One of the things teachers dread is to have charge of a class dominated by a large, stupid, bullying boy. David Horsey gives such a young brute truly nightmarish proportions in today's cartoon: so large he barely fits in the room.

　　The teacher in the cartoon is trying to interest her pupils in a violin. There are a host of ways in which to think about a violin: how it is played, the sounds it makes, how it makes those sounds, what objects it resembles, the kind of music that one can play on it, the music that has been composed for it, how the violin was crafted, who produced it and why and for whom, the historical origin of the violin, its beauty as an object, attitudes toward violins and violin music, etc. The violin is a consummate tool for stimulating curiosity and speculation, for encouraging experiment, for exciting wonder, for training taste. And such undertakings as these are fundamental to the best Western notion of education, just as important as the mastery of facts. Facts are important, but facts are also dead in themselves. Good education must include giving children experience in using facts to explore the unknown, in groups and on their own, and also to formulate opinions and impressions, and to refine and defend them in debate.

　　But progress in such matters as imagination, creativity and responsiveness cannot easily be tested, at least not numerically, whereas success in memorizing facts, however briefly, can be measured in neat ways very satisfying to bureaucrats. Now President Bush has promised to improve American primary education, and most observers would agree that it needs improvement. He sides with the people who emphasize the use of tests to guarantee that pupils are reaching certain minimums in math and reading. That is the approach taken in the "No Child Left Behind" Act passed by Congress early in the Bush presidency: mandatory testing of children and schools, with published results for the schools and punitive measures for underperformers.

　　But Horsey sympathizes with teachers who complain that teaching to tests has little to do with true education. Education in facts is easy to organize; education for life - in using all the capacities of one's mind to meet the challenges of life - is an art that bureaucrats, like the class bully, know nothing about and want to hear nothing of.




从漫画“不考的就别教”看初等教育
　　当老师最怕的就是班里让一个四肢发达头脑简单而且欺负弱小的浑小子占了上风。漫画家戴维-霍尔西在今天的漫画中就画了这样一个小混球，他的体态真是可怕：大得几乎占满了教室。

　　漫画中的老师正试图引起学生对小提琴的兴趣。关于小提琴，可以从很多很多角度来思考：它是如何演奏的，它能够发声，声音是怎么出来的，它与什么相像，哪类音乐可以用小提琴演奏，哪些乐曲是为小提琴创作的，小提琴是怎么雕出来的，是谁造的它，为什么要造，为谁而造，小提琴的历史渊源，它的美妙外形，人们对待小提琴以及小提琴曲的不同态度，等等等等。为了刺激好奇心与思考，为了鼓励实践，为了激发孩子去体验奇妙，为了提高欣赏趣味，小提琴是极好的教学工具。对孩子进行这样的教育，在西方最好的教育理念中是最根本的，就像记住史实一样重要。史实是重要的，但史实本身也是死板的。好的教育必须包括给孩子们机会，让他们分小组或是一个人运用史实去探索未知，并且能够阐明自己的观点与感受，在相互争论中对其提炼并为它们辩争。

　　但是，在想象力、创造力、快速反应等方面的进步并不容易通过考试测试出来，至少不易用分数表示出来。然而，在记忆史实方面的成功，不管记住的时间多么短，却能够用简单的考试方式--让政府官员很满意的方式--测量出来。布什总统已经答应改进美国小学教育，而大多数人也都认为应该改进，但他的立场与那些强调使用考试来确保小学生在算术和语文方面达到某一底线的人是一致的。在布什总统上任初期国会通过的“不让一个孩子掉队”法案中就有这样的做法：对孩子和学校进行强制性的考试，并且公布学校考试结果，对表现差的加以惩罚。

　　但是一些老师抱怨只教与考试相关的内容几乎不是真正的教育，霍尔西对他们深表同情。只教史实是很容易做到的，而教会孩子生活--运用全部的聪明才智去迎接生活的挑战--则是一门艺术。而政府官员们，就像班里欺负人的傻大个儿那样，对此一无所知，而且也不想听任何人的意见。 [/hide]

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