1.College presidents are not the first people who come to mind when the subject is the uses of the creative imagination.
人们谈及创意与想象的时候 通常最初不会想到大学校长
2.So I thought I’d start by telling you how I got here.
所以我想就先跟大家讲一下我自己的故事
3.The story begins in the late ’90s.
故事始于90年代末
4.I was invited to meet with leading educators from the newly free Eastern Europe and Russia.
我应邀与来自俄罗斯和东欧的 教育界精英会面
5.They were trying to figure out how to rebuild their universities.
他们那时正计划重建大学体系
6.Since education under the Soviet Union was essentially propaganda serving the purposes of a state ideology they appreciated that it would take wholesale transformations
因为在苏联统治之下 教育基本上就是政治宣传的工具 传递的是一种国家意识形态 来自苏联和东欧的教育家们意识到
7.if they were to provide an education worthy of free men and women.
要提供对向往自由的年轻人有真正意义的教育 那么他们必须采取全面的改革
8.Given this rare opportunity to start fresh, they chose liberal arts as the most compelling model because of its historic commitment
在这样难得的机遇下 他们可以从头开始 就选择了博雅教育 因为博雅教育最能够培养出 具备丰富学识的学生，并陶冶出优秀的道德
9.to furthering its student’s broadest intellectual and deepest ethical potential.
这一点 从它的历史即可看出
10.Having made that decision they came to the United States, home of liberal arts education to talk with some of us most closely identified
拿定这个主意之后 他们就来到了美国 博雅教育之故土 来和我们谈论 他们知道我们是
11.with that kind of education.
最认同博雅教育理念的
12.They spoke with a passion, an urgency, an intellectual conviction that for me was a voice I had not heard in decades, a dream long forgotten.
他们满腔热情、充满紧迫感 他们深信博雅教育之于人的影响 那样的声音我在过去 几十年都未曾耳闻了 犹如一个久已遗忘的梦
13.For in truth we had moved light years from the passions that animated them.
他们受到这一理想的启发而开始行动 而我们则已离那理想相去一整个光年
14.But for me, unlike them, in my world, the slate was not clean.
但是 与他们不一样的是 在我所处的社会里，这样一块板却
15.And what was written on it was not encouraging.
并不洁净，上面写满了
16.In truth, liberal arts education no longer exists, at least genuine liberal arts education, in this country.
事实上，真正意义的博雅教育 已经不复存在了 至少在这个国家是这样的情况
17.We have professionalized liberal arts to the point where they no longer provide the breadth of application and the enhanced capacity for civic engagement
博雅教育走向了专业化 现在的博雅教育已经不能很好的鼓励学生参与 社会服务
18.that is their signature.
过分强调专业化就是现今博雅教育之特征
19.Over the past century the expert has dethroned the educated generalist, to become the sole model of intellectual accomplishment.
过去的一个世纪 专家已经抢占了通才的位置 成为唯一被社会认可的 知识榜样
20.Expertise has for sure had its moments.
诚然，专家必不可少
21.But the price of its dominance is enormous.
但是，让专家成为社会向往的主流代表则必然要付出相当大的代价
22.Subject matters are broken up into smaller and smaller pieces, with increasing emphasis on the technical and the obscure.
课程门类正在分得 越来越细 关注的更多的是纯技术或偏僻的知识
23.We have even managed to make the study of literature arcane.
甚至于让文学也变得索然无味
24.You may think you know what is going on in that Jane Austen novel.
要是你看简·奥斯丁的小说 只有当你
25.That is, until your first encounter with postmodern deconstructionism.
认识了后现代解构主义之后 你才能明白为何会发生那样的事情
26.The progression of today’s college student is to jettison every interest except one.
今日之大学生基本上抛弃了 除去自己专业以外的其他所有功课
27.And within that one, to continually narrow the focus.
而在自己专业领域里 则走得越来越细
28.Learning more and more about less and less.
上学越久 学到的却变得越来越窄
29.This, despite the evidence all around us of the interconnectedness of things.
但大家环视四周可以看到 所有的知识实际上是相通的
30.Lest you think I exaggerate, Here are the beginnings of the A-B-Cs of anthropology.
也许你会认为我是夸大其词 那咱们先看看人类学的ABC
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31.As one moves up the ladder, values other than technical competence are viewed with increasing suspicion.
当一个人在求学的道路上走得越来越深的时候 那些纯技能以外的价值 就被越来越多的人认为是不值得追求的
32.Questions such as “What kind of a world are we making?
