您代表著孩子的家庭，您的角色就跟老師一樣重要。在現今的社會裏，孩子們離開他們的家來到學校，就像您的孩子來到太湖大學堂一樣。所有的學校都有這樣的共通點，但是不同的是學校的世界以及孩子在家裏的世界之間的差距是我們很少花時間去注意的。

所以，現在我要開始一個思考的模式，我希望它能成爲我們生活中的一部分。讓我們集體思考、一起討論”什麽樣的條件能構成一間好的學校?”以及”要創造一間好的學校會遭遇到甚麽樣的挑戰?”等一下我會問一些問題。我想邀請您們一起討論這些問題，也許孩子們也可以跟我們一起分享。第一個問題是:我如何認定一間好的學校?什麽是我看到、聽到、或者感覺到而會認定是一間好學校的條件?

昨天晚上，我們和所有的老師有一個會議，討論他們對于學校的感受以及他們所面臨的挑戰，所有的老師都一致認爲最有意義的事就是帶給孩子快樂，孩子們真的很喜歡這個學校。

我將和您們分享我的想法以及我十五年來在許多學校的經驗。首先，我認爲所有學校所面對的問題，都是來自于他們的目標不夠明確。最簡單的例子就是以考試以及考試的成績來取代學校的真正目標。考試並不是不重要，它是一個重要的工具，但是它僅僅是一個工具，而不能代表教育的目的。當我看到全球在做改革的學校，我發現他們努力的方嚮是非常明確的。他們的方嚮，和您們剛才討論的想法有一致的共通點，它是一個非常簡單卻也深奧的觀念”發展以及培養一個健全的人有甚麽樣的意義?””對于您的人生目標有甚麽意義?””發展一個爲他人付出的能力有甚麽意義?”怎麽樣有效而准確的達成目標，特別是團體行動而非個人的表現。在這裏我們看到許多的團體活動，這是美國學校長時間以來所遺漏的重要課題。

所以，當妳談論到理想，從我的經驗告訴我一個原則:"學習者吸收他們所想要學習的東西”而不是老師想要他們學習的東西。記住，是他們本身想要學習的東西。所以，人類是如何發展能夠提起他們興趣、達成他們目標的理想?

另外，我認爲還有第二個目的，是更加微妙的。我們總是忽略了第一個目的，但是我們甚至不曾想過第二個目的。這是一個強大的內在力量。學校是最主要保存文化的機構，這是一個複雜的議題，因爲它可以被诠釋成爲學校應該一直維持原貌，它應該保有文化而不該有所改變。從我的經驗告訴我，這樣的想法多半是被接納而采用的。家長根據他們對于學校的經驗，有一些刻板的想法，因爲這些想法，而使得學校沒有辦法改革，沒有辦法創造一些新的做法，這是兩難的。學校要如何保存文化而又擁有創新的思維能夠符合不同的環境?我們不是活在50年前、100年前、或者500年前的過去，我們是活在當今的社會。我們要如何同時兼顧傳統以及改革。這些孩子將會生活在我們沒有辦法想象的世界，50年後的世界和我們長大的年代有很大的差異。我要將這一個議題留給您們思考，因爲正如您們剛才所討論想法以及您將孩子送來這個學校的原因，和內心深處中國傳統文化的觀念是不能分離的。我們必須重視根本，就拿樹根來做例子，樹上的枝葉有許多不同的發展方嚮，也許我們不能決定枝葉發展的方嚮，但是我們能夠照顧樹根讓它健康茁壯。所以這同時保有文化以及創新是必須被接受的，也就是將對于學校根深蒂固的傳統觀念抛開，讓學校能夠沒有文化的束縛。兩個我剛才提到的目標”培養健全的人”以及”爲將來而不是過去，創造一個健康的社會”。

