【龙腾网】美国的教育系统是世界上最糟糕的之一，它是怎么成为科技最先进的国家的呢？
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原创翻译：龙腾网 http://www.ltaaa.com 翻译：听海的礁石 转载请注明出处
How is the USA the most technologically advanced country when it has one of the worst educational systems?
美国的教育系统是世界上最糟糕的之一，它是怎么成为科技最先进的国家的呢？
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原创翻译：龙腾网 http://www.ltaaa.com 翻译：听海的礁石 转载请注明出处
James Kwon Lee, Film Writer-Director-Producer
In terms of the International Math Olympiad, USA has ranked 1st place in the world a whopping 4 times out of the last 5 years. China and South Korea are the only other competitive countries that have won 1st place nearly as many times throughout the history of the competition.
Above is a picture of Team USA, a group of six elite high school students that will undoubtedly lead our technological future. Notice anything unusual? All of them are Chinese-American except for that one ginger lad. Previous US world champions reflect a similar ethnic makeup.
My answer is a bit tongue-in-cheek, but it illustrates a salient point—the US routinely arbitrages the top talents of immigrants from other nations.
US immigrants and or their immediate descendants are the founders of:
Apple (Steve Jobs - 2nd gen Syrian-American),
Google (Sergey Brin - 1st gen Russian-American),
Amazon (Jeff Bezos - 2nd gen Cuban-American),
Tesla (Elon Musk - 1st gen South African American), and many more.
So why do immigrants come to the US in the first place?
Its “educational system.”
说到国际奥林匹克数学竞赛，在过去五年中，美国占据第一名的次数达到了惊人的4次。
在这个比赛的整个历史中，得第一名的国家中，中国和韩国是唯一能与美国竞争的国家。
上面这张照片是美国队的合影，这六名优秀的高中生，毫无疑问会引领我们科技的未来。注意到什么不寻常的了吗？除了一个姜黄色头发的小伙子，其他都是华裔美国人。美国之前的冠军队伍也是类似的种族构成。
我的回答可能有些搞笑，但它说明了一个突出的问题：美国通常会对来自其他国家的移民的顶尖人才进行掐尖套利。
美国移民或他们的直系后裔，是这些公司的创始人：
苹果（史蒂夫·乔布斯 第二代叙利亚裔美国人）
谷歌（谢尔盖·布林 第一代俄罗斯裔美国人）
亚马逊（杰夫·贝索斯 第二代古巴裔美国人）
特斯拉（埃隆·马斯克 第一代南非裔美国人）
等等，还有很多。
所以，为什么美国是这些移民的首选呢？
它的“教育系统”。
William Lambert, Field Technician
Not even close. Do not let the numbers fool you. The United States test all of it students, the numbers are not a true reflection. I can take you to several prep schools were the average SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test) is 1400 on a 1600 scale.
We have ten of the top universities in the world.
The United States expectations are high for ALL students which skew the results, where it would a catastrophic to score poorly on a placement test in most countries, it''''s a minor inconvenience in the United States.
Are largest state California has a three tier secondary education system. They have U.C., state and community college. The outstanding student can enroll in a U.C., and the academic competition is stiff, students who unprepared for the rigors of U.C. can attend a state university. A person who slept (did not take serious) through high school can attend community college, to prepare for the other two tiers. I am using California, as it population is approximately 10% of the United States, the remaining 49 states have similar system in place.
跟事实不符吧。别要让数字骗了你。美国会测试所有的学生，所以测试的成绩不能反映事实。我可以带去几所预科学校，他们SAT的平均成绩是1400到1600这个区间。
世界上的顶尖高校，我们美国有十所。
对于那些考试成绩不理想的学生来说，进入美国高校这个目标还是比较高不可攀的。在大多数国家，大学入学成绩不好的话，结果就是灾难性的。但是在美国，对学生来说，成绩不好只是一个小小的不便罢了。
美国加州就有三个大学系统，他们有加州大学、加州州立大学和加州社区学院。优秀的学生可以注册加州大学，那里的学术竞争也很激烈。对于加州大学的严苛考试毫无准备的学生，可以上州立大学。对于那些睡着度过高中、没认真学习的学生，可以先上社区学院，为成为其他两级院校的学生做好准备。我用加州举例，是因为它的人口约占美国的10%，其余的49个州的情况也大致如此。
Roksolan Tonikski, Industrial designer and traveler (2000-present)
There’s a lot more to education than technical skill. Education rankings are generated by standardized tests. Everyone’s score is averaged out and compared across the world. This is utterly useless. Let me explain.
