外籍老师看中国教育：创造力教育仍任重道远

外籍教师伊莫金·韦斯特-奈茨在中国进行5周的戏剧教学，他发现：中国正努力推行创造力教育，却有些力不从心。

In the auditorium of Beijing Bayi School, on a cold morning thick with smog, props are broken, lines unlearnt and the mechanical curtain has blown a fuse.In four hours, my cast of 22 Chinese 14-year-olds, who have never acted before, will perform Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to an audience of 1,500—in English.All their education has told them that drama is an irrelevance.As I race around the theatre, trying to track down an absent Grandpa Joe and a missing Golden Ticket I ask myself, not for the first time：what am I doing here?

寒冷而浓雾弥漫的早晨，北京市八一学校（Beijing Bayi School）的礼堂里，道具是坏的，演员忘记台词，机械大幕的保险丝也烧断了。还有四个小时，我挑选的22名没有任何表演经验的14岁中国小演员，将为1500名观众表演《查理与巧克力工厂》（Charlie and the Chocolate Factory）——用英语。他们所接受的全部教育都告诉他们，戏剧是个无关紧要的东西。当我在剧场里跑来跑去，努力寻找缺席的乔爷爷（Grandpa Joe）和无影无踪的金奖券（Golden Ticket）时，我又一次问自己：我在这儿干嘛呢？

Chinese education has increasingly been hailed as “superior” to the way we teach in the west in recent years.Its success in global tests for 15-year-olds reinforced this sense of a world tilting to the east：in the 2012 round of the Programme for International Student Assessment tests （Pisa）, Shanghai, representing China, came first in science, reading and mathematics.Fretful western governments took note, amid mounting concern that China's educational success would inevitably pave the way for economic and cultural dominance.Or, as the former UK government minister Michael Gove baldly stated when he was secretary of state for education, the UK can either “start working as hard as the Chinese, or we'll all soon be working for the Chinese”.

近年来，中国教育越来越被盛赞为“优于”西方教育方式。在2012年的国际学生评估项目（Pisa）测试中，代表中国参赛的上海地区在科学、阅读和数学三个科目中均夺得第一。中国在面向全球15岁学生的Pisa测试中的成功，更加深了世界的天平正在向东方倾斜的印象。焦虑的西方政府对此事非常重视——人们原本就日益担忧，中国教育的成功将不可避免地为其在经济和文化上取得主导地位铺平道路。换句话说，如前英国政府大臣迈克尔·戈夫（Michael Gove）在担任教育大臣时所直言，英国要么可以“开始像中国人一样努力，要么我们很快就要为中国人打工了。”

For many, the solution is simple：whatever they are doing, we need to do it too.In July last year, it was announced that 8,000 primary schools in the UK would be given funding to adopt the “mastery” maths teaching technique, the method used in China, in which students are always taught, unstreamed, as a whole class, with stronger students helping weaker ones to keep up.A BBC documentary, Are Our Kids Tough Enough? Chinese School, followed an academy in Hampshire as it turned over some of its students to a cohort of Chinese teachers, to see if they could boost results.This autumn, the first dual language English-Chinese private prep school is to open in London.

在许多人看来，解决方案很简单：无论他们做什么，我们照做就是。去年7月，有报道称英国8000所小学将获拨款，用以实行中国所使用的数学教学法——“熟练掌握”法。“熟练掌握”法教学总是整个班一起教，不按学习程度对学生进行分组，这样好学生会帮助差学生跟上进度。汉普郡的一所中学做了一个实验，将部分学生交给一群中国教师，看看他们能否提高成绩，英国广播公司（BBC）的纪录片《我们的孩子足够坚强吗？中式学校》（Are Our Kids Tough Enough? Chinese School）跟拍了这一过程。今年秋天，伦敦将开设第一所英汉双语的私立预备学校。

In the minds of many middle-class western parents, the supposed rigours of a Chinese education have taken on mythic status.The impact of Amy Chua's 2011 book, Battle Hymn of The Tiger Mother, highlighted concerns that their children are hobbled by their liberal western education, and risk being unable to compete against their hard-working Chinese peers.