現在，讓我回到剛開始所提到的重點，這對于您和我同樣是家長來說有很大的挑戰，我們如何扮演一個好的家長?我個人不認同一些家長的態度，他們認爲”我們把孩子送到學校去，就不關我們的事了，孩子是教育者、老師的責任。”或者“我很忙，我有太多的短信必須回複，我有太多的工作要做”。另一方面，這也是造成學校兩難的原因，因爲一個積極參與的家長，會看到學校有效、明確、好的一面，同時也會看到一些我有所顧慮的地方，這是非常自然的。那麽要如何解除顧慮呢?我們要如何和學校配合?我們要如何做才能有效的幫助孩子?這個學校需要家長像是夥伴一樣。Larry在他的書中第一節就曾提到”一個健全的社會需要如同夥伴的家長”。有些事是老師沒有辦法掌握的。如果妳在家中遇到問題，妳如何看待?要解決問題並不容易。當妳提出妳的例子的時候，我聯想到我自己的孩子。妳知道孩子們非常聰明。如果他們知道在家的表現可以和學校的表現不同，而不會被責罵，那麽他們就會有不同的表現。我觀察到在這個學校，孩子們常常一起行動，這樣他們就能夠模仿其他同學的表現而不至于行爲偏差，因爲有同侪的壓力，這是很健康的。他們會有那種看到其他人在做甚麽，自己也必須做的觀念。我相信那是許多團體工作能夠完成的原因。不僅僅是對老師，也是同侪之間對彼此的期望。這是非常健康的群體學習，但是這並不是孩子們在家裏的表現。這是一個很好的例子，說明一個想要改革的學校以及家長之間的溝通是具有挑戰性的。

所以我能夠提供大家的建議是:這是一間新的學校，他們擁有新的老師以及新的想法來經營這一間學校，非常需要家長的支持與鼓勵。當您看到一些您有所顧慮的地方，您可以找老師談一談，我們很需要家長的積極參與。郭老師幾分鍾前才告訴我，對于學校來說非常重要的是:家長不是爲了擺脫孩子才將他們送的這個學校，而期待學校或老師取代家長的角色。您是孩子的家長，您在他的人格發展上扮演著重要的角色。孩子們都將您做爲榜樣。您必須建立一個觀念”我要如何協助這一些老師?”，有耐心而絕不放棄。

我還想提供您一個小小的建議，我想在您們當中已經有許多人已經做到了。就是您的孩子也可以成爲您的老師。我們不僅是教育您的孩子，他們也在我們的生活中給予我們許多啓發。今天早上和下午，在和孩子們相處的這段時間，我一直在思考這一些孩子如何給我們，包括家長、姨媽、叔叔、祖父母學習的機會，讓我們之間的文化相互結合。中國有著豐富的文化可以與全世界分享，如果我們都能夠將自己和文化做連結。和孩子們一起學習、一起成長是一件很棒的事。提供您做爲參考。謝謝大家。

（彼得聖吉的演講稿）

2009.1.15

You represent families of these children; you are all every bit as important as the teachers. Part of what happens in the modern world, is that the children go off to school and leave their homes, as it happens here at Taihu. It happens at all schools, in a way. The huge difference between the world of the school and the world that the child lives in is a gap that we pay little attention to. So I’d like to start off a process that I hope will become a part of this community and it involves all of us thinking together and talking with one another about'what makes a great school’ and'what are the challenges about creating a great school’. I will ask some questions and I’m going to invite you to talk with one another and maybe the kids can even share with us. The first question is: How do I know a good school? What do I see, hear or feel that makes me feel that this is a good school? 

We had a meeting last night with the teachers and asked them what they felt about everything and all the challenges that they faced. All the teachers individually said that the most meaningful aspect for them is the happiness of the children and that the children really love the school. So if it’s ok then I’ll just give some of my own thoughts and reflections on this, having worked with many schools over the last 15years. First off I believe that all the difficulties faced by schools, all around the world, come from not being very clear about their purpose. A simple example of what I mean by this is when you start to substitute tests and test scores for real purpose. Tests are not unimportant, it’s an important tool, but it’s only a tool, not a statement of purpose. And if I look at the efforts of creating innovative schools all around the world, there is one theme that comes up again and again in the best of these schools;'what does it mean to grow and develop as a human being?’ What does it mean to develop a sense of your own purpose? What does it mean to develop a capacity of caring for other people, genuinely? What does it take to be effective and to actually accomplish things, and particularly together, not just on your own? 

