吴江太湖国际实验学校家长日
彼得圣吉的演讲稿
(附Peter Senge 英文原稿) 2009.1.15
所以，现在我要开始一个思考的模式，我希望它能成为我们生活中的一部分。让我们集体思考、一起讨论 ”什么样的条件能构成一间好的学校?”以及”要创造一间好的学校会遭遇到甚么样的挑战?” 等一下我会问一些问题。我想邀请您们一起讨论这些问题，也许孩子们也可以跟我们一起分享。第一个问题是: 我如何认定一间好的学校? 什么是我看到、听到、或者感觉到而会认定是一间好学校的条件?昨天晚上，我们和所有的老师有一个会议，讨论他们对于学校的感受以及他们所面临的挑战，所有的老师都一致认为最有意义的事就是带给孩子快乐，孩子们真的很喜欢这个学校。
我将和您们分享我的想法以及我十五年来在许多学校的经验。首先，我认为所有学校所面对的问题，都是来自于他们的目标不够明确。最简单的例子就是以考试以及考试的成绩来取代学校的真正目标。考试并不是不重要，它是一个重要的工具，但是它仅仅是一个工具，而不能代表教育的目的。当我看到全球在做改革的学校，我发现他们努力的方向是非常明确的。他们的方向，和您们刚才讨论的想法有一致的共通点，它是一个非常简单却也深奥的观念”发展以及培养一个健全的人有甚么样的意义?” ”对于您的人生目标有甚么意义?” ”发展一个为他人付出的能力有甚么意义?”怎么样有效而准确的达成目标，特别是团体行动而非个人的表现。在这里我们看到许多的团体活动，这是美国学校长时间以来所遗漏的重要课题。所以，当你谈论到理想，从我的经验告诉我一个原则: "学习者吸收他们所想要学习的东西” 而不是老师想要他们学习的东西。记住，是他们本身想要学习的东西。所以，人类是如何发展能够提起他们兴趣、达成他们目标的理想?
另外，我认为还有第二个目的，是更加微妙的。我们总是忽略了第一个目的，但是我们甚至不曾想过第二个目的。这是一个强大的内在力量。学校是最主要保存文化的机构，这是一个复杂的议题，因为它可以被诠释成为学校应该一直维持原貌，它应该保有文化而不该有所改变。从我的经验告诉我，这样的想法多半是被接纳而采用的。家长根据他们对于学校的经验，有一些刻板的想法，因为这些想法，而使得学校没有办法改革，没有办法创造一些新的做法，这是两难的。学校要如何保存文化而又拥有创新的思维能够符合不同的环境?我们不是活在50年前、100年前、或者500年前的过去，我们是活在当今的社会。我们要如何同时兼顾传统以及改革。这些孩子将会生活在我们没有办法想象的世界，50年后的世界和我们长大的年代有很大的差异。我要将这一个议题留给您们思考，因为正如您们刚才所讨论想法以及您将孩子送来这个学校的原因，和内心深处中国传统文化的观念是不能分离的。我们必须重视根本，就拿树根来做例子，树上的枝叶有许多不同的发展方向，也许我们不能决定枝叶发展的方向，但是我们能够照顾树根让它健康茁壮。所以这同时保有文化以及创新是必须被接受的，也就是将对于学校根深蒂固的传统观念抛开，让学校能够没有文化的束缚。两个我刚才提到的目标”培养健全的人”以及”为将来而不是过去，创造一个健康的社会”。
现在，让我回到刚开始所提到的重点，这对于您和我同样是家长来说有很大的挑战，我们如何扮演一个好的家长? 我个人不认同一些家长的态度，他们认为”我们把孩子送到学校去，就不关我们的事了，孩子是教育者、老师的责任。”或者 “我很忙，我有太多的短信必须回复，我有太多的工作要做”。另一方面，这也是造成学校两难的原因，因为一个积极参与的家长，会看到学校有效、明确、好的一面，同时也会看到一些我有所顾虑的地方，这是非常自然的。那么要如何解除顾虑呢? 我们要如何和学校配合? 我们要如何做才能有效的帮助孩子? 这个学校需要家长像是伙伴一样。Larry 在他的书中第一节就曾提到”一个健全的社会需要如同伙伴的家长” 。有些事是老师没有办法掌握的。如果你在家中遇到问题，你如何看待? 要解决问题并不容易。当你提出你的例子的时候，我联想到我自己的孩子。你知道孩子们非常聪明。如果他们知道在家的表现可以和学校的表现不同，而不会被责骂，那么他们就会有不同的表现。我观察到在这个学校，孩子们常常一起行动，这样他们就能够模仿其他同学的表现而不至于行为偏差，因为有同侪的压力，这是很健康的。他们会有那种看到其他人在做甚么，自己也必须做的观念。我相信那是许多团体工作能够完成的原因。不仅仅是对老师，也是同侪之间对彼此的期望。这是非常健康的群体学习，但是这并不是孩子们在家里的表现。这是一个很好的例子，说明一个想要改革的学校以及家长之间的沟通是具有挑战性的。
所以我能够提供大家的建议是: 这是一间新的学校，他们拥有新的老师以及新的想法来经营这一间学校，非常需要家长的支持与鼓励。当您看到一些您有所顾虑的地方，您可以找老师谈一谈，我们很需要家长的积极参与。郭老师几分钟前才告诉我，对于学校来说非常重要的是: 家长不是为了摆脱孩子才将他们送的这个学校，而期待学校或老师取代家长的角色。您是孩子的家长，您在他的人格发展上扮演着重要的角色。孩子们都将您做为榜样。您必须建立一个观念 ”我要如何协助这一些老师?”，有耐心而绝不放弃。
我还想提供您一个小小的建议，我想在您们当中已经有许多人已经做到了。就是您的孩子也可以成为您的老师。我们不仅是教育您的孩子，他们也在我们的生活中给予我们许多启发。今天早上和下午，在和孩子们相处的这段时间，我一直在思考这一些孩子如何给我们，包括家长、姨妈、叔叔、祖父母学习的机会，让我们之间的文化相互结合。中国有着丰富的文化可以与全世界分享，如果我们都能够将自己和文化做连结。和孩子们一起学习、一起成长是一件很棒的事。提供您做为参考。谢谢大家。(版权所有, 禁止转载)
