Dunbar High School After 100 Years
百年后的Dunbar 高中
One hundred years ago, on October 2, 1916, a new public high school building for black youngsters was opened in Washington, D.C. and named for black poet Paul Laurence Dunbar. Its history is a story inspiring in many ways and appalling in many other ways.
一百年前，1916年10月2日，一座为年轻黑人而设的公立高中教学楼在华盛顿特区投入使用。这座教学楼以非洲诗人 Paul Laurence Dunbar 的姓氏命名，它的历史是个令人既振奋又惊骇的故事。
Prior to 1916, the same high school had existed under other names, housed in other buildings — and with a remarkable academic record.
在1916年前，这所高中以其它名字运营，在另外的建筑中教学，教学成果显著。
In 1899, when it was called “the M Street School,” a test was given in Washington’s four academic public high schools, three white and one black. The black high school scored higher than two of the three white high schools. Today, it would be considered Utopian even to set that as a goal, much less expect to see it happen.
1899年，当时学校还叫“ M 街学校”，华盛顿特区四所公立高中进行学业测试，三所白人高中，一所黑人高中。黑人高中的成绩高于其中两所白人高中。如今，人们会认为设立这样的目标本身就是做白日梦，更别说指望其变为现实。
The M Street School had neither of two so-called “prerequisites” for quality education. There was no “diversity.” It was an all-black school from its beginning, and on through its life as a high quality institution under the name Dunbar High School.
优质教育所需的两项所谓“前提条件”，M街学校通通没有。没有“多样性”。一开始就是全黑人学校，直到保持高质量教学水平的Dunbar高中时期，依然如此。
But its days as a high quality institution ended abruptly in the middle of the 1950s. After that, it became just another failing ghetto school.
然而，这首优质教学之歌在1950年代中期戛然而止。之后，Dunbar 高中沦为又一所溃败的贫民窟学校。
The other so-called “prerequisite” that the M Street School lacked was an adequate building. Its student body was 50 percent larger than the building’s capacity, a fact that led eventually to the new Dunbar High School building. But its students excelled even in their overcrowded building.
另一项所谓的“前提条件”——一座适宜教学的大楼——M街学校也没有。全校学生数量超过建筑物设计容纳人数50%，因此才兴建新的Dunbar高中教学楼。尽管如此，学生成绩依然优秀。
Some students at the M Street School began going to some of the leading colleges in the country in the late 19th century. The first of its graduates to go to Harvard did so in 1903. Over the years from 1892 to 1954, thirty-four of the graduates from the M Street School and Dunbar went on to Amherst.
在19世纪晚期，M街学校开始有学生考上国内顶尖大学。1903年，该校首次有学生考入哈佛大学。1892至1954年间，M街学校和Dunbar高中合共有34名毕业生考入 Amherst 学院【译注：位于马萨诸塞州的一所精英男校】
Of these, 74 percent graduated from Amherst and 28 percent of these graduates were Phi Beta Kappas. Other graduates from M Street High School and Dunbar became Phi Beta Kappas at Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth and other elite institutions.
这些学生中，74%顺利从Amherst 学院毕业，其中28%毕业生为最高荣誉优等生。其他M街学校和Dunbar 高中的一些毕业生，在哈佛、耶鲁、达特茅斯和其它精英院校成为最高荣誉优等生。
Graduates of this same high school pioneered as the first black in many places. These included the first black man to graduate from Annapolis, the first black woman to receive a Ph.D. from an American institution, the first black federal judge, the first black general, the first black Cabinet member and, among other notables, a doctor who became internationally renowned for his pioneering work in developing the use of blood plasma.
这一所高中的毕业生在多个领域都是首次取得杰出成就的黑人。包括第一名从美国海军学院毕业的黑人男生，第一名从美国高等院校获得博士学位的黑人女性，第一名黑人联邦法官，第一名黑人将军，第一名黑人内阁成员。在众多取得不凡成就的黑人中，特别值得一提的是，在保存血浆以供使用方面做出开拓性工作的一名享誉全球的黑人医生【译注：Charles Drew】
How could all of this come to an abrupt end in the 1950s? Like many other disasters, it began with good intentions and arbitrary assumptions.
这一切怎么会在1950年代突然完结？跟很多灾难一样，一切以善意和武断的假设前提开始。
When Chief Justice Earl Warren declared in the landmark 1954 case of “Brown v. Board of Education” that racially separate schools were “inherently unequal,” Dunbar High School was a living refutation of that assumption. And it was within walking distance of the Supreme Court.
1954年里程碑式的“ 布朗诉教育委员会” 一案宣判，Earl Warren大法官代表的多数判词称种族隔离的学校‘ 在本性上就是不平等的’，Dunbar高中是对这一假设前提活生生的反驳。学校就位于最高法院的步行距离之内。
A higher percentage of Dunbar graduates went on to college than the percentage at any white public high school in Washington. But what do facts matter when there is heady rhetoric and crusading zeal?
Dunbar高中毕业生考入大学的比例高于华盛顿特区内任何一所白人公立高中。但在令人头脑发热的修辞和运动式的热情面前，事实又有什么用呢？
There is no question that racially segregated schools in the South provided an inadequate education for blacks. But the assumption that racial “integration” was the answer led to years of racial polarization and turmoil over busing, with little, if any, educational improvement.
毋庸置疑，南部各州的种族隔离学校未能为黑人提供足够的教育。但种族“融合”才是解决之道的假设导致连年的种族极化和骚乱，用几近于无的教育成果提升来代替种族隔离的校巴。
For Washington, the end of racial segregation led to a political compromise, in which all schools became neighborhood schools. Dunbar, which had been accepting outstanding black students from anywhere in the city, could now accept only students from the rough ghetto neighborhood in which it was located.
对华盛顿特区而言，种族隔离的结束导致一项政治让步。所有学校都转为就近入学的学区学校。Dunbar 高中此前一直在全市范围内招收学业突出的黑人学生，现在只能从学校周边的贫民窟社区招收学生。
Virtually overnight, Dunbar became a typical ghetto school. As unmotivated, unruly and disruptive students flooded in, Dunbar teachers began moving out and many retired. More than 80 years of academic excellence simply vanished into thin air.
几乎一夜之间，Dunbar高中变为一所典型的贫民窟学校。没有学习动力、没有规矩和爱捣蛋的学生涌入学校后，原先的教师开始离开、退休。80多年的教学成果随风飘逝。
Nobody, black or white, mounted any serious opposition. “Integration” was the cry of the moment, and it drowned out everything else. That is what happens in politics.
不论黑人或白人，没有人提出任何严肃的反对意见。“融合”是当红的口号，让其它都沉没于海底。这就是政治领域正在发生的事情。
Today, there is a new Dunbar High School building, costing more than $100 million. But its graduates go on to college at only about half the rate of Dunbar graduates in earlier and poorer times. Politics can deliver costly “favors,” even when it cannot deliver quality education.
如今，Dunbar新高中教学楼耗资超过1亿美元。但学校毕业生的大学入学率仅为早期贫穷世代的一半。哪怕政治无法提供优质的教育，一样可以提供昂贵的“惠泽”。
翻译：鳗鱼禅(@鳗鱼禅)
校对：龙泉(@L_Stellar)
编辑：辉格@whigzhou