金融时报:在家办学的“虎妈”
在家办学的“虎妈”
海量的作业和无尽的应试，让越来越多的中国家长想方设法让孩子避免接受这种教育。在上海，有位母亲尝试了在家办学的模式，这是怎么个办学法？她让孩子学些什么？这么办行吗？
测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：
grueling ['ɡruəliŋ] 折磨人的
patio['pætiəu] 露台，天井
fondle ['fɒnd(ə)l] 抚弄
rote [rəʊt] 死记硬背，生搬硬套
Ching [tʃiŋ] 《易经》
pampering 纵容，溺爱
playground politics 操场政治，指孩子们在操场进行的拉帮结派等活动
calligraphy [kə'lɪgrəfɪ] 书法
Harridan ['hærɪd(ə)n] 脾气暴躁的老妇人
Homely lessons from a Tiger Mum (803 words)
By Patti Waldmeir in Shanghai
Cao Qing is home-schooling her 13-year-old son because, among other things, “he doesn't like homework”.
In the land of the midnight homework project, the average teenager's distaste for homework would not normally give Tiger Mum pause. Most Chinese children learn early to sacrifice playtime and sleeptime on the altar of schoolwork: kids who do not excel in primary school fail to get into the middle school that gets them into the high school that guarantees the right university entrance scores. School is a serious business in China, right from the beginning.
So who cares if the offspring hate homework? Is that not part of the human condition – not just in China, but around the world?
Ms Cao is one of an increasing number of Chinese parents who no longer think suffering is a necessary condition of academic success.
“The school gives too much homework,” she says, as an autumn breeze blows through the open patio door of the walk-up duplex flat she rents in a Shanghai suburb to use as a home-schooling base for her son, Zhou Yi. “Besides, he's a boy, and boys like to play, they don't like to sit still for a long time,” she says, adding: “They can't just get all their knowledge from textbooks.” Our chat is obviously distracting the boy in question, who pops up from his studies at the nearby kitchen table and goes off to fondle the family's newborn kitten and fetch his beetle collection for us to admire.
Schools teach children in bulk, and it's not suitable for every child, Ms Cao says, adding that “each one has a different talent, and is good at different things. I don't think the rigid education in school suits my son.”
Plenty of Tiger Mums and Dads around China agree with her on that one: China's education system is geared to helping millions of children each year pass the selfsame exam, the dreaded gaokao or university entrance test, widely faulted even in China for requiring too much rote learning of irrelevant content. Many families are so desperate to avoid the gaokao that they send their children abroad to study, at an earlier and earlier age.
But instead of sending Zhou Yi to board in Europe or the US, Ms Cao, a former fashion designer, takes him to the swimming pool at lunchtime to give him a practical lesson in the principles of flotation (which he has just finished studying in a textbook). And every day, two hours are devoted to the study and interpretation of ancient Chinese texts. “Schools do not pay attention to traditional Chinese culture, especially the classics from Confucius and other Chinese philosophers,” she says. “They are the essence of Chinese culture and as a Chinese person, my son must be familiar with them.”
Ms Cao says that day's text was I Ching, the Book of Changes, one of the oldest (and hardest to parse) of the Chinese classics. I make a mental note to pull out I Ching whenever my teens complain about homework: they would prefer a week of schoolwork to spending even five minutes reciting that with me over the kitchen table.
And what about the social training that comes with all that schoolwork? There are many things that China's one-child generation arguably needs less of: calories, electronic games and pampering from parents, to name a few. But less time spent with children their own age would not normally figure at the top of the list.
Employers complain that China's only children are spoiled, selfish and bad at teamwork. With no siblings to cut their teeth on – and six doting adults devoted to each of them (mum, dad and two sets of grandparents) – they should arguably spend more time playing playground politics, and less piano.
Ms Cao says her son is naturally sociable, but just in case she has added the 10-year-old child of a friend to their home schoolroom. The schoolday starts with morning exercises, then six hours of lessons punctuated by an hour of free time on the internet at midday, a swim and an hour of calligraphy every evening. No piano, no violin – all in all, a lot less time than he used to spend on schoolwork, she says. And learning about insects – which Zhou Yi wants to make his life's vocation – “he can do in his own time”.
The only drawback: “Parents who home-school don't have teachers to blame if the child doesn't do well,” she says. “It's a big responsibility,” But at least this way, Tiger Mum does not also have to play the part of Homework Harridan. Although reciting I Ching while peeling potatoes must take some practice.
请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：
1.Mrs. Cao designed a curriculum for his 13-year-old son, which of the following is not on it?
A.Caligraphy.
B.Swimming.
C.English.
D.Ching.
答案(1)
2.Who say(s) that “China's only children are spoiled, selfish and bad at teamwork”?
A.Employers.
B.Teachers.
C.Foreigners.
D.Universities.
答案(2)
3.With no siblings to cut their teeth on – and six doting adults devoted to each of them…What does the highlighted phrase mean?
A.Without brothers and sisters bullying them.
B.Without siblings' help when bullied by other children.
C.Without siblings helping and accompanying them .
D.Without brothers and sisters helping raising them.
答案(3)
4.How does the writer think about the Chinese mother's idea of homeschooling?
A.Brilliant.
B.Rediculous.
C.Making a fuss.
D.She does not imply.
答案(4)
* * *
(1)答案：C.English.
解释：ACD都是Cao Qing给儿子安排的课程。母亲还尤其强调，学校对中国传统文化的关注太少，尤其是孔子等人的哲学。 she says. “They are the essence of Chinese culture and as a Chinese person, my son must be familiar with them.”
(2)答案：A.Employers.
解释：这句话在倒数第三段。
(3)答案：C.Without siblings helping and accompanying them.
解释：这个说法的意思是没有人帮助他们获得生活经验。
(4)答案：D.She does not imply.
解释：作者一方面赞同学校的应试教育弊端很多，但是并不确定这种做法会有好效果。她说，我可以在孩子们抱怨作业多的时候拿出《易经》来吓他们：他们宁愿做一个星期的作业也不愿背诵五分钟的《易经》。
