PBS高端访谈:科罗拉多高中用交谈取代惩罚

 　　JUDY WOODRUFF:Now: curbing¹ conflicts in high school.

　　Hari Sreenivasan looks at a new approach to discipline that replaces suspensions with conversations.

　　HARI SREENIVASAN:In Aurora², Colorado, principal Matthew Willis welcomes the recent changes at Hinkley High School, where 75 percent of the 2,000-plus students qualify for free and reduced meals.

　　Willis says student fights are down and respect among classmates is up.

　　MATTHEW WILLIS, Principal, Hinkley High School: Last year we had 48 percent reduction in out-of-school suspensions. When it comes to physical altercations⁴ between students, in 2007-’8, we had approximately 263 physical altercations, and so far for this year, we have only had 31 physical altercations.

　　WOMAN:So, good morning. Thank you for being here.

　　HARI SREENIVASAN:The turnaround, he says, began when Hinkley High started using a form of discipline called restorative justice.

　　MATTHEW WILLIS: Every single year over the last three full years that we have been doing restorative justice, you see significant declines in defiance⁵, disobedience and use of profanity.

　　BONNIE MARTINEZ, Dean of Students, Hinkley High School:This is called a talking circle, so when we have problems in this school, we come together and talk about it.

　　HARI SREENIVASAN:Now, when a minor⁶ altercation³ does occur, students, parents and the dean face each other in a restorative circle.

　　BONNIE MARTINEZ:Restorative is that you bring back the kids, if it’s student with student. Or if it’s student with staff, you restore the relationship. So, if there’s conflict around wrongdoing, we come together and we talk about it, and we try to heal the harm that was caused from the incident.

　　HARI SREENIVASAN:Dean of students Bonnie Martinez facilitates.

　　BONNIE MARTINEZ:Speak openly and honestly, but with respect.

　　HARI SREENIVASAN:On the day we visited, two sophomores⁸ girls caught up in a physical fight were brought to a circle with their parents, instead of being suspended.

　　BONNIE MARTINEZ:So, this is our talking stick, so whoever is holding this is the one talking and everyone else is listening.

　　You say what happened from your point of view.

　　And you say what happened from your point of view.

　　And, sometimes, we don’t always agree on all the facts, or whatever.

　　STUDENT: And she called me the B-word, and then — and then we just started fighting.

　　STUDENT:That’s kind of a liar⁹ of you. She say, to be honest, and I think you have to be honest. I was here, and she come walking to me and just…

　　HARI SREENIVASAN: Students are asked to talk about the harm their actions may have caused, and Martinez requires everyone to sign an agreement.

　　BONNIE MARTINEZ:What do you take responsibility for? What do you think we could do to heal the harm that was caused?

　　STUDENT: I’m sorry for having these problems that we have been having, and I don’t want it to happen again.

　　BONNIE MARTINEZ:OK. You’re not going to be enemies, but you’re going to treat each other with respect?

　　That, to some people, may be viewed as a soft discipline, especially if you look at the Western culture. You know, we’re about war and violence. We’re not about peace and harmony. But, however, for those girls to come together, and for their families to come together, and talk about it, and to really — you know, to express truly, what happened, how did it affect me and others, what am I responsible for, and how do I solve it, that’s — that’s deeper than just writing up paperwork and one person goes their way and the other person goes their way, and nothing was ever communicated.

　　DEANNA KLINE, Student Counselor¹⁰, Hinkley High School: What do we know about anger? It is a secondary feeling. What is underneath¹¹ anger?

　　STUDENT:A lot of deeper emotional…

　　DEANNA KLINE: A lot of deeper emotions and feelings.

　　HARI SREENIVASAN:At Hinkley, the restorative justice circles go beyond the dean’s office. Peer mentoring¹² classes use role-playing to teach students how to conduct circles on their own.

　　MAN: How does that make you feel?

　　STUDENT:It pisses me off that he’s spreading rumors¹³ about me. Like, but I didn’t do nothing…

　　HARI SREENIVASAN: Sophomore⁷ Nyece Smith thinks the circles bring better results than suspension.

