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来自1981的美国教育报告
教育对一个国家的重要性不言而喻，如果一个国家的教育出了问题，即便现在如日中天，未来也无法保持竞争力。
1981年8月26日，美国的教育时任美国教育部长的 T. H. Bell 组建了NCEE（National Commission on Excellence in Education），希望能在18个月内得到美国教育质量的评估报告。
1983年4月，NCEE提交了报告：
Our Nation is at risk. Our once unchallenged preeminence in commerce, industry,science, and technological innovation is being overtaken by competitors throughout theworld. This report is concerned with only one of the many causes and dimensions of theproblem, but it is the one that undergirds American prosperity, security, and civility. We report to the American people that while we can take justifiable pride in what ourschools and colleges have historically accomplished and contributed to the UnitedStates and the well-being of its people, the educational foundations of our society arepresently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a Nation and a people. What was unimaginable a generation ago has begun to occur--others are matching and surpassing our educational attainments.
我们国家危险了。曾经，我们在商业、工业、科学以及技术创新上拥有绝对的优势，如今却正在被世界上的其它国家赶上甚至超越。这个现象有很多维度的原因，这份报告只考虑了其中一点，但正是这一点支撑着我们的繁荣、安全和文明。我们想告诉美国人民的是，我们的学校和学院在过去取得了很多成就，为美国人民的幸福生活做出了很多贡献，我们应该为此感到骄傲，但是现在，我们社会的教育基础正在被侵蚀，越来越多的平庸的人正在威胁着我们国家和民族的未来。难以想象，上一代发生过的事情又将要发生——我们的受教育程度正在被赶超。
If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war. As it stands, we have allowed this to happen to ourselves. We have even squandered the gains in student achievement made in the wake of the Sputnik challenge. Moreover, we have dismantled essential support systems which helped make those gains possible. We have, in effect, been committing an act of unthinking,unilateral educational disarmament.
如果不友好的外国势力试图“欺负”我们如今平庸的教育业绩，我们也许应该视之为一场“战争”。而这正在发生：我们甚至浪费了学生们在人造卫星挑战之后获得的成就，更令人无法理解的是，达成那些成就需要的重要支持系统，也被我们废除了。事实上，面对教育难题，我们缺乏思考，直接“缴械投降”了。
Our society and its educational institutions seem to have lost sight of the basic purposes of schooling, and of the high expectations and disciplined effort needed to attain them.This report, the result of 18 months of study, seeks to generate reform of our educational system in fundamental ways and to renew the Nation's commitment to schools and colleges of high quality throughout the length and breadth of our land.
我们的教育机构似乎忘了办学的基本目标，忘了被寄予的厚望，也忘了通过刻苦努力才能达成目标。这份报告，历时18个月，旨在从根本上对我们的教育体系进行改革，并在全国范围内建设高质量的学校和学院。
That we have compromised this commitment is, upon reflection, hardly surprising, given the multitude of often conflicting demands we have placed on our Nation's schools and colleges. They are routinely called on to provide solutions to personal, social, andpolitical problems that the home and other institutions either will not or cannot resolve. We must understand that these demands on our schools and colleges often exact an educational cost as well as a financial one.
根据反馈的信息，不出所料，我们发现学校会提出很多有所冲突的要求，这些要求本应由学校完成，为个人的、社会的、政治的问题提供解决方案，而事实上它们并不去做，或是不会做。他们并没有能力解决。同时我们必须清楚，跟财政经费一样，这些要求往往也需要一笔教育经费。
On the occasion of the Commission's first meeting, President Reagan noted the central importance of education in American life when he said: "Certainly there are few areas ofAmerican life as important to our society, to our people, and to our families as our schools and colleges." This report, therefore, is as much an open letter to the Americanpeople as it is a report to the Secretary of Education. We are confident that the American people, properly informed, will do what is right for their children and for the generations to come.
委员会的第一次会议上，里根总统提到教育对于美国的重要作用时表示：“很显然，没有任何领域能像教育一样，对我们的社会、我们的人民、我们的家庭如此重要。”因此，这虽然是向教育部长做的报告，其实也是给美国人民的公开信。我们有信心，那些美国人民，会为了自己的孩子以及更下一代人做正确的事情。
编者：我们国家的教育是什么情况，国内的教育机构又是什么情况，就像第三段里所说的“我们的教育机构似乎忘了办学的基本目标，忘了被寄予的厚望，也忘了通过刻苦努力才能达成目标”。
希望一些教育机构能够及时审视自己，不要为了金钱利益占用孩子的黄金成长岁月，现在的教育关乎中国的未来，我们人人有责！
最后对家长说一句：达则兼济天下，为中国教育的未来贡献一份力量；穷则独善其身，为孩子的教育做好一次选择！
