时代周刊:一所特许学校的种族争议（9）（在线收听）

Ashenafi isn't in denial about racism; he says he had to labor, sometimes painfully, to gain the acceptance of his white neighbors and co-workers.

阿什纳菲并没有否认种族主义; 他说，为了获得白人邻居和同事的认可，他不得不付出劳动，有时甚至很痛苦。

But it is this sort of integration, he contends, that makes people able to live in harmony.

但他认为，正是这种融合，才使人们能够和谐相处。

He sees the controversy at Mystic Valley as a product of America's broader divisions.

他认为神秘谷的争议是美国更广泛分歧的产物。

"Everyone is very sensitive, very extreme,” he says.

“每个人都非常敏感，非常极端，”他表示。

"I'm trying to teach my kids not to be too sensitive and to put scenarios in perspective.”

“我在努力教我的孩子们不要太敏感，要客观地看待各种情况。”

A few weeks Ago, Halloween was canceled at the public-school district in nearby Melrose, Mass.

几个星期前，马萨诸塞州梅尔罗斯附近的公立学区取消了万圣节活动。

The superintendent announced that generic "fall celebrations” would better advance the goals of "equity and inclusion.”

校长宣布，一般的“秋季庆祝活动”将更好地推进“公平和包容”的目标。

A backlash ensued, and Halloween was subsequently celebrated with such gusto at Mystic Valley that some liberal parents suspected it was an intentional swipe.

这一举动引发了强烈的反对，神秘谷随后热烈地庆祝万圣节，以至于一些自由派家长怀疑这是故意的。

It was an apt distillation of the vexing question facing American education today: to purge children's worlds of the things not everyone can share, or expose them all to the same thing, whether or not they can relate to it?

这恰如其分地提炼了当今美国教育面临的棘手问题：清理孩子们的世界，让他们知道并不是每个人都懂得分享，或者让他们接触同样的东西，不管他们是否与之相关？

And is there any neutral ground between the extremes?

在这两个极端之间有没有中间地带?

The answers to these questions may be existential for Mystic Valley.

对于神秘谷来说，这些问题的答案可能关乎生死存亡。

The school's lawsuit against DESE is pending, and the state board recently denied it a waiver from the new cultural- responsiveness criteria.

学校对DESE的诉讼悬而未决，而且州委员会最近拒绝了该校放弃新的文化反应标准。

Several Democratic state legislators are pressuring the school to change.

几位民主党州议员正在向学校施压，要求其做出改变。

Mystic Valley officials believe the internal DESE emails they uncovered prove that the fix is in and the state is determined to find a pretext on which to revoke its charter, which is up for renewal in 2023.

神秘谷的官员认为，他们发现的DESE内部电子邮件证明，确实出现了问题，该州决心找到借口撤销其特许权，该特许权将于2023年续期。

It would be a brutal irony, they say, if an institution with a track record of improving outcomes for children of color is shut down in the name of antiracism.

他们说，如果一个有改善有色人种儿童状况记录的机构以反种族主义的名义被关闭，这将是一个残酷的讽刺。

Rita Mercado, a Filipino-American government lawyer who lives in Melrose, is among the parents who believe in Mystic Valley's vision of inclusion.

住在梅尔罗斯的菲律宾裔美国政府律师丽塔·梅尔卡多(Rita Mercado)是相信神秘谷包容愿景的家长之一。

She sees a group of children from diverse backgrounds who are learning to get along without taking anyone's identity for granted.

她看到一群来自不同背景的孩子，他们正在学习如何相处，而不是将任何人的身份视为理所当然。

At an "American heritage” performance her son took part in when he was in kindergarten, "seeing 100 kids of different nationalities singing ‘This Land Is Your Land,' I remember thinking, This is what I envision America to be.”

在她儿子上幼儿园时参加的“美国传统”表演中，“看到100个不同国籍的孩子唱《这片土地是你的土地》，我记得当时想的是，这就是我想象中的美国。”

Mercado's son, now 7, wasn't aware of the town's Halloween kerfuffle when he wrote a letter to his penpal earlier in the fall.

梅尔卡多的儿子今年7岁，在秋天早些时候给笔友写信时，他并不知道镇上的万圣节骚乱。

Do you celebrate Halloween, the second-grader wanted to know, and if so, what do you do? Reading it, Mercado's heart swelled with pride.

二年级的学生想知道，你们庆祝万圣节吗?如果庆祝，你们会做什么? 梅尔卡多读了信，心中充满了骄傲。

This sort of curiosity was instinctive to him: he knew from school that not everyone celebrates Christmas, or Hanukkah, or Diwali, so it made sense to ask.

这种好奇心对他来说是一种本能：他从学校就知道，不是每个人都庆祝圣诞节、光明节或排灯节，所以才会问这个问题。

"Score one for these kids being more woke than me!” she says.

“这些孩子比我更清醒，给他们加一分! ”她说。

It's the adults who are still trying to figure it all out.

而成年人仍在试图弄清楚这一切。