时代周刊:一所特许学校的种族争议（8）（在线收听）

The point of charter schools, Dan notes, is to offer pedagogical choice to all students, not just those who can afford private schools.

丹指出，特许学校的意义在于为所有学生提供教学选择，而不仅仅是那些能负担得起私立学校费用的学生。

It baffles him that people call Mystic Valley racist when it's producing better academic outcomes for minority students.

让他困惑的是，当神秘谷为少数族裔学生带来更好的学业成绩时，人们却称其为种族主义者。

"The fundamental premise of charter-school education is equalizing the playing field for kids from all backgrounds,” he says.

他说:“特许学校教育的基本前提是为所有背景的孩子提供公平的竞争环境。”

"When you look at the data, it tells a vastly different story than what this small, vocal group of critics wants to claim.”

“当你查看数据时，你会发现，它所讲述的故事与少数批评人士想要宣称的理念截然不同。”

This is what confounds Mystic Valley's satisfied customers: What better way to fight injustice than to close the achievement gap and make better futures possible for children of color?

这就是神秘谷让那些满意的客户感到困惑的原因:在对抗不公正的方式中，哪种方式能比缩小成就差距和为有色人种孩子创造更美好未来的方式更好？

"One of the things that's most ironic to me is Mystic Valley being labeled conservative when it has some of the most audacious goals for student achievement,” says Brett Chevalier, a self described liberal whose daughters are in eighth and third grade at the school.

布雷特·谢瓦利埃(Brett Chevalier)自称是自由派，他的两个女儿在这所学校分别读八年级和三年级。他说:“对我来说，最具讽刺意味的一件事是，神秘谷为学生成就设定了一些最大胆的目标，却被贴上了保守的标签。”

"I see it as just the opposite—they're so idealistic, so dedicated to equality.

“我认为恰恰相反——他们太理想化了，太执着于平等了。

The problems of the Founding Fathers aside, America is founded on the idea that anybody can come here and make it.”

撇开开国元勋的问题不谈，美国是建立在这样一个理念上的:任何人都可以来到这里并取得成功。”

An MIT-trained scientist originally from lily-white rural Canada, Chevalier especially loves the diversity his children are exposed to at Mystic Valley.

这位麻省理工学院毕业的科学家最初来自加拿大的白人农村，谢瓦利埃特别喜欢他的孩子们在神秘谷接触到的多样性。

Fellow parents say the school's quality is inextricable from its monocultural approach.

其他家长表示，该校的教学质量与其单一的教学方法密不可分。

"The way the school handles it, the idea we're all the same—I wish I had that as a kid growing up,” says Jeff Chau, a son of Chinese immigrants who works in IT.

在IT行业工作的中国移民之子杰夫周（Jeff Chau）说:“学校处理问题的方式，我们都一样的想法——我希望我从小就有这样的想法。”

"My wife and I came from low-income families. I didn't want to be labeled and singled out, but I was. I didn't get to be the funny kid, the nice kid, the smart kid—it was always the poor kid, the Chinese kid, the short kid.”

“我妻子和我来自低收入家庭。我不想被贴上标签，被孤立，但我确实被孤立了。我没有成为那个有趣的孩子、善良的孩子、聪明的孩子——我一直都是个可怜的孩子、中国的孩子、矮个的孩子。”

"The poor, Chinese, short kid,” his wife Karen Chau chimes in.

“那个可怜的矮个子中国孩子，”他的妻子周凯伦(Karen Chau)插话道。

"I didn't have a lot of self-esteem growing up because of who I was.

“因为我的身份，我在成长过程中没有太多的自尊。

We've progressed so far in this country, I don't think my son will ever have to go through the type of racism I experienced in inner-city Boston.”

到目前为止，这个国家已经取得了进步，我想我的儿子永远不必经历我在波士顿市中心所经历的那种种族主义。”

The families I spoke with at Mystic Valley spanned the political as well as socioeconomic spectrum, from conservatives relieved their kids aren't being turned against them to liberals who relish its egalitarianism and diversity.

我在神秘谷采访的家庭中，既有政治派别，也有社会经济派别，既有因孩子没有与自己为敌而感到宽慰的保守派，也有喜欢这里的平等主义和多样性的自由派。

Tes sema Ashenafi, a financial analyst and Ethiopian immigrant, was concerned by the news reports about the school and asked his Black 13-year-old twins if anything bad had happened to them.

金融分析师、埃塞俄比亚移民泰斯·西玛·阿什纳菲(Tes sema Ashenafi)对有关这所学校的新闻报道感到担忧，他问自己13岁的黑人双胞胎是否遭遇了什么不幸。

He concluded things were being blown out of proportion.

他的结论是，事情被夸大了。

"There are some bad apples everywhere you go, but in my perspective this has been exaggerated by people who are trying to bring down the school,” he says.

他表示:“你到哪儿都会有一些害群之马，但在我看来，这被那些试图搞垮学校的人夸大了。”

"I'm a beneficiary of this country. It has done a lot for me, much more than my birth country.”

“我是这个国家的受益者。它为我做了很多，远远超过了我的出生国。”