Wujiang Taihu International School Parents Day
LECTURE BY PETER SENGE
2009.1.15
You represent families of these children; you are all every bit as important as the teachers. Part of what happens in the modern world, is that the children go off to school and leave their homes, as it happens here at Taihu. It happens at all schools, in a way. The huge difference between the world of the school and the world that the child lives in is a gap that we pay little attention to. So I’d like to start off a process that I hope will become a part of this community and it involves all of us thinking together and talking with one another about ‘what makes a great school’ and ‘what are the challenges about creating a great school’. I will ask some questions and I’m going to invite you to talk with one another and maybe the kids can even share with us. The first question is: How do I know a good school? What do I see, hear or feel that makes me feel that this is a good school?
We had a meeting last night with the teachers and asked them what they felt about everything and all the challenges that they faced. All the teachers individually said that the most meaningful aspect for them is the happiness of the children and that the children really love the school. So if it’s ok then I’ll just give some of my own thoughts and reflections on this, having worked with many schools over the last 15years. First off I believe that all the difficulties faced by schools, all around the world, come from not being very clear about their purpose. A simple example of what I mean by this is when you start to substitute tests and test scores for real purpose. Tests are not unimportant, it’s an important tool, but it’s only a tool, not a statement of purpose. And if I look at the efforts of creating innovative schools all around the world, there is one theme that comes up again and again in the best of these schools; ‘what does it mean to grow and develop as a human being?’ What does it mean to develop a sense of your own purpose? What does it mean to develop a capacity of caring for other people, genuinely? What does it take to be effective and to actually accomplish things, and particularly together, not just on your own?