在许多西方中产阶层父母心中，严格的中国教育已经成了神话。2011年蔡美儿（Amy Chua）一本《虎妈战歌》（ Battle Hymn of The Tiger Mother）造成的巨大影响，突出了西方父母的担忧——他们担心自己的孩子被自由的西方教育耽误了，面临无力与勤奋的中国同龄人竞争的风险。

这真的意味着中国教育是成功的吗？

As I can confirm from my five weeks at Bayi School last year, school days are definitely a lot longer than in the west.Older pupils started at about 7.30am and continued until 6pm, usually backed up by evening self-study classes.Most schools have classes on Saturdays, too.If they don't, middle-class parents will arrange private lessons with tutors.Asia is the fastest-growing market in the global private tuition industry, which is forecast by Global Industry Analysts to be worth nearly $200bn by 2020.Students in Shanghai also spend almost 14 hours a week on homework, close to three times the average given by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

凭借我去年在八一学校那五个星期所见，我可以肯定地说，中国学生在校时间肯定比西方孩子长得多。小学高年级学生早上7:30到校，一直待到下午6点，通常还要再上晚自习。大多数学校周六也要上课。如果学校周六不上课，中产阶层父母们就会给孩子安排课外辅导。亚洲是全球课外辅导行业增长最快的市场，据Global Industry Analysts预测，到2020年该行业的价值将接近2000亿美元。上海的学生每周要花近14个小时写家庭作业，是经合组织（OECD）平均水平的近三倍。

Classes themselves are also very different：students sit in rows of individual desks, often arranged by class ranking.In such a single-minded environment there is not much scope for creative input from the students.One day I sat in on a Chinese class, which began with pupils standing to recite the passage of literature they were studying, after which they took notes from a teacher's lecture for the duration of the lesson.This, apparently, is typical.

班级本身也很不一样，学生们坐在一排排单人书桌后，座位通常根据班级排名安排。在这种目标单一的环境里，没有太大空间让学生发挥创意。有一天我听了一堂语文课，学生们先起立背诵他们正在学习的文章片段，然后在接下来的课堂时间里记录老师的上课笔记。这显然是典型的一堂课。

Testing is frequent and rigorous, at least four times a year in every subject, in preparation for the college entrance exam, the gaokao.This annual test is the only means of gaining entry to Chinese universities and it is brutal—two exams lasting a total of nine hours, and including compulsory papers in maths, Chinese and a foreign language, with your score determining which rank of university you attend.Family investment in a student's gaokao results is enormous.

考试频繁且严格，每年每科至少考四次，为“高考”——大学入学考试——做准备。一年一度的高考是进入中国大学的唯一方法，这项考试很残酷，持续两天，共计9个小时，必考科目包括数学、语文和外语。考试分数决定了考生可以上的大学档次。家长为提高孩子的高考成绩所作出的投资是巨大的。

More than a decade ago, the Chinese Ministry of Education issued a statement denouncing the “exam-oriented education” of China.In the past few years, the ministry has introduced a policy calling for the formal encouragement of “creativity” and “innovation” in schools.The school where I taught has clearly taken heed.Among sections about a “military training that builds spirit” and “an education in Communism”, its prospectus boasts of Bayi's commitment to “encourage creative awareness and creative acts”.

十多年前，中国教育部发表声明谴责中国的“应试教育”。在过去几年里，中国教育部出台政策，呼吁在学校里正式鼓励“创造力”和“创新”。我任教的学校显然注意到了这种呼吁。除了“军魂铸人”和“共产主义教育”的部分以外，八一学校还在简介中自豪地承诺要“鼓励创新意识和创新实践”。

I had four weeks—and eight hours a week—to teach my class drama from scratch and put on a final show.It was obvious from the outset how unfamiliar the idea of a drama lesson was to them （most Chinese schools do not offer the subject）.One of the school's English teachers showed me the lecture theatre that would be my classroom, and indicated it would be perfect because there were enough desks for all of the students.She looked baffled when I said all the desks would need to be removed.

