In praise of pushy parents
对挑剔家长的赞扬
There was a mother at one of my children’s previous schools, a loud American, who was deeply unpopular with the other mums, but not with me. Her offence, in the eyes of the other women, was to be forever complaining. The reading programme was out-of-date, she averred, the music lessons inadequate, the maths too easy.
在我孩子以前上的一所学校里有一位母亲，一个大嗓门的美国人，她非常不受其他母亲的待见，但是我不讨厌她。在其他女人眼里，她的过错是永不休止的抱怨。比如她认为阅读方案已经过时了，音乐课程还有欠缺，数学课程过于简单。
“She was whining about the new French teacher today,” one of the other mums might say.
“她今天在抱怨新来的法语老师，”另一位母亲说。
“Great,” I’d reply. “As long as she’s doing it, the rest of us don’t need to worry”.
“太棒了，” 我回答说。“只要她这样做，我们其他人就不用操心了”。
Some of the lady’s criticisms were misplaced, and no doubt the teachers found her a thundering nuisance; but she unquestionably kept them on their toes. Whether she intended it or not, her pushiness thus benefited all our children.
这位女士的一些批评搞错了对象，而且老师们无疑视她为一大麻烦；但是她也确实让老师们不敢松懈。不管她是有意还是无意，她的咄咄逼人让我们大家的孩子都受益了。
This is the point missed by Leftist opponents of more parental choice in education. As usual, they believe that they are acting in the interests of the poor and powerless; and, as usual, they are wrong.
这是反对家长干涉教育的左派们所忽略的观点。像往常一样，他们认为自己正在为穷人和无权势者行事，但他们还是一如既往的错了。
“Free schools are all very well if you’re articulate and middle-class,” say supporters of uniformity. “But what about those kids whose parents aren’t engaged? Are we just going to throw them on the scrap heap?”
“如果你能言善辩又是中产阶级，免费学校当然是非常棒的，”一致性的支持者们说。“但是那些失业父母的孩子们怎么办？难道我们就要把他们丢进垃圾场吗？”
Actually, that’s pretty much what happens under our present system. The GCSE results of our top state schools are twice as good as those of the bottom. Seventy-three percent of children in Kensington and Chelsea got at least five good passes this year; in Knowsley, that figure was 35 per cent. Ponder that extraordinary discrepancy. A system specifically designed to ensure equality of opportunity creates massive asymmetries of outcome.
这确实是我们现行体系下正在发生的事情。顶级公立学校的普通中等教育认证（GCSE）成绩要比底层学校好一倍。今年， Kensington和Chelsea的孩子中有73%至少得到五个优；而在Knowsley，这个数字只有35%。思考下这巨大的差异。一个专门为确保机会均等而设计的系统却造成了大量不对称的结果。
Now imagine you took away all the state control. Suppose that there were no regulation beyond the market. Consider, for example, what happens when you buy a pint of milk. The quality and price are not only assured, but they are pretty constant around the country. True, you might pay a fraction more in Kensington than in Knowsley, reflecting the higher ground rents in the Royal Borough; but the milk in Merseyside will be just as good.
现在想象下你将所有的国家管控都取消。假设市场没有管制。比如，思考下你要买一杯牛奶时会发生什么。价格和质量不仅有保证，而且在全国都很稳定。当然，由于皇家自治市【编注：指Kensington-Chelsea皇家自治市】更高的地租，你在Kensington要比在Knowsley 付的钱更多；但是在Merseyside的牛奶会是同样的品质。
How does this extraordinary equalisation come about, given that there are no equivalents of the Local Education Authorities regulating prices? It comes about through competition. Millions of consumers invigilate the system as no committee of regulators ever could.
鉴于当地并没有教育部门调控价格，这种特殊的均衡如何产生呢？这可以通过竞争来实现。数百万消费者会监督这个任何监管委员会都无能为力的系统。
And here’s the best bit. The system works as well for incompetent as for discerning consumers. I am the least qualified shopper you could imagine. I have no idea about ingredients, brands, prices or sell-by dates. I live in terror of being asked, as politicians sometimes are, how much a pint of milk costs. But, when I buy one, I can be pretty confident that I’m getting a fair deal. Why? Because more knowledgeable buyers have done my work for me. They have played the part of that pushy New Yorker whom I used to admire at the school gates.
下面是最棒的一点。这个系统适用于有分辨力的消费者，也适用于无此能力者。我是你能想象的最不合格的顾客。我对于原料、品牌、价格或者销售日期都没有概念。像政客们有时候所表现的那样，我害怕被问及一杯牛奶多少钱。但是，当我买东西时，我很确信我得到了公平的对待。为什么？因为更多有见识的买家已经替我做了工作。他们扮演了那个我喜欢的，挑剔的纽约人的角色。
Precisely the same dynamic would work in schools if it were allowed to. The sharp-elbowed bourgeois parents, seeking to drive up standards for their own progeny, would incidentally drive up standards for everyone else. They might not mean to, but they would.
若是被允许的话，同样的原理也肯定适用于学校。那些为了自己孩子而对学校高标准严要求的严厉的中产阶级父母也会顺便帮其他孩子抬高学校的水平。他们可能本意并非如此，但他们确实导致了这结果。
Daniel Hannan is a Conservative Member of the European Parliament and blogs at www.hannan.co.uk.
Daniel Hannan 是欧洲议会的保守派成员，他的博客网址为www.hannan.co.uk。
翻译：尼克基得慢 （@尼克基得慢）
校对：Drunkplane（@ Drunkplane-zny）
编辑：辉格@whigzhou