当今的普通大学生
原文地址：当今的普通大学生
I’m Gen X. I was pretty young when I earned my PhD, so I’ve been a professor for a long time—over 30 years. If you’re not in academia, or it’s been awhile since you were in college, you might not know this: the students are not what they used to be.
我是 X 世代的人。我获得博士学位时还相当年轻，所以作为一名教授已经很长时间了——超过 30 年了。如果你不在学术界，或者自从大学毕业以来已经有一段时间了，你可能不知道这一点：现在的学生和以前不一样了。
The problem with even talking about this topic at all is the knee-jerk response of, “yeah, just another old man complaining about the kids today, the same way everyone has since Gilgamesh. Shake your fist at the clouds, dude.”1 So yes, I’m ready to hear that. Go right ahead. Because people need to know.
谈论这个话题本身的问题在于，人们会立刻做出这样的反应：“是啊，又是一个老抱怨现在年轻人的老家伙，就像吉尔伽美什时代以来人们一直抱怨的那样。对着云伸拳头，哥们儿。”1 所以是的，我准备好听这些话了。请继续。因为人们需要知道。
First, some context. I teach at a regional public university in the US. Our students are average on just about any dimension you care to name—aspirations, intellect, socio-economic status, physical fitness. They wear hoodies and yoga pants and like Buffalo wings.
首先，有些背景信息。我在美国一所地区性公立大学任教。我们的学生在任何你关心的维度上都是普通的——抱负、智力、社会经济地位、身体素质。他们穿连帽衫和瑜伽裤，喜欢 Buffalo 鸡翅。
They listen to Zach Bryan and Taylor Swift. That’s in no way a put-down: I firmly believe that the average citizen deserves a shot at a good education and even more importantly a shot at a good life. All I mean is that our students are representative; they’re neither the bottom of the academic barrel nor the cream off the top.
他们听扎克·布莱恩和泰勒·斯威夫特的音乐。这绝非贬低：我坚信，普通公民有权接受良好的教育，更重要的是，有权获得美好的生活。我的意思是，我们的学生具有代表性；他们既不是学术界的底层，也不是顶尖人才。
As with every college we get a range of students, and our best philosophy majors have gone on to earn PhDs or go to law school. We’re also an NCAA Division 2 school and I watched one of our graduates become an All-Pro lineman for the Saints.
和每所大学一样，我们招收的学生种类繁多，我们最好的哲学专业学生后来都获得了博士学位或进入了法学院。我们也是 NCAA 二级学校，我见证了我们的一位毕业生成为了圣徒队的全明星四分卫。
These are exceptions, and what I say here does not apply to every single student. But what I’m about to describe are the average students at Average State U.
这些都是特例，我所说的并不适用于每一个学生。但我要描述的是普通州立大学里的普通学生。
Reading 阅读
Most of our students are functionally illiterate. This is not a joke.
我们的大多数学生实际上都是功能性文盲。这不是玩笑。
By “functionally illiterate” I mean “unable to read and comprehend adult novels by people like Barbara Kingsolver, Colson Whitehead, and Richard Powers.” I picked those three authors because they are all recent Pulitzer Prize winners, an objective standard of “serious adult novel.” Furthermore, I’ve read them all and can testify that they are brilliant, captivating writers; we’re not talking about Finnegans Wake here. But at the same time they aren’t YA, romantasy, or Harry Potter either.
我所说的“功能性文盲”是指“无法阅读和理解芭芭拉·金索沃、科尔森·怀特黑德和理查德·鲍尔斯等人的成人小说”。我选择这三位作家是因为他们都是近期的普利策奖得主，是“严肃成人小说”的客观标准。此外，我都读过他们的作品，可以作证他们是才华横溢、引人入胜的作家；我们这里讨论的不是《芬尼根的守灵夜》。但与此同时，他们也不是青少年文学、浪漫奇幻或哈利·波特之类的作品。
I’m not saying our students just prefer genre books or graphic novels or whatever. No, our average graduate literally could not read a serious adult novel cover-to-cover and understand what they read. They just couldn’t do it.
我并不是说我们的学生只是偏爱类型小说、漫画小说或诸如此类。不，我们普通毕业生根本无法从头到尾读完一本严肃的成人小说，并且理解他们所读的内容。他们就是做不到。
They don’t have the desire to try, the vocabulary to grasp what they read,2 and most certainly not the attention span to finish. For them to sit down and try to read a book like The Overstory might as well be me attempting an Iron Man triathlon: much suffering with zero chance of success.