我有4周时间（每周8小时）从零开始教我的班级排演戏剧，并拿出最后的演出。显然他们从一开始就很不了解什么是戏剧课（大多数中国学校不开设这种课程）。八一学校的一位英文教师领我看了供我教学使用的大教室，并暗示称，这个教室非常完美，因为里面有足够所有学生使用的课桌。当我说所有这些课桌都需要搬出去的时候，她看起来非常困惑。

Initially, the class was very shy：silent unless instructed to be otherwise, they were especially anxious when they had to perform individually.We held informal auditions to decide on casting, which they took extremely seriously：more than one student was so nervous they found it difficult to breathe.Fortunately, they were already familiar with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, as the school had devoted two English lessons to watching the latest film adaptation in preparation.In the early rehearsals there was much concern among the students that the five-foot-nothing boy in little black spectacles whom I had cast as Willy Wonka did not sufficiently resemble Johnny Depp.His English name was Harry, chosen “to match the Prince of England”.

学生们一开始在课堂上非常害羞：他们只有在被要求发言时才会说话，在单独表演时尤其紧张。我们举行了非正式的试演来决定角色分配，这让他们感到极为紧张：不只一个学生紧张得都喘不过气来。幸运的是，他们已经熟悉了《查理与巧克力工厂》（Charlie and the Chocolate Factory），因为学校已经安排了两节英文课让他们观看这个故事最新的电影版。在早期的排练中，学生们很担心，我指定为威利·旺卡（Willy Wonka）扮演者的那个戴着黑框小眼镜、身高5英尺整的男孩不太像约翰尼·德普（Johnny Depp）。他的英文名字是哈里（Harry）——之所以起这个名是“因为英国王子也叫哈里”。

Throughout the course, form teachers repeatedly inquired about how the children were performing, and whether or not they were good.Initially I found this strange：one of the mainstays of drama classes in the west is the notion that mistakes are OK, as long as you are trying things out—an idea about as far away as you can get from Chinese educational principles.

整个课程期间，各班主任反复询问孩子们在台上表现如何，出不出色。起初我觉得这很奇怪：西方戏剧课的基础理念之一就是只要肯尝试、犯错也无所谓——这种理念与中国的教育原则可谓截然相反。

Although courses such as the one I was teaching are approved by the government, they are neatly compartmentalised and clearly separated from the usual test-driven schooling, which continued apace.It was perhaps more telling that the teachers referred to our lessons as “drama training” and, even within these lessons, the instinct to apply rote-learning was overwhelming.One of the form tutors assured me that she and her colleagues had been drilling all the students on their lines.In the corridor one afternoon I walked past her scolding Charlie Bucket for mispronouncing the words “Whipple-Scrumptious Fudgemallow Delight”.

尽管类似我在教的这类课程得到了政府的批准，它们被与那些快速推进的应试课业精心区分和明确隔离开来。也许更能说明问题的地方在于，老师们将我们的课程称为“戏剧训练”。还有就是，即使是在这些课程里，采用死记硬背办法的本能依然强大。一位班主任曾宽慰我称，她和她的同事一直在让所有学生排练他们的台词。一天下午，我在走廊里从她身旁走过时，她正在训斥“查理·巴克特”（Charlie Bucket）的饰演者，因为他把“Whipple-Scrumptious Fudgemallow Delight”（指《查理和巧克力工厂》中的高级惠普尔奶油巧克力软糖——译者注）这个词念错了。

Two hours of mentally demanding and alien activity on top of their already punishing workload began to take their toll; my students were visibly tired at the end of sessions.But their determination to make the play a success was no less intense than their approach to any other aspect of school life.One night, after a long dress rehearsal, I came back into school to collect something and found the cast, several teachers and even some parents in the auditorium, running the play without me.I went backstage where our Veruca Salt told me matter-of-factly they often did this after I had left.How late do they stay? Oh, not so late, she said.Maybe 10pm.

