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A charter school's racial controversy illustrates the real battle for America's classrooms
一所特许学校的种族争议说明了真正的美国课堂之战
Eric Henry couldn't believe what the fifth-graders at his triplets' school were being assigned to read.
埃里克·亨利(Eric Henry)的三胞胎所在学校的五年级学生被指定的阅读材料让他简直不敢相信。
On Jan. 31, the electrical engineer and Navy veteran fired off an email to a group of fellow parents and activists in the Boston suburb of Malden.
1月31日，这位电气工程师和海军老兵给波士顿郊区马尔登的一群家长和活动人士发了一封电子邮件。
"Remote learning has given us added insight into what stands for instruction based on American Culture!” Henry wrote. "The banning of this text from the curriculum should be a plank in our platform.”
“远程学习让我们对基于美国文化的教学有了更深入的了解!” 亨利写道。“在课程中禁止这类文本应该成为我们的主要着力点。”
The book in question was The Adven tures of Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain's 1876 classic of American literature—a work approved by the state of Massachusetts as part of the public-school curriculum.
有争议的那本书是马克·吐温1876年发表的经典美国文学作品《汤姆·索亚历险记》，这部作品被马萨诸塞州列为公立学校课程的一部分。
But when Henry's missive reached an employee at the agency that oversees Mystic Valley Regional Charter School, the official agreed with his complaint.
但当亨利的信件到达神秘谷地区特许学校(Mystic Valley Regional Charter School)监管机构的一名员工手中时，该官员认同他的抱怨。
"This is horrible,” wrote Olympia Stroud, a program coordinator at the Massachusetts department of elementary and secondary education (DESE).
“这太可怕了，”马萨诸塞州中小学教育局(DESE)的项目协调员奥林匹亚·斯特劳德(Olympia Stroud)写道。
"How long have these books been in the curriculum?” Stroud forwarded the concerns to a supervisor, Benie Capitolin, who called the matter "heart breaking.”
“这些书在课程中多久了?” 斯特劳德将这种担忧转达给了主管贝尼·卡皮托林(Benie Capitolin)，主管称此事"令人心碎"。
"If our system can't protect Black and brown students from unsafe environments,” Capitolin wrote, "how can it possibly educate them?”
“如果我们的系统不能保护黑人和棕色人种的学生免受不安全环境的伤害，”卡皮托林写道，“它怎么可能教育他们呢?”
For 23 years, Mystic Valley's academic record has been undeniable.
23年来，神秘谷的学业成绩是不可否认的。
Its students are disproportionately lower income kids from communities of color, yet its test scores and graduation rates routinely rank among the state's best.
它的学生大多是有色人种社区的低收入家庭的孩子，然而它的考试成绩和毕业率通常都是该州最好的。
Charter-school rankings place it in the top percentiles nationally.
它在全国特许学校中名列前茅。
The school's 1,500-person wait list is nearly as large as its K-12 enrollment, and attrition is so low that few students are admitted past kindergarten.
这所学校候补名单上的1500人几乎和K-12的入学人数一样多，而且人员流失率很低，以至于很少有学生能在幼儿园毕业后直接被录取。
Under Massachusetts law, charter schools, which are publicly funded but privately operated, are supposed to be judged solely on their academic success, faithfulness to their charter and organizational viability.
根据马萨诸塞州的法律，由政府出资但由私人经营的特许学校，应该仅根据其学术成就、对其宪章的忠诚度和组织的可行性来进行评判。
But Mystic Valley's future as an institution is now in doubt because of an approach to teaching that has fallen out of fashion.
但神秘谷特许学校的未来现在充满了疑问，因为它的教学方法已经过时了。
The school's educational mission focuses on "the fundamental ideals of our American Culture,” with an emphasis on the nation's founding documents.
学校的教育使命侧重于“我们美国文化的基本理想”，并注重国家的建国文件。
As set out in its state-approved charter, it aims to "embrace the melting pot theory by highlighting our citizens' and students' commonality, not their differences.”
正如其国家批准的宪章所规定的那样，它旨在“通过强调我们公民和学生的共性而不是他们的差异来接受大熔炉理论。”
Yet to avoid perpetuating racism, many educators, administrators and parents now believe it's insufficient to ensure that everyone is treated the same.
然而，为了避免种族主义的延续，许多教育工作者、管理人员和家长现在认为，确保每个人都被同等对待是不够的。
A few years ago, as national debates about racism and history intensified, DESE added a new "cultural responsiveness” standard to its evaluation of charter schools,
几年前，随着有关种族主义和历史的全国性辩论愈演愈演，DESE在其对特许学校的评估中增加了一个新的“文化响应”标准，
defined as "an approach to viewing culture and identity as assets” in order to "acknowledge and actively draw upon diverse backgrounds and identities.”
将其定义为“一种将文化和身份视为资产的方法”，为的是“承认并积极地利用不同的背景和身份”。
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