一些像 “我们身处的是怎样一个世界”
33.What kind of a world should we be making?
“我们应当建设怎样一个世界”
34.What kind of a world can we be making?”
“我们可以建设怎样一个世界”
35.are treated with more and more skepticism and move off the table.
这一类的问题越来越不被看重 并且要被移出人们的视野
36.In so doing, the guardians of secular democracy in effect yield the connection between education and values to fundamentalists.
正是通过这样的方式 世俗民主的卫士们 已经把教育所附带的教化意义 拱手让给了 原教旨主义者
37.Who, you can be sure, have no compunctions about using education to further their values, the absolutes of a theocracy.
可以想象 他们不会有任何的顾虑 用教育来推广他们的价值 即教权民主的价值
38.Meanwhile, the values and voices of democracy are silent.
与此同时，民主之价值与呼声则变得黯淡起来
39.Either we have lost touch with those values, or no better, believe they need not or cannot be taught.
不是我们失去了对于那些价值的信赖 或者 是我们不再相信它们的存在 或者是认为那些价值是不可传授的
40.This aversion to social values may seem at odds with the explosion of community service programs.
这种对社会价值的背离 在日益成长的社会服务项目之映照之下 也许会显得很另类
41.But despite the attention paid to these efforts, they remain emphatically extracurricular.
但是虽然我们在社会服务方面作出了不少努力 但他们仍然只是被当成是一种课外的实践
42.In effect, civic-mindedness is treated as outside the realm of what purports to be serious thinking and adult purposes.
事实上 公民参与 不再被认为是 批判思考与成人化的一部分
43.Simply put, when the impulse is to change the world the academy is more likely to engender a learned helplessness than to create a sense of empowerment.
简单的说 要是我们呼吁改变世界 那么学府里更多的是会产生出一种 知识分子的无助感 而不是体验到一种承担
44.This brew, oversimplification of civic engagement, idealization of the expert, fragmentation of knowledge, emphasis on technical mastery,
这样一种对公民参与的简单化认识 以及对技术专家的理想化塑造 还有碎片化的知识体系 过分强调技能之掌握
45.neutrality as a condition of academic integrity, is toxic when it comes to pursuing the vital connections between education and the public good,
以及学术上的中立 却是一剂毒素 尤其是当我们讨论教育与公共利益
46.between intellectual integrity and human freedom.
知识分子之正义与人的自由 这样的话题的时候
47.Which were at the heart of the challenge posed to and by my European colleagues.
而这正是 我的欧洲同行 给我提出的问题之核心
48.When the astronomical distance between the realities of the academy and the visionary intensity of this challenge were more than enough, I can assure you,
学院之现实与社会面临的挑战 二者之间的差异竟然如此之大 而这一挑战之深度 让人不得不停下来
49.to give one pause, what was happening outside higher education made backing off unthinkable.
进行反思 而发生在学院以外的一切，向我们发出这样的声音 退缩是不可能的
50.Whether it was threats to the environment, inequities in the distribution of wealth, lack of a sane policy or a sustainable policy with respect to the continuing uses of energy.
不管是环境面临的危害 财富分配之极不均衡 在能源使用方面 缺乏理性或可持续的政策
51.We were in desperate straits.
我们都已处于深刻的危机中了
52.And that was only the beginning.
而这还仅仅是开始
53.The corrupting of our political life had become a living nightmare.
我们的政治是如此的腐败 业已为我们带来了巨大的梦魇
54.Nothing was exempt.
没有任何东西能够逃脱
55.Separation of powers, civil liberties, the rule of law, the relationship of church and state.
分权、公民自由 法治 教会与政府间关系
56.Accompanied by a squandering of the nation’s material wealth that defied credulity.
再有就是对国家财富的 无所顾忌的滥用 诚信已得不到他们的认同
57.A harrowing predilection for the uses of force had become commonplace.
我们正变得愈发喜欢使用暴力 并将此视为常规
58.With an equal distaste for the alternative forms of influence.
而对于其他的解决问题的方式 我们则不置考虑
59.At the same time, all of our firepower was impotent when it came to halting or even stemming the slaughter in Rwanda, Darfur, Myanmar.
对于阻止或避免在卢旺达、达尔富尔以及缅甸发生的屠杀 我们虽然有强大的军队 却同样无能为力
60.Our public education, once a model for the world, has become most noteworthy for its failures.
我们的公共教育体制，曾经是全世界效仿的榜样 如今则成为了 失败的符号
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61.mastery of basic skills and a bare minimum of cultural literacy eludes vast numbers of our students.
