急需关于中小学教育的英文文章

Answer 1

　　Sports are a kind of education

　　For many young people in my part of the world (suburban America), the first brush with organized athletics comes on a Saturday morning in early spring. The weather is getting warmer and the school year's end is imminent, and moms, sensing the approach of summer vacation and Too Much Free Time, pile us into the backs of minivans and drive us to our town's local sports and recreation center. In my hometown, Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey, kids converge each year on the EHT Youth Organization Building, a cinderblock shack in the middle of a handful of baseball and football fields. There lines are waited in, forms filled out, birth certificates examined and photocopied, health insurance waivers furnished and signed. At the end of the morning, kids are signed up for little-league baseball and an instant summer schedule of activities has been created. Then it's time to go to Burger King.
　　体育也是教育

　　在这个世界上我所居住的地区(美国市郊)，很多少年第一次接触有组织的体育活动是在初春的某个星期六上午。那时天气正在转暖，学校的课程也接近尾声，妈妈们意识到暑假即将来临，孩子们将有太多太多的自由时间，便把我们塞到小面包车的后座上，开到镇上的体育娱乐中心。在我的老家，新泽西州的蛋湾镇，孩子们每年都会聚到镇上的“青少年组织大厦”，那是一座位于几个棒球场和橄榄球场中央的用水泥矿渣砌的小房子。大家排着队等着进去，要填写表格，要检验出生证明并复印，并在提供的健康保险弃权书上签字。快到中午的时候，孩子们已经成为小小棒球联合会的一员，一到夏季就马上开始的活动计划也制定了出来。之后，便是去汉堡王快餐厅的时候了。

　　For parents seeking productive ways to occupy their children's time, summer sports leagues offer a convenient and time-tested outlet for overabundant energy. In my case that meant baseball. America's pastime: nine weeks of pitched fastballs and sore elbows, grounders up the middle, digging it out to first base, shagging flies in the outfield and swatting mosquitoes in the infield. Then, after six innings, back to Burger King.

　　A couple of weeks after the signups at the cinderblock shack, we kids would be rounded up into teams and coached in the fundamentals of pitching, catching, hitting, and running bases. We'd be supplied with color-coded jerseys and mesh baseball caps, and then we would play a season's worth of games against one another. Playoffs would be held and champions crowned. At the end of the season an all-star team of the league's best players would be assembled to play against the best teams from neighboring towns.
　　对于那些寻求以富有成果的方式来占据孩子业余时间的父母来说，夏季体育联合会为精力过剩的孩子们提供了方便而且经受了时间检验的释放能量的出口。就我而言，这个出口就是棒球。这是一种美国的消闲方式：九周的快速投球，胳膊肘酸疼；打出一直滚到场中间的地滚球；从地上捡起球再扔给第一垒；在边场抓住飞球；在内场拍打蚊子。每天赛过六局之后，就去汉堡王快餐店了。

　　在水泥矿渣小屋报名后几周，我们这些孩子就被召集起来组成球队，跟着教练学基本的投球、接球、击球和跑垒，还发给我们有彩色号码的运动衫与带网眼的棒球帽，接下来我们就开始一个赛季的相互比赛。加时赛将会举行，最后决出冠军。在赛季末尾，由小小球联最好的队员组成的全明星队员集结在一起与邻镇最棒的球队比赛。

　　Back and forth across the country this system repeats itself from town to town and sport to sport with little variation. Some leagues have storied pasts: baseball's Little League or football's Pop Warner League. Some are newer. In cities it is often the Policemen's Benevolent Association or the YMCA that assumes the sponsorship role. Always, though, there is the underlying idea that organized sport is a valuable and productive use of a young person's time. Sports, in short, are a kind of education, teaching important life skills that can't be learned in school.

