3月22日，中国科学技术大学少年班创办30周年庆典在合肥举行。1978年3月8日，中国科大创建中国高校第一个少年班，首批21名智力超常少年被破格录取，他们中年龄最小的11岁、最大的15岁。30年来，科大少年班已毕业少年大学生1027人，其中不乏各行各业的顶尖人才。但社会上关于少年班这种“超常教育”的争论则从来没有停止过，很多人质疑这种教育是拔苗助长，不利于学生融入社会和全面发展。
少年班成立30年 “超常教育”引发争论
As a new batch of teenagers leaf* through the college textbooks looking for a bright future, China’s unique education program for gifted youngsters has raised controversy* about the country’s education reform 30 years after it began.
About the ‘Shao Nian Ban’ project
The “Shao Nian Ban” project, or “Special Class for Gifted Youngsters,” was first set up in 1978 in the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) at the suggestion of Yang Chen-ning and Lee Tsung-dao, two Nobel laureates* in physics.
It was set up to train talented children as quickly as possible and shorten the period needed to produce top-class scientists.
Most of the students, aged 11 to 15, skipped* years of primary and secondary school to enter college because of their outstanding intelligence.
In the first two or three years, students have to learn all basic subjects. Later, they can choose any major they like among all subjects provided by the university.
While other similar prodigy* classes in the country all died out, the project itself has been struggling hard amid media focus and expert criticism which say it is unreasonable to group talented children together by sacrificing* their childhood and social experience.
The upside
More than 91 percent of the 1,000-plus graduates of the program went on to postgraduate studies at home or abroad, and 590 had received doctorates.
Li Junlin, a 1987 classmate and a graduate from Stanford University, said: “After joining the class, I finally felt the freedom of academic study. We have few limitations and teachers always do their best to satisfy whatever we wanted to learn.”
“Journalists always ask me why I chose to be involved in the program,” said another graduate. “I always ask them what else should I do?”
He said when his peers* were struggling with the seventh-grade curriculum*, he had finished high school lessons by himself.
“You want me to spend six years sitting in the classroom and going through the curriculum again?”
Experts hold that the success of the program lies in the unique ways of instruction, which have catered to the interests of children and fully exploited* their potential.
The downside
Some have raised doubts about the program, saying that such competition at a young age is cruel. “Haste makes waste,” a Netizen commented.
Ning Bai, who garnered nationwide attention as the youngest student of the first prodigy class, was a regrettable example of this comment.
He has lived an “unpleasant” university life as he couldn’t find any subject in which he was interested. Instead, he started to show interest in Buddhism.
Every year, there were one to three “problem students” in the class who were expelled* from school. Some had poor self-discipline, some couldn’t catch up with others academically, some couldn’t take care of themselves and some developed severe psychological problems.
Experts point out that even if these prodigies are more intelligent than their peers, psychologically they are the same. They need mental guidance when leaving school and entering society.
(SD-Agencies)
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leaf v. 翻书页
controversy n. 争议
laureate n. 获奖者
skip v. 跳过
prodigy n. 天才
sacrifice v. 牺牲
peer n. 同龄人
curriculum n. 课程
exploit v. 开发
expel v. 开除
