文字难度：★★★
In a speech in March, President Obama said it was unacceptable that “as many as a quarter of American students are not finishing high school.” But our current educational approach doesn't just fail to prepare teenagers for graduation or for college academics; it fails to prepare them, in a profound way, for adult life.
奥巴马总统在三月的一次讲话中提到“有高达四分之一的美国学生没有读完高中”，这个事实真令人无法接受。但是，我们目前的教学方法不仅没让青少年顺利毕业或是升读大学，从深层来看，还没能让他们为以后的成年生活做好准备。
We want young people to become independent and capable, yet we structure their days 1)to the minute and give them few opportunities to do anything but answer multiple-choice questions, follow instructions and memorize information. We 2)cast social interaction as an 3)impediment to learning, yet all evidence points to the huge role it plays in their psychological development.
我们希望年轻人能够变得独立能干，可是我们却又将他们所有的时间都安排得满满当当的，除了做多项选择题、听从教导和死记硬背以外，几乎不给他们任何机会去做别的事情。我们将社交活动视为学习的障碍，但是所有证据都表明，社交活动对于他们的心理发展具有巨大作用。
That's why we need to rethink the very nature of high school itself.
这也就是为什么我们需要重新思考中学教育的本质。
I recently followed a group of eight public high school students, aged 15 to 17, in western Massachusetts as they designed and ran their own school within a school. They represented the usual range: two were close to dropping out before they started the project, while others were honors students. They named their school the Independent Project.
最近在马萨诸塞州的西部地区，有八名15至17岁的公立中学学生准备在学校里设立自己的学校，我对此进行了跟踪调查。他们正好代表了两个典型群体：在开始项目之前，其中两个处于退学边缘，而其他的全是优等生。他们给自己的学校取名为“独立项目”。
Their guidance 4)counselor was their adviser, consulting with them when the group 5)flagged in energy or encountered an obstacle. Though they sought advice from English, math and science teachers, they were responsible for monitoring one another's work and giving one another feedback. There were no grades, but at the end of the semester, the students wrote evaluations of their classmates.
他们的咨询顾问也是他们的指导教师，会在团队缺乏干劲或是遇到困难时提供建议。尽管他们还从英语、数学和科学老师那里征求建议，但他们还要相互监督工作，并反馈意见。他们不用分数来评定成绩，但是学期结束时，这些学生会相互评估。
The students also designed their own6)curriculum, deciding to 7)split their September-to-January term into two halves.
这些学生还自己设计课程安排，他们决定将九月至次年一月的学期分成两期。
During the first half, they formulated and then answered questions about the natural and social world, including “Are the plant cells at the bottom of a nearby mountain different than those at the top of the mountain?” and “Why do we cry?” They not only 8)critiqued one another's 9)queries, but also the answers they came up with. Along the way, they acquired essential tools of inquiry, like how to devise good methods for gathering various kinds of data.
在前半个学期，他们制定并解答关于自然和社会世界的问题，其中包括“附近山脚下的植物细胞是否与山顶上的植物细胞不同？”以及“我们为什么会哭？”等问题。他们不仅会相互点评对方提出的问题，还会点评他们所想到的回答。通过这种方法，他们学到了调查研究的基本手段，譬如说，如何设计出收集不同数据的好方法。
During the second half, the group practiced what they called “the literary and mathematical arts.” They chose eight novels—including works by 10)Kurt Vonnegut, William Faulkner and Oscar Wilde—to read in eight weeks. That is more than the school's 11)A.P. English class reads in an entire year.
而在后半个学期，这个小组则练习他们称之为“文学和数学艺术”的内容。他们选出了八部小说在八周内阅读，其中包括库尔特·冯内古特、威 廉·福克纳和奥斯卡·王尔德的作品。这比学校里大学预修英语课全年的阅读量还要多。
Meanwhile, each of them focused on specific mathematical topics, from 12)quadratic equations to the numbers behind poker. They sought the help of full-time math teachers, consulted books and online sources and, whenever possible, taught one another.
同时，他们每个人都负责特定的数学专题，从二次方程到扑克牌背后的数字。他们向专职数学老师寻求帮助、查阅参考书和网上资料，并且一有机会就相互请教。