That’s what we see here in the teamwork activities; something that’s been widely missing in American schools for a long time. So when you talked about aspiration, it’s really the first principle I’ve experienced;'learners learn what learners want to learn’. Not what teachers want them to learn. Learners learn what they, themselves, want to learn. So how does a human being develop their own sense of aspiration, which lifts them and orients them? There’s a second purpose though, which I think sometimes is even more subtle. And I think we miss the first purpose often, but the second we don’t even think about explicitly. It’s a very powerful force implicitly.'School is the primary institution that conserves culture’. It’s a complicated matter, because that can be a way of saying that schools should never change, schools should always be the way it used to be. In my experience that is most of the time the force that does operate. Parents have an idea of what school should be, based on their experience in school, so in that sense schools don’t innovate, they don’t create something really new. So there is a real dilemma, a real paradox. How can school conserve culture and how can school also create something new for a different world? We do not live in the world of 50 years ago or 100 years ago or 500 years ago, we live in the world of today. So how can you both conserve and innovate? These children will live in a world that we cannot even imagine. The world 50 years from now will be very different from the world that you and I grew up in. So I leave you with one thought on this, because I think a lot of what you’ve said and what draws you to this school is something about the deepest aspects of traditional Chinese culture. It’s got to do with the roots. If we can connect with the roots, then the tree can grow in many directions. You cannot control where the tree grows, but you can make sure the roots are healthy. So somehow this paradox has to be embraced. To ignore what we truly want to conserve leaves school with no cultural orientation. 

Two purposes that I can see is:'to grow human beings’ and'to create healthy societies’ for the future, not for the past. 

Now if I can come back to where I’ve started, this raises very important challenges for you and I as parents. How do we become good partners to the school?

My own criticism to most of us as parents is'we send our kids to school and then we turn our backs and walk away’. We say:'you educators, you teachers, it’s your responsibility. I’m to busy, I have too many messages to answer, I have too much business to do’. On the other hand, this also raises dilemmas, because as an active, engaged parent, I will see some things that are effective and clear and good, but other things that I’m concerned about. That’s natural; if I’m really engaged, I will see things that are really working and things that I’m concerned about. How do I deal with my concerns? What do we do in a situation like that? How can we be a partner? How would we be effective? 

This school needs parents as partners. Larry said that before and if you read that first section of the book, it says right there'a healthy community has parents as partners’. Teachers are not easy to reach sometimes. If you have a problem at home, what do you do about it? It’s not an easy solution. Frankly, kids are very smart though. If they think that they can get away with doing anything differently at home than what they’re doing at school, they will. So here at the school, one of the things that I observed is that the kids work together a lot, so it tends to keep them on track if they see what each other are doing. There’s a lot of peer pressure, which is very healthy I believe. A lot of them have the sense that somebody else is doing something, so they also have to do it. I’m sure that’s how a lot of work actually gets done; it’s not just the teachers. It’s their peers and their expectations they have for each other. It’s a very healthy social arrangement, but those are the kids that are not at home. It’s the perfect example of an interface. The interface between an innovative school and us as parents is a very big challenge. 

So all I can really offer as advice is a reminder; first, this is new, it’s a new school with new teachers and people running the school who have created it from the beginning. Compassion and understanding is very important! But, when you see something that you are concerned about, find somebody that you can talk to, find a teacher to talk to. It’s very important for us as parents to engage as active parents. One of the things that is very important to us is that the parents are not just trying to get rid of their kids, the kids are now gone. You are the parents; you have a crucial role in how they develop as human beings. They know it and they look to you. You have to build your own sense of'how to I partner with these teachers? Be patient, but don’t give up. 

I can give you one more small suggestion, but I think many of you already do it instinctively. Your children are also your teachers. We don’t just shape our children like a box of wood, they come into our lives and also teach us. One feeling I had this morning and this afternoon, watching the kids, was how for each of us as parents, aunts, uncles, grand parents; this is also an opportunity for us to learn, for us to get connected to our deep cultural knowledge. China has a wonderful gift to give the world, if we all can connect to this deep knowledge. It’s a wonderful thing to have your kids in a school where they learn things that you also want to learn. Thank you very much.

 LECTURE BY PETER SENGE

2009.1.15