That’s what we see here in the teamwork activities; something that’s been widely missing in American schools for a long time. So when you talked about aspiration, it’s really the first principle I’ve experienced; ‘learners learn what learners want to learn’. Not what teachers want them to learn. Learners learn what they, themselves, want to learn. So how does a human being develop their own sense of aspiration, which lifts them and orients them? There’s a second purpose though, which I think sometimes is even more subtle. And I think we miss the first purpose often, but the second we don’t even think about explicitly. It’s a very powerful force implicitly. ‘School is the primary institution that conserves culture’. It’s a complicated matter, because that can be a way of saying that schools should never change, schools should always be the way it used to be. In my experience that is most of the time the force that does operate. Parents have an idea of what school should be, based on their experience in school, so in that sense schools don’t innovate, they don’t create something really new. So there is a real dilemma, a real paradox. How can school conserve culture and how can school also create something new for a different world? We do not live in the world of 50 years ago or 100 years ago or 500 years ago, we live in the world of today. So how can you both conserve and innovate? These children will live in a world that we cannot even imagine. The world 50 years from now will be very different from the world that you and I grew up in. So I leave you with one thought on this, because I think a lot of what you’ve said and what draws you to this school is something about the deepest aspects of traditional Chinese culture. It’s got to do with the roots. If we can connect with the roots, then the tree can grow in many directions. You cannot control where the tree grows, but you can make sure the roots are healthy. So somehow this paradox has to be embraced. To ignore what we truly want to conserve leaves school with no cultural orientation.
Two purposes that I can see is: ‘to grow human beings’ and ‘to create healthy societies’ for the future, not for the past.
Now if I can come back to where I’ve started, this raises very important challenges for you and I as parents. How do we become good partners to the school?
My own criticism to most of us as parents is ‘we send our kids to school and then we turn our backs and walk away’. We say: ‘you educators, you teachers, it’s your responsibility. I’m to busy, I have too many messages to answer, I have too much business to do’. On the other hand, this also raises dilemmas, because as an active, engaged parent, I will see some things that are effective and clear and good, but other things that I’m concerned about. That’s natural; if I’m really engaged, I will see things that are really working and things that I’m concerned about. How do I deal with my concerns? What do we do in a situation like that? How can we be a partner? How would we be effective?
This school needs parents as partners. Larry said that before and if you read that first section of the book, it says right there ‘a healthy community has parents as partners’. Teachers are not easy to reach sometimes. If you have a problem at home, what do you do about it? It’s not an easy solution. Frankly, kids are very smart though. If they think that they can get away with doing anything differently at home than what they’re doing at school, they will. So here at the school, one of the things that I observed is that the kids work together a lot, so it tends to keep them on track if they see what each other are doing. There’s a lot of peer pressure, which is very healthy I believe. A lot of them have the sense that somebody else is doing something, so they also have to do it. I’m sure that’s how a lot of work actually gets done; it’s not just the teachers. It’s their peers and their expectations they have for each other. It’s a very healthy social arrangement, but those are the kids that are not at home. It’s the perfect example of an interface. The interface between an innovative school and us as parents is a very big challenge.
So all I can really offer as advice is a reminder; first, this is new, it’s a new school with new teachers and people running the school who have created it from the beginning. Compassion and understanding is very important! But, when you see something that you are concerned about, find somebody that you can talk to, find a teacher to talk to. It’s very important for us as parents to engage as active parents. One of the things that is very important to us is that the parents are not just trying to get rid of their kids, the kids are now gone. You are the parents; you have a crucial role in how they develop as human beings. They know it and they look to you. You have to build your own sense of ‘how to I partner with these teachers? Be patient, but don’t give up.
I can give you one more small suggestion, but I think many of you already do it instinctively. Your children are also your teachers. We don’t just shape our children like a box of wood, they come into our lives and also teach us. One feeling I had this morning and this afternoon, watching the kids, was how for each of us as parents, aunts, uncles, grand parents; this is also an opportunity for us to learn, for us to get connected to our deep cultural knowledge. China has a wonderful gift to give the world, if we all can connect to this deep knowledge. It’s a wonderful thing to have your kids in a school where they learn things that you also want to learn. Thank you very much.