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根据一项研究表明，在全球教育排行中，芬兰和韩国分别占据第一和第二位，而美国仅排在第17位。究竟是什么使芬兰和韩国的教育能够出类拔萃呢？政府的财政支持、浓厚的教育文化、高素质的教师队伍是其中不可或缺的重要因素。美国作家Amanda Ripley为此作了调查，并完成新作《The Smartest Kids in the World and How They Got That Way》，其中以芬兰和韩国为典型国家，探究他们获得成功的法宝以及希望以此对美国和其他国家提供经验。
世界上最聪明的孩子是如何炼成的呢？下面就让我们一起来了解一二吧。
Jacki Lyden （Host）： It’s often said that great teachers should be paid more than great athletes. But do highly-paid teachers really make kids smarter？ Author Amanda Ripley 1）crisscrossed the world to find out. In her new book， “The Smartest Kids in the World and How They Got That Way，”she 2）tags along with American school kids who left home on exchange programs and landed in classrooms from South Korea to Finland. And she joins us to share what’s working and what’s not in classrooms around the world. Amanda Ripley， thank you for coming in.
Amanda Ripley： Thanks for having me.
Lyden： To begin， why don’t you remind us where American kids stand with respect to kids in all other parts of the world in terms of how well educated we are？
Ripley： American 15-year-olds perform about 26th in the world in a test of critical thinking in math， 17th in science and 12th in reading. And our high school graduation rate is now below that of about 20 other nations.
Lyden： So it means it’s something that we need to address， obviously.
Ripley： Yeah. And I think we’ve tried to address it， in our defense. So many years we’ve tried and tried， and it starts to feel hopeless. But what’s exciting is if you look around the world， you see wild improvement and change. And so we haven’t really changed much， but other countries have changed a lot.
Lyden： You went around the world to look at how well kids were doing. Tell me a little bit about the 3）premise of this. What were you looking for？
Ripley： I kept hearing about these countries， you know， that you hear about on the headlines—Finland， Korea—they were outperforming us in education year after year. But I couldn’t quite imagine what it was like to be a kid there. What is it actually like， and how do these countries get that way？
Lyden： Let’s start with Korea. You followed a young man to Korea， and you say there were two models that you were looking at. One was the 4）enlightenment model， but Korea was the model of what is 5）grueling.
Ripley： Right. That’s exactly right. It’s kind of an extreme version of the pressure cooker model of education that you see all over Asia where kids go to school all day long， and then they go to tutoring academies all night long， and they study so many hours that they’re exhausted when they get to class again in the morning. That is one way to get to the top of the world. I don’t think anyone， including everyone I met in Korea， would argue that it’s the best way. Eric. Eric had gone from Minnesota， which is one of the highestperforming states in the U.S.， to Busan， South Korea. So he thought he knew what pressure and high-stakes testing were， but he did not know， he realized， that there was a whole other league. And it was shocking， really， how hard these kids were working. Lyden： What is the hagwon？
Ripley： Hagwons are the Korean word for after-school tutoring academy. Tutoring is actually， I think， understating it because it sounds kind of homespun. In fact， this industry is bigger than the public school industry in Korea. It is huge. It is traded on the stock exchange. There’s[sic] investments for major American banks in this industry because 70% of Korean teenagers participate in this world in some manner.
Lyden： And you focus in your book on a teacher there called Kim Ki-hoon. Tell us more about him.
Ripley： This was unlike any teacher I’d ever interviewed in the U.S. First of all， his office was in a luxury sky-highrise in Seoul， and he had 30 employees. And he makes about $4 million a year. The way he’s making that money is through this hagwon industry. He gives a few in-person lectures and then puts them on the Internet and kids pay， like， $4 an hour to see his lectures online. And that’s how he’s making this money. And he himself is critical of this because it requires some amount of money in order to participate， unlike public school.
Lyden： Let’s contrast that with other kids that you followed. One of them， Kim， from Oklahoma， decides to go to Finland. Why did the Oklahoman want to go there？
Ripley： She wanted to see the world. She was curious. She’d never left the United States. She had a single mother who was a teacher in rural Oklahoma where she was born. And she read that Finland had the smartest kids in the world and that they liked heavy metal music and strong coffee and had a good sense of humor. And she said： I want to go there because...
Lyden： She was 15 at the time.
Ripley： She was 15 at the time. She gets placed in rural Finland and ends up in high school there living in—with a host family for one year.