我们有很多的学生 他们对于基本技能也缺乏掌握 对最基本的文化常识也没有了解
62.Despite having a research establishment that is the envy of the world, more than half of the American public don’t believe in evolution.
尽管我们的研究机构 是世界一流的 美国半数以上的观众 连进化论也不认同
63.And don’t press your luck about how much those who do believe in it actually understand it.
而那些口头上说他们相信的 也并非 真正理解这一理论
64.Incredibly, this nation, with all its material, intellectual and spiritual resources, seems utterly helpless to reverse the freefall in any of these areas.
让人惊愕的是 尽管他的物质生活、知识生活以及精神资源 但是 在其他领域 他们则明显落后
65.Equally startling from my point of view is the fact that no one was drawing any connections between what is happening to the body politic,
同样让我感到惊讶的是 居然没有人 想象得到 那发生在庙堂上的闹剧
66.and what is happening in our leading educational institutions.
本质上是与我们一流的教育机构有关联的
67.We may be at the top of the list when it comes to influencing access to personal wealth.
当谈到个人创富的时候 我们的学校也许排在前列
68.We are not even on the list when it comes to our responsibility for the health of this democracy.
但是要谈到我们对民主的责任 那么我们甚至 还没有排到表上呢
69.We are playing with fire.
我们是在玩火
70.You can be sure Jefferson knew what he was talking about when he said, “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization,
大家应该明白杰弗孙 讲下面这番话的意思 假如一个国家是文明国家 但同时又是无知而自由的
71.it expects what never was, and never will be.”
那么她不会继承什么 也不会创建什么
72.(Applause) On a more personal note, this betrayal of our principles, our decency, our hope, made it impossible for me to avoid the question,
（掌声） 从个人的观点来看 这样的对于原则、 尊严以及希望的破坏 使得我不得不面对 这个问题
73.”What will I say, years from now, when people ask, ‘Where were you?'”
若干年之后 人们问我，”你那时候在干嘛？”
74.As president of a leading liberal arts college, famous for its innovative history, there were no excuses.
作为一所私立的文理学校 因为美国人向来是同样做这样的事情的 因而我没有任何的推辞
75.So the conversation began at Bennington.
于是我们从本宁顿开始有对话
76.Knowing that if we were to regain the integrity of liberal education, it would take radical rethinking of basic assumptions, beginning with our priorities.
我们要是想 保持人文教育的真实内核 就需要彻底不一样的方法 以及假设 从我们最重要的几点开始
77.Enhancing the public good becomes a primary objective.
参与公共服务成为一个重要的话题
78.The accomplishment of civic virtue is tied to the uses of intellect and imagination at their most challenging.
公民道德之形成，必然要与 学生的知识与想象力相结合 去接受一些最重要的挑战
79.Our ways of approaching agency and authority turn inside out to reflect the reality that no one has the answers to the challenges facing citizens in this century,
面对政府 我们看到 没有人能够找到一个万全的方案 去解决本世纪我们遇到的诸多问题
80.and everyone has the responsibility for trying and participating in finding them.
每个人都有责任 去尝试发现他们
81.Bennington would continue to teach the arts and sciences as areas of immersion that acknowledge differences in personal and professional objectives.
本宁顿仍将教授艺术以及科学课程 这是基础性课程 它将充分照顾学生个人及其职业发展需求
82.But the balances redressed, our shared purposes assume an equal if not greater importance.
但是，我们会在课程的轻重上作出调整 我们至少要把更多精力放到有共同的目标的方向上 甚或是将其放到比基础性课程更为重要的地位
83.When the design emerged it was surprisingly simple and straightforward.
我们提出的设计方案非常简单
84.The idea is to make the political-social challenges themselves, from health and education, to the uses of force, the organizers of the curriculum.
那就是模拟出这样的带挑战 包括健康、教育 军备使用 将这些交与教务
85.They would assume the commanding role of traditional disciplines.
学生仍将体会到原有课程之意义
86.But structures designed to connect rather than divide, mutually dependent circles, rather than isolating triangles.
但是新的架构是鼓励连接，而非隔离的 是相互支持的环 而不是相互断绝的结点
87.And the point is not to treat these topics as topics of study, but as frameworks of action.
我的意思是 不要将上述话题纯学术化 这是一个社区行动框架
88.The challenge, to figure out what it will take to actually do something that makes a significant and sustainable difference.
整个地图在这里 我们需要做点实事 这样才能带出重要而持久的影响
89.Contrary to widely held assumptions, an emphasis on action provides a special urgency to thinking.
