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????父母大人們，你們是不是不喜歡孩子在得到答案以后還想知道“為什么”？老師大人們，前排孩子層出不窮的問題是不是快把你們逼瘋了，因為你們還要趕著完成州府規定的當日教學計劃。如果是這樣，你們大概不會喜歡保羅?哈里斯倍受爭議的新書《耳聽為實》（Trusting What You're Told）。在書中，這位來自哈佛大學（Harvard）的教育學教授向認知發展理論的傳統觀念發起了挑戰。曾幾何時，人們認為孩子是“搖籃里的科學家”，通過觀察來學習，而哈里斯則認為孩子們是小小的人類學家，他們向“可靠”的“信息提供者”學習，而且這種學習的效果最佳。舉個例子，正是通過這種方式我們才認識到地球是圓的。哈里斯的研究結論在很大程度上不同于當代課堂教學的模式。恰恰相反，哈里斯要求的是口齒伶俐的老師——有人也許會想到羅杰斯先生（美國兒童電視之父），認為他就是教師的典范——和充滿耐心的父母。《財富》雜志（Fortune）撰稿人戴維?卡普蘭最近對哈里斯進行了專訪，他們討論的話題是，傾聽是否比動手學習更加重要。

????我認為教育的關鍵之一是鼓勵孩子們閱讀——引導他們成為小科學家。

????根據認知發展理論的描述，兒童善于鉆研，愛好讀書，對此我沒有疑問。我所質疑的是來自盧梭、皮亞杰以及蒙臺梭利等人描繪的兒童形象，他們認為兒童是親自動手的實驗者。這種看法未免過于狹隘。

????大多數低年級兒童對動手情有獨鐘，不是嗎？

????不妨想想蒙臺梭利課堂，孩子們拿到一堆積木就拼裝起來。在孩子們眼中，這些積木可以從矮到高按照某種順序搭建。如果世界有秩序可尋，這一方法還比較管用，但是如果身邊無章可循，這種方法就會失效。

????孩子們從哪里獲得信息？

????老師，父母，還有專家。他們最終會更加信賴其中的某些人。然而，我描繪的不只是兒童形象。我們所有人其實都受困于一個現實，那就是我們自己獲得的知識遠遠少于通過聆聽專家得到的知識，無論是投資還是應對癌癥，情況都是如此。

????為什么認清孩子的學習方式如此重要？

????人們在學齡前教育中還不夠重視挑選善于和孩子交談的老師。在學校里，你會發現師生談話的質量正急劇下降。而在家里，孩子們會問更多問題。他們與父母交談的時間也更長。

????這不是必然的嗎？家里的“師生比”畢竟高得多。

????當然，從某種意義上來說這是由現實情況決定的。然而選擇教師目前看的往往是其 “撫育能力”，而不是看他們是否善于交談，是否能闡明事理。

????提問是不是變得不重要了？

????不是這樣。提問會一直延續到小學甚至是中學。我不了解你的孩子，但是我的孩子抱怨他們在學校問問題時，老師往往沒有時間回答。決定學習進度的其實是課程計劃。

????譯者：王駿

????So, Mom and Dad, you don't like your kids demanding to know "why" after every answer? And, teachers, do those relentless questions from the front row drive you crazy as you attempt to cover today's state-mandated lesson plan? You'll hate Paul Harris' controversial new book, Trusting What You're Told. In it, the Harvard professor of education challenges entrenched notions of cognitive development. Rather than seeing children as "scientists in the crib" who learn through observation, Harris argues that they're nascent anthropologists who learn best from the "testimony" of "informants." That's how we find out the world is round, for example. Harris' research cuts against much of what happens in today's classrooms; instead, it demands verbally acute teachers -- one might imagine Mister Rogers as the paragon -- as well as patient parents.Fortune contributor David A. Kaplan recently spoke to Harris about how listening to others can be more important than hands-on learning.

?????I thought a key part of education is getting children to read -- to get them to be little researchers.

????The portrait of cognitive development I'm trying to undermine is not that of the child as a kind of scholar or bibliophile, but the image you get from people like Rousseau or Piaget or Montessori, where the child is a hands-on experimenter. That vision is too narrow.

????Most early grades prize the hands-on, right?

????If you think about the Montessori classroom, the child is given some bricks to assemble, and the child sees the bricks can be placed in some kind of serial order from shortest to tallest. While that strategy may well work for observable regularities in the world, it's not a strategy when evidence isn't readily available.

????Where do children get their information?

????Teachers, parents, experts. They'll learn to trust some more than others. But I'm not just offering a portrait of young children. We're all stuck with the fact that the amount of knowledge we can gather for ourselves is minuscule compared with the amount we gain by listening to experts, whether it's how to invest or what to do if we have a cancer.

????Why is it important to distinguish how children learn?

????In preschool there's not very much emphasis on choosing teachers who are good at having a dialogue with children. At school, you see a sharp decline in the quality of dialogue. At home, children ask more questions. They have more sustained exchanges with a parent.

?????Isn't that out of necessity -- at home it's a lower "student-teacher" ratio?

????Of course in some sense it's dictated by practicalities. But teachers are mostly selected for their ability to be "nurturers" rather than for verbal or intellectual abilities.

????Does questioning become less important?

????No. It extends to elementary school and even high school. I don't know about your children, but mine complain that often when they've asked questions in school, there's not been time to deal with them. It's the curriculum that dictates the pace of learning.