I’m an immigrant — moved to Detroit from E Europe in 6th grade. What I remember is that American classes were at least six months or more behind in math. But they had a lively, much more relaxed and comfortable atmosphere full of discussion and debate. It made my old school seem like an oppressive army camp where your success is determined by the ability to memorize and follow instructions.
By high school, we had the option of joining AP math classes if we wanted to, where we studied college level calculus and could even receive college credit. Besides math, AP was offered in biology, chemistry, history, English writing and literature. The classes were small and filled with interested people of similar academic level. This enabled the teacher to be much more efficient and even soar above the requirements of the textbook. On top of that, there were several sports teams and many other extracurricular activities that would provide experience in leadership, organization and entrepreneurship.
What do you have then? A much more diversely developed student body that, as a whole, would probably score lower in math than my fellow Europeans. That’s how you get top notch American talent at math competitions, while others have time to pursue other passions without being forced to study things they have no inclination of pursuing.
If you ask me, even this curriculum was outdated. Learning formulas and proofs is useless for the average person. A class in budget management and financial competency would be much more beneficial. One thing I do know — a place where conformity is rewarded, free thought and exceptionalism is punished, does not produce a creative society.
教育，远远不止技术技能，还有很多其他东西。教学排名是标准化考试产生的。每个国家的得分都是平均分，然后各国之间进行比较。这实际上是毫无意义的。下面我来解释一下。
我是移民，六年级时，从欧洲东部移民到底特律。我记得，那时候的美国数学课程至少落后欧洲六个月，甚至更长的时间。但是他们有着活泼的、更轻松的、充满讨论和辩论的舒适氛围。跟我原来的学校比起来，我原来的学校就像是个压抑的军营，在那里，你的成功取决于记性和听从指挥的能力。
高中的时候，如果我们想的话，我们可以选修AP的数学课程，可以学到大学层次的微积分，甚至可以获得大学的学分。除了数学，AP还有生物、化学、历史、英文写作和文学的课程。课堂规模很小，课堂上都是学业水平相近、对这门课感兴趣的学生。这就使得老师的教学更有效率，甚至超过了教材的要求。除此之外，还有几种运动队和很多其他的课外活动可以参加，这会让学生在领导、组织、创业等方面积累经验。
Ed Caruthers, Lifelong learner. Took up saxophone at 68.
锚点tl; dr: It’s the best of America’s education that advances our technology.
The US has two very different K-12 educational systems — one in poor areas and the other in not-poor areas. Just in the Rochester, NY, area, there is the Rochester City School District (poor) which struggles to get 50% of 9th graders graduated on time. And there are multiple suburban school districts, mostly not rich, with high graduation rates and high National Merit and SAT scores. The not-poor schools may be comparable to the schools in other countries. We can’t make good comparisons because we refuse to admit what’s happening. At least we still try to educate everyone, even if we can’t figure out how to do it.
The US also has two very different approaches to university education. One system puts off adulthood for four years, whatever the cost. The other teaches expertise. Often both systems exist within the same college. When I went to the University of Texas at Austin, it was a famous party school, but also had very good science, engineering, and math departments. (The humanities might have been as good, but my contact with them was too limited for me to judge.)
Fortunately, there are lots of students (including many foreign students) who benefit from the good educations that are available. And, as other answers describe in more detail, the US economy rewards those students when they produce technology advances.
Unfortunately, there are lots of students who leave school unable to distinguish showmanship from substance, insults from reasoning, and wishful thinking from serious planning.