　　Ideas about the educational value of sports vary widely. For some, sports foster the social development of young people, teaching kids how to interact with their peers outside the classroom. Sports teach kids what it means to compete - how to cope with losing, how to respond gracefully to success. Sports are about teamwork, how to work together toward a common goal. Sometimes they're about developing a sense of self-esteem. Sometimes they're simply about finding a healthy way to tire hyperactive kids out so they'll sit still in class or get to bed at a reasonable hour. Some bolder advocates claim that their games build character.
　　在全美国，这样的运动体系从一个城镇到另一个城镇，从一种运动到另一种运动，反反复复地重复着，没有太大的变化。有些体育联合会有着传奇般的历史，如棒球的小小球联，橄榄球的老华纳球联，有些联合会则是新建的。在大城市中通常是“警方慈善联合会”或者是“青年基督教联合会”担任体育联合会的主办方。然而，共有的一个基本想法是：有组织的体育活动是对青少年业余时间的很有价值、很有成果的利用。简而言之，体育也是一种教育，它教给孩子们在学校学不到的重要的生活技能。

　　关于体育的教育价值的认识很宽泛，不尽相同。有人认为，体育促进了青少年社会交往能力，教会孩子们如何在课堂外与同伴打交道；体育教给孩子竞争意味着什么——如何对待失利,如何温文尔雅地面对胜利；体育是团队活动，如何为了一个共同目标而携手共进；有时候，体育可培养自尊心；有时候，体育不过是找到一种健康方式让多动的孩子精疲力尽，好让他们能够安静地坐在课堂上，或是在该睡觉的钟点能上床。一些更大胆的拥护者声称他们的体育项目可以塑造高尚品格。

　　Given the prevailing educational undercurrent, it's no surprise that many kids' second brush with organized athletics takes place in a school. Junior highs and high schools sponsor their own sports programs and field teams of football, basketball, soccer and tennis players. There the educational theme is given a more direct and tangible form as squads of student-athletes travel around the state representing their schools on the field, court or diamond. Yet here, strangely enough, is where a bit of the educational component begins to alter. High school teams are necessarily more selective than their youth league predecessors. Tryouts are held, and less promising players are cut. Coaches receive salaries, and there is an expectation that the teams they shape will win. In sum, there is a slight change in emphasis away from education and toward outright competition.

　　Little-league sports, by contrast, are fundamentally egalitarian institutions, inclusive, unselective and welcoming (at least in theory) of different levels of ability. An important question in US life: how to balance this wish to be inclusive with the need to maintain authentic competition and play to win? This is indeed an important question in all walks of life and in any country.
　　考虑到体育运动普遍而潜在的教育作用，很多孩子第二次接触有组织的体育活动发生在学校也就不奇怪了。很多初中和高中都举办他们自己的体育项目并组织橄榄球、篮球、足球和网球队。当学生运动队代表本校到州内的各足球、篮球、棒球场上巡回比赛，教育主题就被赋予了更直接更具体的形式。然而，极为奇怪的是，教育成分在这里开始有了一点儿改变，高中的校队比中小学校队的选拔要严多了，学校要进行测试，发展前途不大的队员就被淘汰掉了。教练们有工资，而且期望自己培养的球队能在比赛中打赢。总之，以教育为主的侧重点有了细微的变化，开始向彻底竞争的方向转化。

　　相比之下，小小球联的体育运动则从根本上是平等的组织，它包容一切青少年，不进行筛选，欢迎各种能力的孩子参加(至少理论上是如此)。在美国的社会生活中，一个重要的问题就是：如何平衡既要包容所有人又要保证权威性的竞争并且获胜？这的确是一个各行各业以及任何一个国家都存在的重要问题。

　　I proved a mediocre baseball player in high school but an above-average (American) football player, and as time passed I devoted more and more energy to that endeavor. Why? So I could get a scholarship to college and continue my education, of course.

　　Living in China, I find that one of the things I miss most is watching my high school and college teams play other schools' teams each Saturday afternoon. That and Burger King.
　　在高中时，事实证明我打棒球平平，但橄榄球却在中等之上。随着时间的推移，我把越来越多的精力投入到奋力拼搏的橄榄球运动中。为什么呢？因为我这样可以得到上大学的奖学金继续我的学业。

　　来到中国，我发现最怀念的事情之一就是在国内时每星期六下午看我中学母校与大学母校的校队与其他校队比赛。此外还有汉堡王快餐厅。William R. Sprouse北京青年报