在已然十分沉重的课业负担之外，还要开展两小时要求精神高度集中而又充满陌生感的活动，这种状况开始产生恶果——课程结束时我的学生们明显十分疲惫。不过，他们成功表演该剧的决心，一点也不逊于他们对待学校生活其他方面的态度。一天晚上，在当天的漫长彩排后，我回学校取点东西，却发现演员们、几位教师、甚至还有部分家长都在礼堂里，在我不在场的情况下排练该剧。我走进后台，“维露卡·索尔特”（Veruca Salt）泰然自若地告诉我，他们经常在我离开后接着练。我问他们会待到多晚？她回答说，哦，不太晚，可能到10点。

北京八一学校参加《查理和巧克力工厂》演出的演员们和他们的戏剧课老师伊莫金·韦斯特-奈茨。摄影：伊莫金·韦斯特-奈茨

In the days leading up to the final show, the lead members of the cast and I were interviewed for the Bayi School TV channel.When it was my turn, the student crew wanted to know the point of doing drama.Easy enough, I thought, explaining how studies have shown that it builds confidence, enhances social skills, encourages imaginative thought and empathy, supplements understanding of literature.But the question itself underlined the chasm between two cultures：in the west, it is taken for granted that there is inherent value in studying arts subjects, cultivating creativity and independence of thought.

在正式演出前的几天里，八一校电视台（Bayi School TV channel）采访了主要演员和我。轮到我的时候，学生采访组想知道戏剧表演的意义何在。我想，这个问题很容易回答。我解释说，研究表明戏剧表演会建立自信心、提高社交技能、鼓励想象思维和同理心，增进对文学作品的理解。不过，这个问题本身凸显了两种文化的巨大差异：在西方，学习艺术类科目、培养创造力和独立思考能力的内在价值被认为是不言而喻的。

Or it used to be.The irony is that the UK places less and less value on liberal humanities, and ever-fewer resources are devoted to their teaching.Subjects that are hard to measure through results, such as art, music and drama, are a steadily declining presence on school curriculums in the UK in particular.“Just as other countries are getting it we are ungetting it,” bemoans John Kampfner, head of the UK's Creative Industries Federation.

或者说至少过去如此。讽刺之处在于，英国越来越不重视人文学科的价值，投入这类学科教学的资源越来越少。尤其是在英国，类似艺术、音乐和戏剧这样很难用结果衡量的学科，在课表中的分量正在稳步下滑。英国创意产业联合会（Creative Industries Federation）主席约翰·坎普夫纳（John Kampfner）慨叹道：“就在其他国家意识到这种价值的时候，我们却在遗忘它。”

China and the west may broadly be moving in opposite directions with regards to creativity.But the underlying reasons are the same, and they are economic.Western governments think they are protecting their interests by changing their education so that western citizens don't end up “working for the Chinese”, as Mr Gove put it.The Chinese, meanwhile, are seeking to learn how to be more innovative, primarily as a means to boost their economy.Jiang Xueqin, a Beijing-based education researcher and writer, tells me that a drive for creativity in Chinese education translates primarily into encouraging innovation in a business and scientific context.“Unfortunately, the government interprets creativity in very narrow terms,” he says.

在创造力方面，中国和西方可能正朝着相反的方向前进。但潜在原因是相同的，都是出于经济考虑。西方政府认为，它们是在通过改革教育维护本国利益，这种改革的目的是让西方公民不会像戈夫所说的那样，到头来“为中国人打工”。与此同时，中国正寻求学习如何更具创新性，主要是作为促进经济的一种手段。北京教育研究者和作家江学勤告诉我，中国教育中推动创新的行动主要转化为鼓励商业和科技领域的创新。“遗憾的是，政府对创新的定义非常狭隘，”他说。

Foreign Policy网站在一篇名为《为什么中国人缺少创造力》（‘Why Do Chinese Lack Creativity?'）中引用翻译了知乎用户的回答，表示中国人不是缺少创造力，而是这种创造力没有影响力。其中列出了以下原因：

Photo Credit：Zhihu user

First, our innovations lack depth.Products such as the cigarette case/cell phone are what we can call combination-type innovation, simply merging the functions of two different products.It's using someone else's advanced technology in different circumstances.This kind of innovation has no technological barriers and is easily recreated or even surpassed by others.It relies on novelty to occupy a market; as soon as someone else does the same thing but with better execution, the market will quickly shrivel and price wars ensue.