Lyden： How good were her teachers？
Ripley： There were some who were stronger than others. But all of them， she felt like， really wanted to be there. In Finland， getting into teacher training college is as hard as getting into MIT here. It’s literally the top 10% of applicants are even accepted to begin the process， which is a really critical piece of this. I think the key to Finland’s success is that they really went long on quality over quantity. So we educate twice as many teachers as we need. Finland， in the late 1960s， shut down all of its varying quality teacher colleges and moved them into the most elite universities. So right from the beginning， you had the best educated people becoming teachers， which led to all these other great things that we don’t always even think about， notably the signal it sent to kids. Lyden： What else can we 6）emulate from these examples that would make the American experience better and also make us not 26th in math， 17th in science and 12th in everything else？
Ripley： You know， I think it’s actually not that complicated， believe it or not. What we want to do is fewer things better. So fewer tests that are smarter， less homework that is more challenging makes kids have to think， even less parental involvement that’s more targeted at things that actually lead to learning. I mean， American parents actually do a lot compared to parents in other countries. But those things that they do and the things， by the way， that schools ask them to do are typically not strongly related to raising a kid who’s able to think critically and solve problems and make an argument. So you do see that parents are a piece of the solution here， and it doesn’t often get talked about. We just say， oh， our parents aren’t involved. Well， I think they’re involved， just in ways that aren’t particularly 7）impactful.
杰基·来登（主持人）：常言道，好的教师应该得到比好的运动员更高的报酬。但是报酬高的教师真的能培养出更聪明的孩子吗？作家阿曼达·里普利在全世界走南闯北以求找到答案。在她的新作《世界上最聪明的孩子何以沦落至此》一书中，她跟踪调查了几个美国学生，他们因交换生计划而离家到韩国、芬兰学习。她参与到我们的节目中，分享世界各地的学校是如何有所为、有所不为的。阿曼达·里普利，感谢你的加入。
阿曼达·里普利：谢谢你们邀请我。
来登：首先，为什么不稍稍提下，从教育质量高低来说，美国的孩子在世界各地的孩子中处于一个什么位置？
里普利：美国15岁的孩子们在数学批判思考测试中排名约第26位，科学排第17位，阅读排在第12位。我们的高中毕业率现在低于其他大概20个国家。
来登：所以这很显然意味着我们需要应对这个问题了。
里普利：是的。我认为出于自身考虑，我们尝试过应对这个问题。所以多年来，我们不断地尝试，又开始感觉没有希望。但是令人兴奋的是，如果你放眼全球，你会看到巨大的进步和改变。所以我们并没有真正改变多少，但是别的国家改变了很多。
来登：你游历全球，看看各国的孩子做得有多好。能告诉我你这样做的目的是什么吗？你想要寻求什么答案？里普利：我总听说这些国家的事，你知道的，在头条新闻所听到的——芬兰、韩国——他们一年接着一年比我们在教育上做得更优秀。但是我还不是很能想象那儿的孩子是怎么样的，事实上是怎么样的，还有这些国家是如何做到的？
来登：让我们从韩国说起吧。你跟随一个年轻人去了韩国，你说在那儿，你观察了两种模式，一种是启蒙教育模式，但是韩国在这方面是（让孩子）精疲力竭的那种教育模式。
里普利：没错，确实没错。那是一种高压锅式的极端教育模式，正如你所见，整个亚洲的孩子整日都去上学，然后整夜都去补习班，他们长时间地学习，筋疲力尽，第二天早上又继续去上学。那就是晋升世界顶尖学生之列的一个方法。我认为没有任何人，包括我在韩国遇到的所有人，会不同意这是最好的方法。埃里克。埃里克来自明尼苏达州，这个州在全美享有较高的教学声誉，他来到韩国釜山，所以他原以为自己知道什么是压力和高强度的测试，但其实他始料不及，（来了之后）他才意识到，这完全是另一个档次，这真的让人感到震惊，这些孩子们是多么刻苦地学习。
来登：“hagwon”是什么？
里普利：“hagwon”是一个韩语词，意思是校外补习班。事实上，我觉得补习班可以轻描淡写带过，因为这听起来就像是家庭产物。但实际上，在韩国，补习班比公立学校更大型，它是个庞大的产业，还上市交易了。美国主流银行在这个产业有所投资是因为70%的韩国青少年在一定程度上参与到这个世界中。
来登：你在书中突出描述了那儿一位名叫金基勋的教师，告诉我们多一些关于他的事吧。