他们没有尝试的意愿，缺乏理解所读内容的词汇量，而且几乎肯定没有足够的注意力来完成阅读。让他们坐下来尝试阅读《树冠》这样的书，无异于我尝试参加铁人三项：承受很多痛苦却毫无成功的可能。
Students are not absolutely illiterate in the sense of being unable to sound out any words whatsoever. Reading bores them, though. They are impatient to get through whatever burden of reading they have to, and move their eyes over the words just to get it done.
学生并非完全不识字，不是说他们连一个字也读不出来。不过，阅读让他们感到厌烦。他们急于完成必须承担的阅读任务，只是匆匆扫过文字以求了事。
They’re like me clicking through a mandatory online HR training. Students get exam questions wrong simply because they didn't even take the time to read the question properly. Reading anything more than a menu is a chore and to be avoided.
他们就像我正在强制点击的在线人力资源培训。学生之所以答错考试题目，仅仅是因为他们甚至没有花时间认真阅读题目。阅读任何超过菜单内容的东西都是一种苦差事，应该尽量避免。
The Buffalo wings look good
They also lie about it. I wrote the textbook for a course I regularly teach. It’s a fairly popular textbook, so I’m assuming it is not terribly written. I did everything I could to make the writing lively and packed with my most engaging examples.
他们还会撒谎。我编写了一本我经常教授的课程教科书。这是一本相当受欢迎的教科书，所以我假设它写得并不差。我竭尽全力让文字生动有趣，并塞满了我最吸引人的例子。
The majority of students don’t read it. Oh, they will come to my office hours (occasionally) because they are bombing the course, and tell me that they have been doing the reading, but it’s obvious they are lying. The most charitable interpretation is that they looked at some of the words, didn’t understand anything, pretended that counted as reading, and returned to looking at TikTok.
大多数学生都不读它。哦，他们有时会来我的办公时间（偶尔），因为他们在这门课上表现得很差，并告诉我他们一直在阅读，但很明显他们在撒谎。最仁慈的解读是，他们看了一些单词，什么也没理解，假装这就算阅读了，然后又回去看抖音。
This study says that 65% of college students reported that they skipped buying or renting a textbook because of cost. I believe they didn’t buy the books, but I’m skeptical that cost is the true reason, as opposed to just the excuse they offer.
这项研究表明，65%的大学生报告说他们因为价格原因跳过了购买或租用教科书。我相信他们没有买书，但我怀疑成本是真正的原因，而不是他们提供的借口。
Yes, I know some texts, especially in the sciences, are expensive. However, the books I assign are low-priced. All texts combined for one of my courses is between $35-$100 and they still don’t buy them. Why buy what you aren’t going to read anyway? Just google it.
是的，我知道有些教材，尤其是在科学领域，是昂贵的。然而，我指定的教材价格都很低。我的一门课程的所有教材加起来在 35-100 美元之间，他们仍然不买。你反正不打算读，为什么要买呢？直接谷歌一下就行了。
Even in upper-division courses that students supposedly take out of genuine interest they won’t read. I’m teaching Existentialism this semester. It is entirely primary texts—Dostoevsky, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Camus, Sartre.
即使在那些学生据称出于真正兴趣而修读的高年级课程中，他们也不会阅读。这个学期我在教存在主义。完全是原始文本——陀思妥耶夫斯基、克尔凯郭尔、尼采、加缪、萨特。
The reading ranges from accessible but challenging to extremely difficult but we’re making a go of it anyway (looking at you, Being and Nothingness). This is a close textual analysis course. My students come to class without the books, which they probably do not own and definitely did not read.
阅读范围从容易但有挑战性到极其困难，但无论如何我们都在努力（看看你，存在与虚无）。这是一门文本细读课程。我的学生上课不带书，他们很可能没有书，而且肯定没有阅读。
Writing 写作
Their writing skills are at the 8th-grade level. Spelling is atrocious, grammar is random, and the correct use of apostrophes is cause for celebration. Worse is the resistance to original thought. What I mean is the reflexive submission of the cheapest cliché as novel insight.
他们的写作水平只有八年级水平。拼写糟糕透顶，语法混乱无序，正确使用撇号都值得庆祝。更糟糕的是他们抗拒原创思想。我的意思是，他们习惯性地将最廉价的陈词滥调当作新颖的见解来提交。
Exam question: Describe the attitude of Dostoevsky’s Underground Man towards acting in one’s own self-interest, and how this is connected to his concerns about free will. Are his views self-contradictory?