　　NYECE SMITH:It used to be like you just get sent home for five days. But that doesn’t solve nothing. You just sit there and you come back with the same anger.

　　DEANNA KLINE:When teachers don’t resolve the harm by doing restorative justice, then that conflict is always there. And usually what will happen is, kids will just stay angry. And I don’t like that teacher, and so I don’t care what you say. And they will just disrupt, disrupt, disrupt.

　　WOMAN:I’m deeply sorry about what’s going on.

　　HARI SREENIVASAN:Models like Hinkley’s have gained national attention after the Obama administration in January directed school districts to scrap¹⁴ overly zealous¹⁵ zero tolerance¹⁶ policies that led to automatic suspensions and criminal records.

　　Such policies, the officials said, impacted minorities at higher rates. Colorado’s legislature eliminated zero tolerance in schools 2012.

　　MATTHEW WILLIS: The ideas of traditional discipline don’t exist anymore. When — in the old days, we — when a student or kid got into trouble, we would spank¹⁷ them. And we moved away from spanking¹⁸, because it no longer met the values of our society.

　　The same is true with the traditional discipline, where it’s all about punishment, punishment, punishment. It’s not about restoring relationships. It’s not about taking responsibility for your actions. It’s about punishment. And so that no longer fits the society of our future. What fits the society of our future is people coming together on working and solving problems together.

　　HARI SREENIVASAN: And while Colorado is now ahead of the national movement, the state actually played a role in the making of zero tolerance policies, after the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School.

　　SARAH PARK, The Denver Foundation: Any time you’re in a school, you have got all these stakeholders.

　　HARI SREENIVASAN: Sarah Park is the director of education for the Denver Foundation, one of the sponsors of Hinkley’s restorative justice program.

　　SARAH PARK:In Colorado, our zero tolerance law was really in response to Columbine. And we were scared. We were all heartbroken. We were terrified, and we wanted to make sure kids were safe.

　　And so we thought, well, let’s do this. Let’s make sure — let’s make clear that this is non-negotiable. And that’s really where the intention around zero tolerance came from. Unfortunately, the way it played out was, was — was in more negative educational outcomes.

　　You can’t learn if you’re not there. And they also — there’s studies linking suspension to incarcerations. And it’s much more likely that if a kid is suspended, or repeatedly suspended, that they will end up in jail, and it’s much more likely that if they’re suspended even once in ninth grade, they’re more likely to drop out.

　　HARI SREENIVASAN:Aurora police officer Jake Bunch, who is assigned to Hinkley High School, says social media has accelerated his need to rely on personal connections that can come from restorative justice.

　　OFFICER JAKE BUNCH, Aurora Police Department:With like Facebook and Twitter, information just spreads so quickly now, that it’s hard to stay on top of it, because the kids know about something that’s going to go down way before we could ever know.

　　If kids — if I build that relationship with them, and they know they can come talk to me before it becomes a violent issue, it ties right in with restorative justice.

　　HARI SREENIVASAN:Not all conflicts can be resolved through restorative circles. Even supporters see the process as one of many approaches. And skeptics question if stopping down class time for circles limits learning. Test scores at Hinkley High School hover¹⁹ below the state average.

　　For his part, principal Willis remains²⁰ a strong believer in the approach and is sharing the school’s methods with districts across the state.

1 curbing   

n.边石，边石的材料v.限制，克制，抑制( curb的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Progress has been made in curbing inflation. 在控制通货膨胀方面已取得了进展。
• A range of policies have been introduced aimed at curbing inflation. 为了抑制通货膨胀实施了一系列的政策。

2 aurora   

n.极光

参考例句：

• The aurora is one of nature's most awesome spectacles.极光是自然界最可畏的奇观之一。
• Over the polar regions we should see aurora.在极地高空,我们会看到极光。

3 altercation   

n.争吵，争论

参考例句：

• Throughout the entire altercation,not one sensible word was uttered.争了半天，没有一句话是切合实际的。
• The boys had an altercation over the umpire's decision.男孩子们对裁判的判决颇有争议。