里普利：他与我在美国采访过的教师都不一样。首先，他的办公室在首尔奢华的摩天大楼里，他有30名员工，每年大约赚400万美元，他就是通过补习产业盈利的。他亲自上几堂课，然后把讲课视频放到网上，孩子们以每小时4美元的价格在线收看他的讲课视频，这就是他赚钱的方式。他本人对此感到不满，因为这需要大量资金投入来运营，不像公立学校。
来登：让我们将这与你跟踪调查的其他孩子作个对比。他们之中的一个，来自俄克拉荷马州的金，决定去芬兰。为什么这个俄克拉荷马州人想要去那儿？
里普利：她想要去看看这个世界，她充满了好奇心，之前从未离开过美国。她的单亲妈妈是俄克拉荷马州乡村的一名教师，她就是在那儿出生的。她了解到芬兰有全世界最聪明的孩子，他们喜欢重金属音乐、浓咖啡，很有幽默感。她说：“我想要去那儿，因为……”
来登：那时候她15岁。
里普利：那时候她15岁。她（以交换生身份）到芬兰乡村上学，直到高中，在当地的寄宿家庭生活了一年。来登：她的老师们有多好？
里普利：有一些教师较之其他更为突出，但是她感觉他们中的所有人，他们真的很想在那儿（教书）。在芬兰，进入师范学院就和在美国这儿上麻省理工学院一样难，真的只有10%最拔尖的申请者才会被录取，这真的很严格。我认为，芬兰成功的关键是他们真的想要以质量取胜数量。所以我们培养了两倍于我们真正需要的教师数量，而芬兰在20世纪60年代末，关闭了所有教学质量参差不齐的师范学院，整合成最精英的大学。因此从一开始，你就有了受过最优秀教育的人成为教师，这就使那些我们甚至想都没想过的很棒的想法产生，最明显的是给孩子们所传递的信息。
来登：我们从这些范例中还能仿效些什么，使美国的教学质量更好，同时也使我们不再数学排26位、科学排17位、其他排12位吗？
里普利：你知道，事实上我认为没必要那么复杂，信不信由你。我们要做的就是做得越少越好。因此，少些测验更明智；少些作业更有挑战性，更能培养孩子们思考的能力；甚至少些父母参与，目标明确，更能引导孩子们学习。我的意思是，美国的父母们事实上比其他国家的父母们在教育孩子上做得更多，但是那些他们做的事情，顺便提一下，还有学校要求他们做的事情通常与培养一个孩子学会批判性思考、解决问题和展开论证没有多大的联系。所以你看到的是，父母们只会提供解决方案，而不会经常谈论这些。我们只是说，噢，我们的父母没有参与其中。嗯，我想他们参与了，只是以不特别有影响力的方式参与罢了。
世界上最聪明的孩子是如何炼成的呢？下面就让我们一起来了解一二吧。
Jacki Lyden （Host）： It’s often said that great teachers should be paid more than great athletes. But do highly-paid teachers really make kids smarter？ Author Amanda Ripley 1）crisscrossed the world to find out. In her new book， “The Smartest Kids in the World and How They Got That Way，”she 2）tags along with American school kids who left home on exchange programs and landed in classrooms from South Korea to Finland. And she joins us to share what’s working and what’s not in classrooms around the world. Amanda Ripley， thank you for coming in.
Amanda Ripley： Thanks for having me.
Lyden： To begin， why don’t you remind us where American kids stand with respect to kids in all other parts of the world in terms of how well educated we are？
Ripley： American 15-year-olds perform about 26th in the world in a test of critical thinking in math， 17th in science and 12th in reading. And our high school graduation rate is now below that of about 20 other nations.
Lyden： So it means it’s something that we need to address， obviously.
Ripley： Yeah. And I think we’ve tried to address it， in our defense. So many years we’ve tried and tried， and it starts to feel hopeless. But what’s exciting is if you look around the world， you see wild improvement and change. And so we haven’t really changed much， but other countries have changed a lot.
Lyden： You went around the world to look at how well kids were doing. Tell me a little bit about the 3）premise of this. What were you looking for？
Ripley： I kept hearing about these countries， you know， that you hear about on the headlines—Finland， Korea—they were outperforming us in education year after year. But I couldn’t quite imagine what it was like to be a kid there. What is it actually like， and how do these countries get that way？
Lyden： Let’s start with Korea. You followed a young man to Korea， and you say there were two models that you were looking at. One was the 4）enlightenment model， but Korea was the model of what is 5）grueling.
