tools to realize their full potential.
事实上，我忍不住对美丽美国创始人、美丽世界首席执行官温迪·科普(Wendy Kopp)说，美丽世界就是一个“反基地组织”。它是一个松散的全球组织，拥有在当地运行的教师群体，他们分享最好的经验，并招募那些支持一个共同目标的年轻人。不过，基地组织和其附属机构在试图鼓励并帮助年轻人成为破坏者，而美丽世界却在努力让这些人成为创造者。是的，很多恐怖分子也受过良好教育，但随着他们周围有更多人拥有了充分发挥潜能的工具，这些恐怖分子在其追随者中引起共鸣并将他们招致麾下的能力就被削弱了。
Groups like Teach for China, which hosted the Teach for All network at village schools here, are too new to determine whether they can make a difference in helping their lowest-performing schools succeed. But if raw idealism and willingness to take up the hardest challenges count for anything, you have to be hopeful. Traveling here last week was like spending four days with 32 Malala Yousafzais from 32 different nations.
负责美丽世界在当地农村学校运转的美丽中国等组织都刚成立不久，还不能确定它们是否能发挥重要作用，在帮助自己国家表现最落后的学校取得成功。但是，如果你觉得用单纯的理想主义和意志去对抗最艰难的挑战是有意义的，你就应该保持乐观。上周在这里的旅行，感觉就像是和来自32个不同国家的32位马拉拉·优萨福扎伊(Malala Yousafzai)相处了四天。
Lu Li, 23, who graduated from the University of South Carolina in May, returned home to teach math as a Teach for China fellow here. It was not easy, she said: “My parents could not understand the choice I made” after getting a degree. “They have never been exposed to this sort of community service. They are kind people, but they don’t think it is necessary to go to rural China to do education for two years, and, especially as a girl, my father expects me to marry. ... My father is still struggling to understand my choice. I want to work hard and show him that my choice is right.”
23岁的李璐（音译）5月刚从南卡罗来纳大学(University of South Carolina)毕业，回国后加入了美丽中国，来到这里教数学。她说这并不容易，“父母不明白，我都拿了大学文凭，为什么还要做这个。他们从来没接触过类似的社区服务。他们很善良，但觉得到中国农村做两年教育工作没有必要，而且，尤其作为女孩，父亲希望我赶紧结婚。……我父亲还无法理解我的决定。我想努力工作，向他证明我的选择是对的。”
Sandeep Rai, 28, is an Indian-American who did Teach for America in Washington, D.C., and then became a leader of Teach for India. “In India, we’ve had 750 fellows sign up [to teach] this year, and when we started in 2009, people said you will not get anyone to sign up. It is a testament to the power of building things. I think people are waiting to be inspired. National governments have not figured out how to tap into the idealism of young people. I thought that after two years I would be in and out, and eight years later I’m still here.”
28岁的印度裔美国人桑迪普·拉伊(Sandeep Rai)在美丽美国的华盛顿分支工作，后来成了美丽印度的一名领导者。“今年在印度，我们有750名志愿者加入（教学行动），而在2009年刚开始时，人们都说肯定不会有人加入。这证明了创造的力量。我觉得人们都是期待着受到激发的。政府还不知道怎么开发年轻人的理想主义潜能。我原来想可能待两年就走了，但八年后，我还在这儿。”
Mohammed Fakhroo, 28, of Teach for Qatar said he started his organization because average students in Qatar are three years behind their peers in industrialized nations. With so much oil and gas money in their country, many Qataris believe they don’t need education to be prosperous. “Teachers in the Arab world come from the bottom third of their classes,” he explained. “If you weren’t smart, you became a teacher. ... Our theory of change is that by getting the smartest in our society — who would [normally] go into the oil and gas sector — to become teachers, they will be the new role models and be advocates for changing the norms” because Qatar will eventually need “a knowledge-based society.”
美丽卡塔尔的穆罕默德·法赫鲁(Mohammed Fakhroo)现年28岁，他说他起初之所以创立这个组织是因为，卡塔尔学生的平均教育水平比发达国家的同龄人落后了三年。石油和天然气为这个国家带来了巨大财富，很多卡塔尔人因此认为他们不需要教育也能繁荣发展。“阿拉伯国家的老师来自当地地位最低的三个阶层，”法赫鲁解释道。“如果一个人不够聪明，他就会去当老师。……我们关于改变的理论是，如果社会里最聪明的那些人——（正常情况下），他们会进入石油天然气领域——能去当老师，他们就会树立新的榜样，成为改变规则的倡导者，”因为卡塔尔终归需要“一个知识社会”。
Franco Mosso, 27, the founder of Teach for Peru, EnseñaPerú, told me: “What I see in my own country is a lack of belief” in the potential of the less advantaged people. His group, he explained, is built on the principle of “always pushing the bar higher in believing in people, that they all have potential.”
美丽秘鲁(Enseña Perú)的创始人、27岁的弗兰科·莫索(Franco Mosso)对我说：“在我的国家，我看到人们不相信条件不那么优越的人有潜能。”而莫索解释道，他所在的组织建立在这样一个原则的基础之上：“一直不断提高对人的信任，相信所有人都有潜力”。
Alden DiIanni-Morton, 24, a Dartmouth graduate, is working as a program manager for Teach for China. She grew up in Chinatown in Boston. “I could have stayed in the U.S.,” she said, “but I think there is a huge interest in making educational equity a global question.” Issues like the environment, poverty and educational equity need to be thought of as global problems, “because everyone everywhere” will be impacted by them “if they’re not addressed.”
24岁的习爱丹(Alden DiIanni-Morton)毕业于达特茅斯学院(Dartmouth)，是美丽中国的一名项目主管。她在波士顿的中国城长大。“我本来可以留在美国，”她说，“但我认为在全球环境下探讨教育平等有重大的意义。”环境、贫困，以及教育平等这些问题都需要当做全球性问题对待，“因为如果这些问题得不到解决”，会影响到“所有地方的所有人”。
No one has to tell that to Khalil Youssef, one of the founders of Teach for Lebanon: “It is no coincidence that the most deprived and marginalized regions in Lebanon — and the world — are prone to adopt rejectionist, politically dogmatized, violent politics,” he says. “Good education and building high-quality human capital are the sine qua nons for good integration in society and access to a respectable life.”
美丽黎巴嫩创始人之一哈利勒·优素福(Khalil Youssef)对此再了解不过了：“黎巴嫩——乃至全世界——最贫困、最边缘化的地区很容易采取不具包容性、囿于教条，而且倚仗暴力的政治，这并非巧合，”优素福说。“良好的教育、建立高质量的人力资本是促进社会良性融合的必要条件，也是通向体面生活的途经。”
Which is why, concludes Kopp, investing in smart schools and kids pays so many more dividends than smart bombs. Education, she notes, is the only constructive force that’s universal and powerful enough to make a difference in reversing the biggest global threats.
这就是为什么，科普总结道，投资于好的学校和优秀的孩子，所能得到的远远多于智能炸弹。教育，科普指出，是唯一一种足够普适、足够强大，有助于彻底改变最严重的全球威胁的建设性力量。
本文发表于纽约时报中文网
原文地址：http://qqenglish.com/bn/1438.htm