太长不读版：正是最好的美国教育，推动了我们的科技进步。
美国有两种截然不同的K12教育体系，一个是在贫困地区，一个是在非贫困地区。就拿纽约的罗切斯特来说，有罗切斯特市学区（贫困地区），那里还在努力让50%的九年级学生能够按时毕业。也有很多郊外的学区，大部分都不算富裕，那里的毕业率就很高，国家测试和SAT的成绩也很高。非贫困地区的学校，完全可以和其他国家的学校相媲美。我们不会做好坏的比较，因为我们拒绝承认正在发生的事情。至少我们依然在努力教育每个人，即便我们搞不懂该怎么做。
大学教育，美国也有着两种截然不同的教育体系。一种体系是无论代价多少，将成年期推迟四年；另一种体系则是教授专业的知识。这两种体系经常存在于同一所大学。我去的得克萨斯州奥斯汀分校，是一所非常著名的派对学校，但它也有着非常好的科学、工程和数学院系（人文学科可能一直很好，但是我跟他们的接触太有限了，不好下结论）。
幸运的是，很多学生（包括很多外国学生）都受益于现有的良好教育。而且，正如其他答案提到的那样，当那些学生推动科技进步的时候，美国经济就会回馈他们。
不幸的是，也有很多学生离开学校的时候，分不清本质和表象，分不清推理和辱骂，一厢情愿地从严肃的计划出发去思考。
John Dennis, former Finance
The worst educational system ? I don''''t know where your facts are coming from but USA’s higher education is home to the world''''s best research universities. Ever heard of Stanford (the birthplace of Google, Yahoo, Sun Microsystems) or Caltech (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) or Harvard (Harvard Mark II computer) ?
I understand that America''''s K12 system is indeed quite poor but let''''s not discount the numerous elite private and public high schools spread all over the nation (锚点Phillips Exeter Academy and The Hotchkiss School being two prominent private institutions while Stuyvesant High School and The Boston Latin School are public). Yes it is true, we need to strengthen our public K12 school system and currently we are doing a very poor job on that front.
However the economy advances and benefits from great research universities and America is still leading the world in this category. Because of that America is still far more innovative than its closest competitors.
最糟糕的教育系统？我不知道你的事实依据是哪来的，但是美国的高等教育，是世界上最好的研究型大学的发源地。听过斯坦福（诞生了谷歌、雅虎、太阳微系统）吗？听过加州理工（诞生了喷气推进实验室）吗？听过哈佛（1947年诞生了哈佛马克II电子计算机）吗？
我知道美国的K12教育系统确实很差，但也不要低估数量众多、遍布全国、私立的和公立的精英高中。菲利普艾斯特中学和霍奇科斯学校是两所著名的私立学校，而蒂文森高中和波士顿拉丁学校则是公立的。是的，我们的确需要加强公立的K12学校系统，我们目前在这方面做得还比较差。
然而，经济的进步得益于伟大的研究型大学，美国在这方面依然领先世界。正因为如此，美国的创新能力，依然远远超过离它最近的竞争对手。
Clarke Morley, Proud Oregonian&American.
American companies are extremely rich and able to afford evolving their technologies. Public schools are not very good, no. But the American education of Public School system is nowhere near being one of the worst. The federal government helps states with public school money funding, but there’s not enough money. Honestly, I think our schools are great. Many are not, many need to get shut down because the government can’t afford keep it running.
美国的公司都非常的有钱，负担得起他们那不断发展的技术。公立学校不是很好。但是美国的公立教育系统还不至于是世界上最糟糕的之一。联邦政府为各州提供了公立学校的资金，但是这些钱还不够。老实说，我认为我们学校还是挺棒的。很多学校则不怎么好，很多学校需要关闭掉，因为政府负担不起它的运营了。
Sam Sure, Well traveled, educated, multilingual, gay and not Caucasian
Education System - A mixed bag from mediocre to the best in the world.
There are sufficiently good schools and motivated students in this vast country so that a significant number of Americans are more than intellectually prepared as far as compulsory education (primary and secondary) is concerned.
Thereafter, there is great diversity and variance in the quality of education, processes, facilities or staff, with the private universities (that can pay salaries of $100k or more to professors, and have student tuitions of $60–90k per year) having the best infrastructure, marketing, fundraising and research output.
Some universities, like Harvard, Stanford or Yale, have “endowments”, donations from former alumni that are in the hundred(s) of millions of $. They are usually invested to provide an income. They are so “rich” that some can offer scholarships to students who cannot afford tuition.
In addition, univerisites get research grants, some exceeding $100 M per year (Johns Hopkins from the NIH, for example) that attracts the world’s best graduates. Some 40% of PhD students in the US are foreign.
Money Brings the Best to the US. What they need, they procure or import.
Not only does the rich endowment of private universities and the enormous subsidies and grants the US government makes to researchers mean that private US universities can out-pay and out-equip other universities in the world, but it also attracts the brightest minds to its shores.
