What Adults Can Learn from Kids

What Adults Can Learn from Kids

成年人能從孩子身上學到什么

by Adora Svitak

本篇適合：擴展知識面

這個女孩不簡單，她就是生于1997年10月的美國華裔鄒奇奇（Adora Svitak）。她3歲開始閱讀各種書籍，4歲開始寫作，5歲開始涉獵成年人的讀物。7歲時，她已經讀了超過1600本書，天文地理無所不包。她最喜歡玄幻與歷史題材的書，在她看來，《哈利·波特》系列書的作者J.K.羅琳比《霧都孤兒》的作者狄更斯寫得更好，因為后者的句子“太復雜了”。8歲時，她出版了12萬字的故事集《飛揚的手指》轟動美國。2008年，她被美國媒體譽為“世界上最聰明的孩子”，也被美國廣播公司譽為“美國文壇小巨人”。以下是她12歲時在TED大會上的演講：《成年人能從孩子身上學到什么》。她的演講相當有震撼力，使人產生強烈共鳴，值得我們學習！篇幅有限，演講有所刪減。

Kids already do a lot of learning from adults, and we have a lot to share. I think that adults should start learning from kids. Now, I do most of my speaking in front of an education crowd, teachers and students. It shouldn't just be a teacher at the head of the classroom telling students “do this, do that”. The students should teach their teachers. Learning between grownups and kids should be reciprocal. The reality, unfortunately, is a little different, and it has a lot to do with trust, or a lack of it.

Now, if you don't trust someone, you place restrictions on them, right? If I doubt my older sister's ability to pay back her last loan, I'm going to withhold her ability to get more money from me until she pays it back. True story, by the way. Adults seem to have a prevalently restrictive attitude towards kids from every “don't do that, don't do this” in the school handbook, to restrictions on school internet use.

What's even worse than restriction is that adults often underestimate kids' abilities. We love challenges, but when expectations are low, we will sink to them. My own parents had anything but low expectations for me and my sister. They didn't tell us to become doctors or lawyers or anything like that, but my dad did read to us about ＊Aristotle and pioneer germ fghters when lots of other kids were hearing ＊The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round.

＊Aristotle 亞里士多德，古希臘哲學家、科學家、教育家。

＊The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round《公車的輪子轉呀轉》，是內容簡單的兒童繪本。

crowd[kra?d] n. 人群

reciprocal[r?'s?pr?k（?）l] adj. 相互的

unfortunately[?n'f??tj?n?tl?] adv. 不幸地

restriction[r?'str?k∫（?）n] n. 限制

（復數：restrictions）

loan[l??n] n. 貸款，借出的錢

withhold[w?e'h??ld] v. 拒給，抑制

prevalently['prev?l?ntl?] adv. 盛行地，普遍地

restrictive[r?'str?kt?v] adj. 限制的，限定的

underestimate[,?nd?r'est?me?t] v. 低估

expectation[,ekspek'te?∫（?）n] n. 期望

（復數：expectations）

sink[s??k] v. 消沉，淪落

pioneer[pa??'n??] n. 先鋒，先驅

I loved to write from the age of four, and when I was six my mom bought me my own laptop. I wrote over 300 short stories on that little laptop, and I wanted to get published. Instead of saying wait until you're older, my parents were really supportive. Many publishers were not quite so encouraging. One large children's publisher ironically saying that they didn't work with children. Children's publisher not working with children? One publisher, Action Publishing, was willing to trust me, and to listen to what I had to say. They published my frst book, Flying Fingers.

laptop['l?p,t?p] n. 便攜式電腦

publish['p?bl?∫] v. 出版（過去分詞：published）

supportive[s?'p??t?v] adj. 支持的

ironically[a?'r?n?k?l?] adv. 諷刺地

generation[,d?en?'re?∫（?）n] n. 一代人

cloning['kl??n??] n. 無性繁殖，克隆

involve[?n'v?lv] v. 包括，涉及

（第三人稱單數：involves）

Adults and fellow ＊TEDsters, you need to listen and learn from kids and trust us and expect more from us. You must lend an ear today, because we are the leaders of tomorrow. Really, we are going to be the next generation, the ones who will bring this world forward. And, in case you don't think that this really has meaning for you, remember that cloning is possible, and that involves going through childhood again, in which case, you'll want to be heard just like my generation. Thank you.

＊TED 是technology，entertainment，design的首字母縮寫詞，即技術、娛樂、設計；是美國一家私有非營利機構。該機構以它組織的TED大會而著稱，這個會議的宗旨是“用思想的力量來改變世界”。TED誕生于1984年，其發起人是理查德·沃曼。到TED大會現場演講的均是某一領域的佼佼者，或是某一新興領域的開創人。TEDsters指的是TED大會現場的觀眾。

判斷對錯。正確的填T，錯誤的填F。

( ) 1. Adora Svitak's parents wanted her to become a doctor.

( ) 2. No children's publisher wanted to publish Adora Svitak's book.

( ) 3. Adora Svitak's frst book is Flying Fingers.

中文大意及答案請見第46頁。