首先，我们的创新缺少深度：类似上面的烟盒手机的产品是我们所称的组合型创新，只是简单的把两个产品的功能组合在一起。这种创新就是别人有一个先进技术，我们拿来用在一个某个特殊场合。这种没有深度一拍脑袋就能想到的创新，没有任何技术壁垒也很容易被别人复制甚至超越。这种缺乏深度的创新先驱可以一下子凭借新鲜劲占领某个市场，但是当别人的执行力更好，做出更精致的产品时，市场就迅速萎缩只有靠拼价格在低层次上竞争了。

In addition, our creativity has not reached industrial scale.An industry must reach a certain size before it can mobilize large-scale participation by outside enterprises such as chip, software, and interface design and algorithm research.Again using the cigarette case mobile phone as an example, we see that such an invention does not have any lasting influence on the further development of either cell phones or cigarette cases.With only this kind of superficial innovation, it's impossible to construct an expansive industrial system, take the mobile phone industry to the next level, or draw more diverse companies into the cigarette case cell phone market （if this market actually exists）.

此外，我们的创新没有形成产业规模。一个产业只有达到一定规模，带动上下游从算法研究、芯片设计、软件设计、外观设计、界面设计等各个领域的大量优秀企业参与，才能成为有纵深有影响力的创新。还是以上面的香烟盒手机为例，可以想见这种创新不会对手机的发展、香烟盒的发展产生任何深远的影响。因为这种孤零零一个点的创新，构不成一个庞大有纵深的产业生态系统，无法带动手机业上一个台阶，也无法带动更多的别的厂商加入这样一个香烟盒手机市场（如果这个市场真的存在）。

We lack an environment conducive to creativity. Innovation is not something that a single person can accomplish by just closing the door and thinking hard.But Chinese are not good at using lively debate to turn a spark of originality into a developed idea, and Chinese companies aren't skilled at using cooperation and competition, or “coopetition,”to innovate.Through cultural and political influence, we have developed the habit of forming alliances with each other, rather than engaging in coopetition driven by profit.

我们缺少有利于创新的环境：当今社会的创新很少是一个人闭门冥思苦想就可以做出的。但是中国人不擅长通过热烈的讨论把一些创新的火花逐渐做成有深度的创意，其次中国的企业也不擅长通过合作竞争做成一个创新。长期文化和政治生活的影响，让我们养成了习惯基于立场驱动的联盟，而不是利益驱动的合作竞争。

词汇总结

auditorium[ˌɔ:dɪˈtɔ:riəm]

n.观众席，听众席;礼堂，会堂

In the auditorium of Beijing Bayi School, on a cold morning thick with smog, props are broken, lines unlearnt and the mechanical curtain has blown a fuse.

寒冷而浓雾弥漫的早晨，北京市八一学校（Beijing Bayi School）的礼堂里，道具是坏的，演员忘记台词，机械大幕的保险丝也烧断了。

hail[heɪl]

n.冰雹;一阵

vi.下冰雹;如冰雹般地降下

vt.致敬;打招呼;打信号示意（计程车等）停下;赞扬（或称颂）…为（尤用于报章等）

vt.（牌戏）出王牌赢（一牌或一墩）

Chinese education has increasingly been hailed as “superior” to the way we teach in the west in recent years.

近年来，中国教育越来越被盛赞为“优于”西方教育方式。

amid[əˈmɪd]

prep.（表示位置）在…中间;（表示环境）处于…环境中;由于存在…情况;（表示让步）尽管有…的情况

in the 2012 round of the Programme for International Student Assessment tests （Pisa）, Shanghai, representing China, came first in science, reading and mathematics.Fretful western governments took note, amid mounting concern that China's educational success would inevitably pave the way for economic and cultural dominance.

中国在面向全球15岁学生的Pisa测试中的成功，更加深了世界的天平正在向东方倾斜的印象。焦虑的西方政府对此事非常重视——人们原本就日益担忧，中国教育的成功将不可避免地为其在经济和文化上取得主导地位铺平道路。

middle-class

adj.

中层社会的，中产阶级的

In the minds of many middle-class western parents, the supposed rigours of a Chinese education have taken on mythic status.

在许多西方中产阶层父母心中，严格的中国教育已经成了神话。

single-minded[ˈsɪŋgəlˈmaɪndɪd]

adj.专一的;坚定的;诚心的;纯真的

In such a single-minded environment there is not much scope for creative input from the students.

英国国家博物馆展示了虚拟现实体验技术。