Many of the high technology success stories involved foreigners who co founded firms from Yahoo, eBay, Paypal, Tesla…
The key difference is the favorable, wide and deep capital market in the US. The relatively high valuations and rapidly deployed capital in the US is unparalleled. Many frustrated entrepreneurs from Europe and Asia have found success whereas they would have been only making incremental progress in their home systems.
教育系统：从普通的到世界最好的，美国都有。
在这个庞大的国家，有足够多的好学校、有上进心的学生，因此在义务教育方面（小学和中学），有相当多的美国人已经在智力上做好了更多的准备。
此外，私立大学（可以像教授们支付10万美元甚至更多的薪水，学生每年的学费在6万至9万美元之间）在教学质量、教学进度、学校设备和教职员工方面，也都有着很大的差异，它们有着最好的基础设施、市场营销、募款和研究成果。
有些大学，例如哈佛、斯坦福和耶鲁，都有“捐赠基金”，这些来自前校友的捐款多达几十亿美元。它们通常被用来进行投资以产生收入。它们是如此的“富有”，以至于可以向那些付不起学费的学生提供奖学金。
除此之外，大学还能得到研究补贴，有些补贴每年就超过一亿美元（例如美国国立卫生研究院给约翰 ·霍普金斯大学的补贴），这样就能吸引到世界上最好的毕业生。美国大约40%的博士生是外国的。
金钱，给美国带来了最好的东西。他们需要的，要么生产、要么进口。
私立大学的丰厚捐赠，以及美国政府给予研究人员的巨额津贴和补助，都可以让私立大学过度地付薪、过度地买设备，这是世界上其他国家大学做不到的，这样也就吸引了世界上最聪明的大脑前往美国。
在许多高科技公司的成功案例中，它们的创始人都是外国人，例如雅虎、eBay、PayPal、特斯拉……
关键的区别在于，美国有个良好的、充分的、深入的资本市场。相对较高的估值、迅速到位的资本，这点是其他国家无法相提并论的。许多来自欧洲和亚洲的、不得志的企业家，他们来了美国以后，迅速获得了成功，而他们在本国制度下，只能获得渐进的发展。
Cencio Farre, Natural born US Citizen
The worst educational system compared to who? Looks like it’s in about the middle of the other OECD countries. [1] And that only rates the primary and secondary education, not college or graduate school, where the US excels. It does so well that top students from around the world go to American colleges and universities, and then many stay on to become innovators in the US.
And we should also not forget that it’s not the whole college graduate population that innovates. It tends to be the few very best, if they are in the right context.
最糟糕的教育系统，跟谁比呢？在经合组织国家中，美国看起来处于中游水平啊。而且这个测评只是针对初等教育和中等教育，而不是对学院或大学毕业生进行评估，后面才是美国擅长的。美国在大学教育方面做得太好了，以至于来自世界各地的顶尖学生都去念美国的学院和大学，然后很多人留了下来，成为了美国的创新者。
我们也不应该忘记，并不是所有的大学毕业生都在创新，而且往往只有少数人做的特别好，这还是在他们天时地利的条件下。
Kevin Ossia, Software Consultant (2016-present)
It doesn’t have “one of the worst educational systems.”
In terms of primary and secondary education, our education “systems” vary by state, city, and even school district. Some of our public schools are world-class. Some of them are just temporary babysitting compounds for gangsters. No generalization can be made.
Our university system is world-class. That’s why so many people want to move to the US to study. We attract the world’s best and brightest, and then give them the opportunities for research and entrepreneurship that no other country can give.
Couple our universities with a massive economy, a penchant for risk-taking, and a culture that’s okay with failure, and you end up with innovation out the ass.
美国的教育系统并不是世界上的最糟糕之一。
中小学教育方面，我们的教育系统因各州、各市、甚至学区的不同而不同。我们一些公立的学校是世界级的。而有些公立学校只是替歹徒照顾孩子的临时大院。不能一概而谈。
我们的大学系统是世界级的。这也是为什么有这么多人想到美国学习的原因。我们吸引了世界上最优秀、最聪明的人才，然后给他们提供研究的机会和企业家精神，这是其他国家给不了的。
庞大的经济体、爱好冒险的倾向、对失败无所谓的文化，这些与我们的大学结合起来，最终肯定会以创新告终。
