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Think back to Alex Williams, the nine-year-old whom Annette Lareau studied.
我们回头再看亚力克斯·威廉姆斯，这个安妮特·拉里奥研究的9岁孩子，
His parents believe in concerted cultivation. He gets taken to museums and gets enrolled in special programs, and goes to summer camp where he takes classes.
他的父母信奉协同培养，所以他被带到博物馆，参加一些特殊活动，还去了夏令营，以这些地方为课堂。
When he's bored at home, there are plenty of books to read, and his parents see it as their responsibility to keep him actively engaged in the world around him.
当他在家里感到无聊时，有很多的书籍可以阅读，他的父母认为有责任让他积极地融入身边的社会。
It's not hard to see how Alex would get better at reading and math over the summer.
这样就不难看到，暑假之后亚力克斯在阅读和数学方面做的更好了。
But not Katie Brindle, a little girl from the other side of the tracks. There is no money to send her to summer camp.
但是卡蒂·布琳德尔不是这样，这个小女孩的生活轨迹正好相反。家里没有钱送她去夏令营，
She's not getting driven by her mom to special classes, and there aren't books lying around the house that she can read if she gets bored.
她妈妈也不能用车载她一些特殊的学习班，当她无聊时家里也没有书籍阅读。
There's probably just a television. She may still have a wonderful vacation, making new friends, playing outside, going to the movies, having the kind of carefree summer days that we all dream about.
也许家里有台电视，或许她仍然可以过一个愉快的暑假，交到新朋友，在户外玩，去看电影，去过那种我们都向往的无忧无虑的暑假。
None of those things, though, would improve her math and reading skills, and every carefree summer days she spends puts her further and further behind Alex.
但这些事情不能改善她阅读和数学方面的技能，每一天无忧无虑的暑假都使她落后于亚力克斯越来越远。
Alex isn't necessarily smarter than Katie. He's just out-learning her:
亚力克斯不一定比卡蒂聪明，他只不过比她多了一些额外的学习。
He's putting in a few solid months of learning during the summer months while she watches television and plays outside.
在这几个月的暑假中，当卡蒂在看电视、嬉戏玩耍的时候，亚力克斯却正在学习。
What Alexander's work suggests is the way in which education has been discussed in the United States is backwards.
亚历山大研究后的意见是，美国讨论教育的方式后退了。
And enormous amount of time is spent talking about reducing class size, rewriting curricula, buying every student a shiny new laptop, and increasing school funding—
花大量的时间来讨论减少班级人数，重新设置课程，给学生配置人手一台的掌上电脑，增加学校的基础建设——
all of which assume that there is something fundamentally wrong with the job schools are doing.
所有这些都是根本上的错误。