Ripley： Right. That’s exactly right. It’s kind of an extreme version of the pressure cooker model of education that you see all over Asia where kids go to school all day long， and then they go to tutoring academies all night long， and they study so many hours that they’re exhausted when they get to class again in the morning. That is one way to get to the top of the world. I don’t think anyone， including everyone I met in Korea， would argue that it’s the best way. Eric. Eric had gone from Minnesota， which is one of the highestperforming states in the U.S.， to Busan， South Korea. So he thought he knew what pressure and high-stakes testing were， but he did not know， he realized， that there was a whole other league. And it was shocking， really， how hard these kids were working. Lyden： What is the hagwon？
Ripley： Hagwons are the Korean word for after-school tutoring academy. Tutoring is actually， I think， understating it because it sounds kind of homespun. In fact， this industry is bigger than the public school industry in Korea. It is huge. It is traded on the stock exchange. There’s[sic] investments for major American banks in this industry because 70% of Korean teenagers participate in this world in some manner.
Lyden： And you focus in your book on a teacher there called Kim Ki-hoon. Tell us more about him.
Ripley： This was unlike any teacher I’d ever interviewed in the U.S. First of all， his office was in a luxury sky-highrise in Seoul， and he had 30 employees. And he makes about $4 million a year. The way he’s making that money is through this hagwon industry. He gives a few in-person lectures and then puts them on the Internet and kids pay， like， $4 an hour to see his lectures online. And that’s how he’s making this money. And he himself is critical of this because it requires some amount of money in order to participate， unlike public school.
Lyden： Let’s contrast that with other kids that you followed. One of them， Kim， from Oklahoma， decides to go to Finland. Why did the Oklahoman want to go there？
Ripley： She wanted to see the world. She was curious. She’d never left the United States. She had a single mother who was a teacher in rural Oklahoma where she was born. And she read that Finland had the smartest kids in the world and that they liked heavy metal music and strong coffee and had a good sense of humor. And she said： I want to go there because...
Lyden： She was 15 at the time.
Ripley： She was 15 at the time. She gets placed in rural Finland and ends up in high school there living in—with a host family for one year.
Lyden： How good were her teachers？
Ripley： There were some who were stronger than others. But all of them， she felt like， really wanted to be there. In Finland， getting into teacher training college is as hard as getting into MIT here. It’s literally the top 10% of applicants are even accepted to begin the process， which is a really critical piece of this. I think the key to Finland’s success is that they really went long on quality over quantity. So we educate twice as many teachers as we need. Finland， in the late 1960s， shut down all of its varying quality teacher colleges and moved them into the most elite universities. So right from the beginning， you had the best educated people becoming teachers， which led to all these other great things that we don’t always even think about， notably the signal it sent to kids. Lyden： What else can we 6）emulate from these examples that would make the American experience better and also make us not 26th in math， 17th in science and 12th in everything else？
Ripley： You know， I think it’s actually not that complicated， believe it or not. What we want to do is fewer things better. So fewer tests that are smarter， less homework that is more challenging makes kids have to think， even less parental involvement that’s more targeted at things that actually lead to learning. I mean， American parents actually do a lot compared to parents in other countries. But those things that they do and the things， by the way， that schools ask them to do are typically not strongly related to raising a kid who’s able to think critically and solve problems and make an argument. So you do see that parents are a piece of the solution here， and it doesn’t often get talked about. We just say， oh， our parents aren’t involved. Well， I think they’re involved， just in ways that aren’t particularly 7）impactful.