4 altercations   

n.争辩，争吵( altercation的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Have I been in physical altercations with men? 我有和男人们发生肢体上冲突么？ 来自互联网

5 defiance   

n.挑战，挑衅，蔑视，违抗

参考例句：

• He climbed the ladder in defiance of the warning.他无视警告爬上了那架梯子。
• He slammed the door in a spirit of defiance.他以挑衅性的态度把门砰地一下关上。

6 minor   

adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修

参考例句：

• The young actor was given a minor part in the new play.年轻的男演员在这出新戏里被分派担任一个小角色。
• I gave him a minor share of my wealth.我把小部分财产给了他。

7 sophomore   

n.大学二年级生；adj.第二年的

参考例句：

• He is in his sophomore year.他在读二年级。
• I'm a college sophomore majoring in English.我是一名英语专业的大二学生。

8 sophomores   

n.（中等、专科学校或大学的）二年级学生( sophomore的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• We are freshmen and they are sophomores. 我们是一年级学生，他们是二年级学生。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Over half the students in the course are sophomores. 听这门课的一大半是二年级学生。 来自辞典例句

9 liar   

n.说谎的人

参考例句：

• I know you for a thief and a liar!我算认识你了，一个又偷又骗的家伙！
• She was wrongly labelled a liar.她被错误地扣上说谎者的帽子。

10 counselor   

n.顾问，法律顾问

参考例句：

• The counselor gave us some disinterested advice.顾问给了我们一些无私的忠告。
• Chinese commercial counselor's office in foreign countries.中国驻国外商务参赞处。

11 underneath   

adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面

参考例句：

• Working underneath the car is always a messy job.在汽车底下工作是件脏活。
• She wore a coat with a dress underneath.她穿着一件大衣，里面套着一条连衣裙。

12 mentoring   

n.mentoring是一种工作关系。mentor通常是处在比mentee更高工作职位上的有影响力的人。他/她有比‘mentee’更丰富的工作经验和知识，并用心支持mentee的职业（发展）。v.（无经验之人的）有经验可信赖的顾问( mentor的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• One of the most effective instruments for coaching and mentoring is the "role rehearsal" . 辅导和教学的最有效的手段之一是“角色排练。” 来自辞典例句
• Bell Canada called their mentoring system a buddy-buddy system. 加拿大贝尔公司称他们的训导系统是伙伴—伙伴系统。 来自互联网

13 rumors   

n.传闻( rumor的名词复数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷v.传闻( rumor的第三人称单数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷

参考例句：

• Rumors have it that the school was burned down. 有谣言说学校给烧掉了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Rumors of a revolt were afloat. 叛变的谣言四起。 来自《简明英汉词典》

14 scrap   

n.碎片；废料；v.废弃，报废

参考例句：

• A man comes round regularly collecting scrap.有个男人定时来收废品。
• Sell that car for scrap.把那辆汽车当残品卖了吧。

15 zealous   

adj.狂热的，热心的

参考例句：

• She made zealous efforts to clean up the classroom.她非常热心地努力清扫教室。
• She is a zealous supporter of our cause.她是我们事业的热心支持者。

16 tolerance   

n.宽容；容忍，忍受；耐药力；公差

参考例句：

• Tolerance is one of his strengths.宽容是他的一个优点。
• Human beings have limited tolerance of noise.人类对噪音的忍耐力有限。

17 spank   

v.打，拍打(在屁股上)

参考例句：

• Be careful.If you don't work hard,I'll spank your bottom.你再不好好学习，小心被打屁股。
• He does it very often.I really get mad.I can't help spank him sometimes.他经常这样做。我很气愤。有时候我忍不住打他的屁股。

18 spanking   

adj.强烈的，疾行的；n.打屁股

参考例句：

• The boat is spanking along on the river.船在小河疾驶。
• He heard a horse approaching at a spanking trot.他听到一匹马正在疾步驰近。

19 hover   

vi.翱翔，盘旋；徘徊；彷徨，犹豫

参考例句：

• You don't hover round the table.你不要围着桌子走来走去。
• A plane is hover on our house.有一架飞机在我们的房子上盘旋。

20 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。