2015-11-13

【Aiden in English】

        School is silly. That’s all there is to it. No, but’s, if’s, why’s, or any other contradiction. To what level, the world may never fully grasp, but the first marking period of Pennbrook puts it in perspective.

        It’s not like throwing, what, three-hundred kids in a confined, high security prison is going to get us to learn anything. I suppose when an adult tells you to do something, an inner sense screams at you to listen. But if you ask me, middle school’s curriculum basically put fancy names on things I already knew. I know, half of the audience probably just said “but you’re CHINESE” and maybe it is true. Maybe it’s just how all Americans, Europeans, and Koreans are intellectual deficient, or that Chinese have a boosted IQ due to some random chromosome in their DNA. Whatever the case is, school is not teaching anything useful.

        Now that I’ve just said that, math is probably one subject that I learn something ever. It also explains my 92 percent average. Mom wasn’t quite happy about it, and I couldn’t disagree. At least I can learn something. For example, in science, we talked about how the population on earth grew exponentially in the past half century. You know what’s funny, the vocabulary word for that was “exponential growth”. God dang, Sherlock, you really are smart! Not to mention the term “global warming” with all another reason why I have a 98.23 in science.

        School gets worse. Tests and quizzes are all short term, and for the mid-terms and finals, all you have to do is to look at pervious tests and you’re set. The thing is, none of this stuff is really going to carry on in your life. I’m pretty sure how nearly no adults remember all the formula’s for Trigonometry. As for classes that only last for a marking period, like health, no, I’m not going to remember anything from it after Christmas break. In fact, I basically lose a few IQ points after the holidays (yes it’s possible for a Chinese to lose IQ points). We don’t have a final for health at the end of the year. Instead, we have it at the end of the marking period. All I did was to stare at the notes for five minutes the period before health and walked in calmly. Hey, what a coincidence! I aced it which was 98% close enough and ended with a 100.43% for the class.

        Yeah, that’s really what teachers don’t want you to do, and I really don’t recommend it if you’re struggling. But seriously, take it from the Student of the Month of Pennbrook Middle School, school is silly.

【紅霞譯文】

        學校無聊，其名稱詮釋內涵，既不想聽 “但是”，又不允許“假如”，更不存在 “為什麼”， 乃至其它任何有悖教規的行為。由此說來，整個世界由不得半點隨心所欲，賓溪初中第一學制突出地再現了這一點。

        與扔東西不同，讓三百來號半大不小的學生禁錮在一個密閉安全可靠的樊籠里接受教育，只要大人發號施令，聽者就會下意識地去服從。但在我看來，初中課程其實不過將已知的東西冠上華麗的詞藻，我心裡明白，可能有半數的聽眾會說“只因你是中國人”，也許如此，敢情所有的美國、歐洲以及韓國孩子都缺心眼，不然就是中國同伴身上攜帶某種隨機性脫氧核糖核酸染色體有助提高智商，無論何種原因，學校教的東西一點都不實用。

        說歸說，數學可稱之為一門叫人增長學識的課程，92%平均得分着實反映出本人的日常水平，媽媽對之頗有微詞，而我也深表同感，畢竟我學了點東西。再以科學課為例，大家談論起過去半個世紀世界人口呈指數增長，這裡巧妙地使用“指數增長”來描述現狀，天哪，難道你真像福爾摩斯那樣料事如神！且不說所謂“全球變暖”再度助我拿下98.23分的好成績。

        學校每況愈下，階段摸底和單元測驗叫人考過就忘；而對於期中和期末大考，你只要把先前考過的題目拿出來翻閱一下足以應付了事，問題出在課堂上所學的知識與實際生活脫節，我敢肯定幾乎沒有一位家長牢記三角函數公式，因此能將記憶保留到第一學制結束已然是非常了不起的事情，如同健康課，且慢，過完聖誕節後我肯定想不起任何學過的東西，事實上，每逢節假日我的智商水平基本上都要下滑幾分，沒錯兒，對於中國人來說丟掉這麼幾分極有可能。健康課沒設期末大考，但卻有學制結業測驗，考試前五分鐘我全力突擊綱綱要要，然後大義凌然走進考場，表現出高度的自信心！我連蒙帶猜答對了98%，以總成績100.43分了結這門課程。

        是啊，老師對此做法深惡痛絕，我也不主張鋌而走險，但是認真聽一下發自賓溪初中本月模範學生的內心道白，學校確實無聊。