杰基·来登（主持人）：常言道，好的教师应该得到比好的运动员更高的报酬。但是报酬高的教师真的能培养出更聪明的孩子吗？作家阿曼达·里普利在全世界走南闯北以求找到答案。在她的新作《世界上最聪明的孩子何以沦落至此》一书中，她跟踪调查了几个美国学生，他们因交换生计划而离家到韩国、芬兰学习。她参与到我们的节目中，分享世界各地的学校是如何有所为、有所不为的。阿曼达·里普利，感谢你的加入。
阿曼达·里普利：谢谢你们邀请我。
来登：首先，为什么不稍稍提下，从教育质量高低来说，美国的孩子在世界各地的孩子中处于一个什么位置？
里普利：美国15岁的孩子们在数学批判思考测试中排名约第26位，科学排第17位，阅读排在第12位。我们的高中毕业率现在低于其他大概20个国家。
来登：所以这很显然意味着我们需要应对这个问题了。
里普利：是的。我认为出于自身考虑，我们尝试过应对这个问题。所以多年来，我们不断地尝试，又开始感觉没有希望。但是令人兴奋的是，如果你放眼全球，你会看到巨大的进步和改变。所以我们并没有真正改变多少，但是别的国家改变了很多。
来登：你游历全球，看看各国的孩子做得有多好。能告诉我你这样做的目的是什么吗？你想要寻求什么答案？里普利：我总听说这些国家的事，你知道的，在头条新闻所听到的——芬兰、韩国——他们一年接着一年比我们在教育上做得更优秀。但是我还不是很能想象那儿的孩子是怎么样的，事实上是怎么样的，还有这些国家是如何做到的？
来登：让我们从韩国说起吧。你跟随一个年轻人去了韩国，你说在那儿，你观察了两种模式，一种是启蒙教育模式，但是韩国在这方面是（让孩子）精疲力竭的那种教育模式。
里普利：没错，确实没错。那是一种高压锅式的极端教育模式，正如你所见，整个亚洲的孩子整日都去上学，然后整夜都去补习班，他们长时间地学习，筋疲力尽，第二天早上又继续去上学。那就是晋升世界顶尖学生之列的一个方法。我认为没有任何人，包括我在韩国遇到的所有人，会不同意这是最好的方法。埃里克。埃里克来自明尼苏达州，这个州在全美享有较高的教学声誉，他来到韩国釜山，所以他原以为自己知道什么是压力和高强度的测试，但其实他始料不及，（来了之后）他才意识到，这完全是另一个档次，这真的让人感到震惊，这些孩子们是多么刻苦地学习。
来登：“hagwon”是什么？
里普利：“hagwon”是一个韩语词，意思是校外补习班。事实上，我觉得补习班可以轻描淡写带过，因为这听起来就像是家庭产物。但实际上，在韩国，补习班比公立学校更大型，它是个庞大的产业，还上市交易了。美国主流银行在这个产业有所投资是因为70%的韩国青少年在一定程度上参与到这个世界中。
来登：你在书中突出描述了那儿一位名叫金基勋的教师，告诉我们多一些关于他的事吧。
里普利：他与我在美国采访过的教师都不一样。首先，他的办公室在首尔奢华的摩天大楼里，他有30名员工，每年大约赚400万美元，他就是通过补习产业盈利的。他亲自上几堂课，然后把讲课视频放到网上，孩子们以每小时4美元的价格在线收看他的讲课视频，这就是他赚钱的方式。他本人对此感到不满，因为这需要大量资金投入来运营，不像公立学校。
来登：让我们将这与你跟踪调查的其他孩子作个对比。他们之中的一个，来自俄克拉荷马州的金，决定去芬兰。为什么这个俄克拉荷马州人想要去那儿？
里普利：她想要去看看这个世界，她充满了好奇心，之前从未离开过美国。她的单亲妈妈是俄克拉荷马州乡村的一名教师，她就是在那儿出生的。她了解到芬兰有全世界最聪明的孩子，他们喜欢重金属音乐、浓咖啡，很有幽默感。她说：“我想要去那儿，因为……”
来登：那时候她15岁。
里普利：那时候她15岁。她（以交换生身份）到芬兰乡村上学，直到高中，在当地的寄宿家庭生活了一年。来登：她的老师们有多好？
里普利：有一些教师较之其他更为突出，但是她感觉他们中的所有人，他们真的很想在那儿（教书）。在芬兰，进入师范学院就和在美国这儿上麻省理工学院一样难，真的只有10%最拔尖的申请者才会被录取，这真的很严格。我认为，芬兰成功的关键是他们真的想要以质量取胜数量。所以我们培养了两倍于我们真正需要的教师数量，而芬兰在20世纪60年代末，关闭了所有教学质量参差不齐的师范学院，整合成最精英的大学。因此从一开始，你就有了受过最优秀教育的人成为教师，这就使那些我们甚至想都没想过的很棒的想法产生，最明显的是给孩子们所传递的信息。
来登：我们从这些范例中还能仿效些什么，使美国的教学质量更好，同时也使我们不再数学排26位、科学排17位、其他排12位吗？
里普利：你知道，事实上我认为没必要那么复杂，信不信由你。我们要做的就是做得越少越好。因此，少些测验更明智；少些作业更有挑战性，更能培养孩子们思考的能力；甚至少些父母参与，目标明确，更能引导孩子们学习。我的意思是，美国的父母们事实上比其他国家的父母们在教育孩子上做得更多，但是那些他们做的事情，顺便提一下，还有学校要求他们做的事情通常与培养一个孩子学会批判性思考、解决问题和展开论证没有多大的联系。所以你看到的是，父母们只会提供解决方案，而不会经常谈论这些。我们只是说，噢，我们的父母没有参与其中。嗯，我想他们参与了，只是以不特别有影响力的方式参与罢了。