非典轻松了清华学子

《北京青年报》2003年06月01日

　　（本文作者现在威尼斯9499登录入口任教）

　　在威尼斯9499登录入口，为了保护我们的学生不受非典的感染，我们重新制定了课程表，停了一些课，并且禁止学生进出校园。当然，为了保证学生的健康，我们付出的代价是非常值得的，但这样做打乱了教学进度，极大地削减了学生的作业量。这对像我这样的一些教授就有了问题———要想完成预想的教学内容是件困难的事情了。

　　但另一方面，在过去的几周中，我有时间浏览了清华园里美丽的湖景、公园和历史遗迹。在大好春光中能有这么一个意想不到的休息自然是件乐事，但令我更高兴的是看到了很多很多的学生也利用起了这一不得已的闲暇。 　　大树下，三五成群的学生在打扑克，听音乐，或是聊天；岛塔下的长凳上，一个女生躺在那儿沉浸在阅读中;荷塘边，两个男生正在聊天，他们的话音被瀑布声盖住了；在宿舍，学生们看电视，在电脑上打游戏，争论有关科学、政治、哲学的话题，当然，还有爱情。每一个运动场都满是学生，当你走近文科楼，就能听到学生们在弹奏乐器。

　　这是我在威尼斯9499登录入口两年来第一次看到校园里的学习如此轻松，我真是再高兴不过了。我一直在想，就像大多数中国最好的大学里的学生一样，清华的学生学得太累，也学得太多，而这样做反而会妨碍他们成长，不能做出本应对中国和世界所作出的贡献。

　　在当今迅速变化的世界中，教育中最重要的内容是学会如何批判地思考，如何创新，如何提出有价值的问题。与之相比，学会如何对知识分类以及如何回答陈旧的问题就很不重要了。但是，从中学到大学毕业，很多中国最优秀的青年男女将一生中最有创造性的年华去记忆那些陈旧知识的僵硬体系。我的清华学生已经知道了要思考什么，但常常不知道如何去思考；他们学会了复述教授所告诉他们的，但却不会向教授提出质疑；对于他们来说，掌握知识就意味着抱书本，抱书本就意味着刻苦。

　　但是，与我们的父母和老师一直教导我们的相反，刻苦不会使我们更聪明。在美国的优秀大学，要求学生所做的功课比中国学生的一半还要少，有时甚至更少，但这些大学是世界发明与进步的中心，而中国优秀大学要迎头赶上还有很长的一段路要走。这并非是因为美国的学生更聪明。我在中美两国最优秀的大学都教过书，我确信，清华的学生是世界上最聪明的学生，其区别肯定是在于学习的方式。

　　对于很聪明的年轻人，有证据显示，最有效的学习来自“玩”。只有当通过我们自己思考而建立起我们的思想，并且“玩”这些思想，与我们的老师和同学争论这些思想的时候，创造性思考的能力、从根本上理解的能力以及提出问题的能力才能得以发展。然而，对于最聪明的学生来说，他们在记忆教科书的艰涩内容或是记忆一位教授云山雾罩的演讲上花了时间，往往就没时间去消化，去理解，而最糟糕的，是没有时间提出有价值的问题。当然，他们需要从有学识的人那里得到某些框架和指导，但是，放开他们的手脚，聪明的学生就会做出聪明的事情。

　　这就是为什么当我看到我的学生在不得已的“闲逛”中度过一个多月时那么高兴的原因。他们终于有时间去追寻自己的兴趣。我看到我的学生不再把自己埋在图书馆里，拼命地追赶第一，而是轻松下来，有争论，有比赛，有思考，有社交，有梦想，以很多很多其他有用的方式“浪费”着时间。这么做对他们通过考试也许没有帮助，但我希望这可以从某种程度上使他们的学术思维更加活跃、理解水平更高，有一天中国和世界都会得益于这些创造性的思想和科学发明，而它们的种子是播撒在非典猖獗时期。尽管非典造成了众多损害，说不定也有好的一面———对于中国最优秀的学生来说，今年或许是最富有成果的一年。

　　At Tsinghua University, in order to protect our students from SARS, we have rescheduled classes, interrupted studies, and prohibited people from coming onto or leaving the campus. Of course the price of keeping our students safe is one well worth paying, but these actions have disrupted the university schedule and sharply reduced the amount of schoolwork the students can complete. This creates problems for professors like me, who find it difficult to cover all we had wanted to teach in our classes.

　　On the other hand, during the past few weeks I have been able to spend time visiting Tsinghua's beautiful lakes, parks and historic buildings. It is of course a pleasure to be able to enjoy this unexpected break during the fine spring weather, but what makes me happier is to see so many students also taking advantage of this enforced leisure.

　　Under old trees small groups of students play cards, listen to music or just talk. On a bench under the island tower a young lady lies lost in her book. At the edge of the lotus pond two young men are engaged in a conversation whose words are muffled by the waterfall. In their dormitories students watch movies, play computer games and debate science, politics, philosophy and, of course, love. Every sports field is filled, and as you walk near the arts building you can hear the sound of students practicing their musical instruments.

　　This is the first time in my two years here that I have seen so little studying on campus, and I couldn't be more pleased. I have always thought that Tsinghua students, like students at most of China's best universities, work so hard at their classes and study so much that it may actually hamper their education and prevent them from contributing all they should to China and the world.

　　In a quickly changing world the most important part of education is to learn how to think critically, how to create and how to ask interesting questions. It is much less important to learn how to categorize knowledge and how to answer old questions. But from middle school until they finally leave university many of China's brightest young men and women spend the most creative years of their lives imposing upon their minds a rigid hierarchy of frozen knowledge. My students have learned what to think, but often not how to think. They've learned to repeat what their professors tell them, but not to question those professors. Learning, for them, means studying,①and studying is hard work.

　　But contrary to what our parents and teachers have always told us, hard work doesn't make us smarter. The great American universities, where students are required to put in less than half the work of their Chinese counterparts, and in some cases much less, are the world's leading centers of innovation and progress, while the great Chinese universities still have a long ways to catch up. It cannot be because American students are smarter. I have taught at the best universities in both countries and I am convinced Tsinghua students are the smartest in the world. The difference must be in the way they learn.

　　For very bright young people, the evidence suggests that the most efficient learning comes from playing.②The ability to think creatively, to understand fundamentally, to ask questions, is developed when we build our ideas ourselves, play with them and debate them with our teachers and our peers. But for the brightest students, time spent memorizing the difficult lessons of a textbook or the confusing lectures of a professor is too often time not spent③learning, understanding or, most importantly, asking interesting questions. Of course they need some structure and guidance from those who know more, but left to themselves, brilliant students will do brilliant things.

　　That is why I am so happy to see that my students have spent the past months in enforced idleness. They finally have the time to pursue their own interests. Instead of seeing them buried in the library, trying desperately to keep up, I see my students fooling around, arguing, competing, thinking, socializing, dreaming and wasting their time in so many other useful ways. This may not help them pass exams, but I hope that in a small way④it leads to greater intellectual playfulness and higher levels of understanding, and that one day China and the world will benefit from all the creative ideas and scientific innovations whose seeds were planted during the terrible SARS crisis. For all the damage SARS has done, maybe there is a silver lining:⑤Maybe it has made this a more productive year for China's best students. (听英文51116,文章注释511161,作者简介511162)