跟很多人想象中不一样的是 我们强调行动，事实上也迫使学生学会思考
90.The importance of coming to grips with values like justice, equity, truth, becomes increasingly evident as students discover that interest alone
去思考法治的意义 公正、真相 正变得越来越明显 因为学生发现了
91.cannot tell them what they need to know when the issue is rethinking education, our approach to health, or strategies for achieving
自身学到的知识与他们应该学到的知识之间的差距 说到重新思考教育 我们的健康政策 或者是关于建筑的政策
92.an economics of equity.
公平的政策
93.The value of the past also comes alive.
还有过往的历史
94.It provides a lot of company.
因为历史是我们认识世界的良师益友
95.You are not the first to try to figure this out, just as you are unlikely to be the last.
我们不是走这一道路的第一人 也不会是最后一人
96.Even more valuable, history provides a laboratory in which we see played out the actual, as well as the intended consequences of ideas.
更为重要的是 历史可以成为一个实验室 我们可以从中看出 那些实际发生了 以及未曾发生的过程
97.In the language of my students, “Deep thought matters when you’re contemplating what to do about things that matter.”
用我的学生的话来讲 深度思考是非常有必要的 尤其是当你在考虑做一些 正经事的时候
98.A new liberal arts that can support this action-oriented curriculum has begun to emerge.
一个能够支持服务学习为主导的 新型的博雅教育体系 已经在形成
99.Rhetoric, the art of organizing the world of words to maximum effect.
修辞学 亦即组织言辞，使之发挥最大效用的艺术
100.Design, the art of organizing the world of things.
包括设计 即整理世界万物之艺术
101.Mediation and improvisation also assume a special place in this new pantheon.
沉思以及即兴表演 在这一新的架构之下也能体现其存在
102.Quantitative reasoning attains its proper position at the heart of what it takes to manage change where measurement is crucial.
让可量化的论证重新恢复其合理的地位 大凡需要通过测量才能得出结果并带来改变的地方 我们都需要专业的测量
103.As is a capacity to discriminate systematically between what is at the core and what is at the periphery.
还有就是明确的分辨出 何为核心、何为边际 并且是以一种全局的眼光来看待
104.And when making connections is of the essence, the power of technology emerges with special intensity.
接触融入社会是关键 科技之力量因为社会关注而显得更大
105.But so does the importance of content.
同样重要的是内容本身
106.The more powerful our reach, the more important the question “About what?”
我们的触角伸展得越广 关于“做什么”这样的话题就显得更加迫切
107.When improvisation, resourcefulness, imagination are key, artists, at long last, take their place at the table, when strategies of action are in the process of being designed.
即兴表演、多才多艺以及想象力成为关键时 艺术家最终还是能够 重新确立他们的位置 当我们设计行动之方略时
108.In this dramatically expanded ideal of a liberal arts education where the continuum of thought and action is its life’s blood, knowledge honed outside the academy
我们想到的是这样一个扩展意义的 博雅教育 思想以及行动乃博雅教育生命之源 学院以外的学到的知识
109.becomes essential.
也会变得越来越重要
110.Social activists, business leaders, lawyers, politicians, professionals will join the faculty as active and ongoing participants in this wedding of liberal education to the advancement of the public good.
行动者、商业领袖 律师、政治家以及其他专业人士 将与我们的教员走到一起 共同为实现博雅教育服务社会的理想而努力
111.Students, in turn, continuously move outside the classroom to engage the world directly.
学生则需要经常走出课堂 直接参与到社会中去
112.And of course, this new wine needs new bottles if we are to capture the liveliness and dynamism of this idea.
可以肯定的是，这样一瓶新酒 需要有新的酒瓶 假如我们真的要把握博雅教育 之活力与精髓的话
113.The most important discovery we made in our focus on public action was to appreciate that the hard choices are not between good and evil,
我们的一个最大的发现是 在公共行动上 最困难的选择不在于 善与恶
114.but between competing goods.
而在于相互竞争的善举之间
115.This discovery is transforming.
这样的发现带来了洗心革面式的转变
116.It undercuts self-righteousness, radically alters the tone and character of controversy, and enriches dramatically the possibilities for finding common ground.
它彻底改变了人们的自我满足的感觉 彻底改变了我们关于纠纷之定义 也为我们带来了更多的可能性 去找寻到我们共同的未来
117.Ideology, zealotry, unsubstantiated opinions simply won’t do.
意识形态、固执自我 无根据的观点，这些都不可能持久
118.This is a political education, to be sure.
