評論
打印
But in western agriculture, the opposite is true. Unless the field is that left fallow every few years, the soil becomes exhausted. Every winter, fields are empty.
但是在西方的農作習慣中，情況剛好相反。每隔幾年土地就得閑置一下，否則就認為會被透支，所以每個冬天，土地都被空置著。
The hard labor of spring planting and fall harvesting is followed, like clockwork, by the slower pace of summer and winter.
春天的播種和接下來的秋收是勞動強度最大的時候，人們像是在和時間賽跑，但到了夏天和冬天就可以放慢速度。
This is the logic the reformers applied to the cultivation of young minds.
這個邏輯被改革家應用于年輕思想的改造。
We formulate new ideas by analogy, working from what we know towards where we don't, and what the reformers knew were the reasons of the agricultural seasons.
我們用同理可證的方式來闡述新觀點，從我們已知的事情推測我們未知的。
A mind must be cultivated. But not too much, lest it be exhausted. And what was the remedy for the dangers of exhaustion?
改革家們知道可以依照農作季節的節奏來改進，那么補救透支危機的方法又是什么呢？
The long summer vacation—a peculiar and distinctive American legacy that has had profound consequences for the learning patterns of the students of the present day.
長的暑假——一個與眾不同的美國傳統，這個傳統已經在現代學生的學習模式上得到意義深遠的證實。
Summer vacation is a topic seldom mentioned in American educational debates.
在美國教育界的爭論中，暑假很少被提及，
It is considered a permanent and inviolate feature of school life, like highschool football or the senior prom.
它被認為是學校生活中永不改變的特色，就像高中的足球比賽以及畢業舞會一樣。
But let's consider a set of elementary school test-score results, and see if our faith in the value of long summer holidays isn't profoundly shaken.
但是我們研究一下小學每個年級的考試成績，之后再看看你對暑期長假的信心是否還在。
These test-scores come from research led by the Johns Hopkins University sociologist Karl Alexander.
約翰·霍普金斯大學的社會學家卡爾·亞歷山大研究得出以下這些數據。
Alexander tracked the progress of 650 first graders from the Baltimore public school system, looking at how they scored on a widely used math and reading skills exam called the California Achievement Test.
亞歷山大對650名首批從巴爾的摩公立學校畢業的學生進行跟蹤調查，著重分析他們在數學和閱讀技能測試中的成績，這個測試使用的是加利福尼亞的試卷。
The scores we're going to consider are for the first five years of elementary school, broken down by social economic class—lower, middle, and high.
如下是小學前5個年級的學生閱讀成績，引用的是社會經濟學中的分類方法——低，中，高三個級別。
If you look at the test-score results, what you find is that students from all three social economic classes start in first grade with meaningful, but not overwhelming, differences in their knowledge and ability.
看第一列學生。學生滿腹熱情地開始了一年級的學習，但這不足以改變他們在知識和能力上的不同。