可以肯定的是 这是一种强调参与的政治
119.But it is a politics of principle, not of partisanship.
讲的是原则 而不是多党对抗
120.So the challenge for Bennington is to do it.
本宁顿的任务就是推行这样的做法
121.On the cover of Bennington’s 2008 holiday card is the architect’s sketch of a building opening in 2010 that is to be a center for the advancement
本宁顿2008年的假日贺卡上 画的是一位建筑师对一座 即将于2010年投入使用的建筑的草图 那将会是
122.of public action.
“社会行动推广中心”
123.The center will embody and sustain this new educational commitment.
该中心将体现并发扬这种新的教育信念
124.Think of it as a kind of secular church.
不妨将此视作非信徒的教堂
125.The words on the card describe what will happen inside.
卡片上的话语描述了即将在里面发生的一切
126.We intend to turn the intellectual and imaginative power, passion and boldness of our students, faculty and staff to developing strategies
我们打算 把学生、教员和员工的智力、想象力、 热情以及果敢 用于设计行动的方略
127.for acting on the critical challenges of our time.
应对我们这个时代最棘手的难题
128.So we are doing our job.
我们已经在行动了
129.While these past weeks have been a time of national exhilaration in this country, It would be tragic if you thought this meant your job was done.
虽说过去几周 我们的国家 一片欢喜 但假如你认为任务已经完成 那就确实是不可饶恕了
130.The glacial silence we have experienced in the face of the shredding of the constitution, the unraveling of our public institutions,
我们听到的是冰封一般的沉默 虽然我们面临着宪法之撕毁 公共机构之无能
131.the deterioration of our infrastructure is not limited to the universities.
特别是在我们的照片希望用图像来表达的时候 图像意义已不在于图像本身
132.We the people have become inured to our own irrelevance when it comes to doing anything significant about anything that matters concerning governance,
我们大家 请到了 要是我们想做点真正可以带来改变的事情 不管是何种程度的改变 均要使得我们的政府也有所触动
133.beyond waiting another four years.
而不能再等四年了
134.We persist also in being sidelined by the idea of the expert as the only one capable of coming up with answers.
我们同样坚持 专家并非唯一 能够说出正确答案的人
135.Despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
虽然大量的事实似乎印证了此一观点
136.The problem is there is no such thing as a viable democracy made up of experts, zealots, politicians and spectators.
但事实并非如此 没有一个好的民主完全是由专家 狂热支持者、政治家以及看客组成的
137.(Applause) People will continue and should continue to learn everything there is to know about something or other.
（鼓掌） 人们将会继续 并且应当继续 去学习各种值得我们追求的新知识
138.We actually do it all the time.
我们事实上也一直都在这么做
139.And there will be and should be those who spend a lifetime pursuing a very highly defined area of inquiry.
也会有人 并且应该鼓励一部分人 去花毕生之精力 追求某一领域的最高学问
140.But this singlemindedness will not yield the flexibilities of mind, the multiplicity of perspectives, the capacities for collaboration and innovation
但是这样的追求并不能帮助人的心智 走向灵活 走向多元认知 走向合作与创新
141.this country needs.
而这恰恰是我们这个国家最需要的
142.That is where you come in.
这就是你们参与的时刻
143.What is certain is that the individual talent exhibited in such abundance here, needs to turn its attention to that collaborative, messy, frustrating
有一点可以肯定 活跃于此间的聪明才智 需要将其注意力 更多的转移到对政治以及公共政策之讨论中来
144.contentious and impossible world of politics and public policy.
合作、争吵、困惑、斗争与不可能 这就是这一行动之特征
145.President Obama and his team simply can not do it alone.
单靠奥巴马和他的团队 是不可能完成这样的使命的
146.If the question of where to start seems overwhelming you are at the beginning, not the end of this adventure.
假如你觉得不知何从入手 那么你已经迈出了第一步 却远非最后一步
147.Being overwhelmed is the first step if you are serious about trying to get at things that really matter, on a scale that makes a difference.
看到路途之艰辛而感到力不从心 这是第一步 假如你真的要去解决一些真正有意义的问题 并且要产生大的影响 就需要这么做
148.So what do you do when you feel overwhelmed?
好了 看到问题 心中有想法 却力不从心 怎么办
149.Well, you have two things.
你需要两样东西
150.You have a mind. And you have other people.
其一你有这颗心 其二别人也会与你同行
151.Start with those, and change the world.
与志同道合的人走到一起 我们就能改变世界
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