考试题目：描述陀思妥耶夫斯基的地下人对自己利益行为的态度，以及这与他对自由意志的担忧有何联系。他的观点是否自相矛盾？Student: With the UGM its all about our journey in life, not the destination. He beleives we need to take time to enjoy the little things becuase life is short and you never gonna know what happens.
学生：在 UGM 中，一切都关于我们的人生旅程，而不是终点。他相信我们需要花时间去享受生活中的小事情，因为生命短暂，你永远不知道会发生什么。
Sometimes he contradicts himself cause sometimes you say one thing but then you think something else later. It’s all relative.
有时候他会自相矛盾，因为有时候你说的某件事，但后来又想到了别的。一切都相对而言。
You probably think that’s satire. Either that, or it looks like this:
你可能认为这是讽刺。要么这样，要么看起来像这样：
Exam question: Describe the attitude of Dostoevsky’s Underground Man towards acting in one’s own self-interest, and how this is connected to his concerns about free will. Are his views self-contradictory?
考试题目：描述陀思妥耶夫斯基的地下人对自己利益行为的态度，以及这与他对自由意志的担忧有何关联。他的观点是否自相矛盾？Student: Dostoevsky’s Underground Man paradoxically rejects the idea that people always act in their own self-interest, arguing instead that humans often behave irrationally to assert their free will.
学生：陀思妥耶夫斯基的地下人矛盾地否定了人们总是为自己利益行事的观点，反而认为人类常常非理性地行为以维护他们的自由意志。
He criticizes rationalist philosophies like utilitarianism, which he sees as reducing individuals to predictable mechanisms, and insists that people may choose suffering just to prove their autonomy.
他批评了功利主义等理性主义哲学，认为这些哲学将个体简化为可预测的机制，并坚持人们可能为了证明自主性而选择痛苦。
However, his stance is self-contradictory—while he champions free will, he is paralyzed by inaction and self-loathing, trapped in a cycle of bitterness.
然而，他的立场自相矛盾——尽管他拥护自由意志，却因不作为和自我厌恶而瘫痪，陷入痛苦的循环。
Through this, Dostoevsky explores the tension between reason, free will, and self-interest, exposing the complexities of human motivation.
通过这种方式，陀思妥耶夫斯基探讨了理性、自由意志和自我利益之间的张力，揭示了人类动机的复杂性。
That’s right, ChatGPT. The students cheat. I’ve written about cheating in “Why AI is Destroying Academic Integrity,” so I won’t repeat it here, but the cheating tsunami has definitely changed what assignments I give. I can’t assign papers any more because I’ll just get AI back, and there’s nothing I can do to make it stop.
没错，ChatGPT。学生们作弊。我在《为什么 AI 正在摧毁学术诚信》中写过作弊的问题，所以这里不再重复，但作弊的浪潮确实改变了我要布置的作业。我现在不能再布置论文了，因为我会直接收到 AI 的答案，而我无法阻止这种情况。
Sadly, not writing exacerbates their illiteracy; writing is a muscle and dedicated writing is a workout for the mind as well as the pen.
遗憾的是，不写作会加剧他们的文盲；写作就像肌肉，专注写作既是对笔的锻炼，也是对思维的锻炼。
Arithmetic 算术
I’m less informed to speak out on this one, but my math prof friends tell me that their students are increasingly less capable and less willing to put in the effort.
我在这一点上了解得不多，但我的数学教授朋友们告诉我，他们的学生越来越没有能力，也不愿意付出努力。
As a result they have had to make their tests easier with fewer hard problems. When I was a first semester freshman (at a private SLAC, yes, but it wasn’t CalTech) I took Calculus 1. Second semester I took Calculus 2. I don’t think pre-calculus was even a thing back then.
因此，他们不得不简化考试，减少难题的数量。在我还是大一新生的时候（在一所私立文理学院，是的，但不是加州理工学院），我上了微积分 1。第二学期我上了微积分 2。我想当时甚至没有预微积分这门课。
Now apparently pre-calc counts as an advanced content course. My psych prof friends who teach statistics have similarly lamented having to water down the content over time.
现在显然预微积分被算作是高级内容课程。我那些教统计的心理学教授朋友们也类似地抱怨说，随着时间的推移，他们不得不降低课程内容难度。
Symbolic Logic was a requirement when I was a grad student. The course was a cross-listed upper-division undergrad/grad class. Jaegwon Kim taught the course, and our sole textbook was W. V. Quine’s Methods of Logic, which we worked through in its entirety. I think we spent two weeks on propositional logic before moving on to the predicate calculus. We proved compactness, soundness, and completeness, and probably some other theorems I forget.
符号逻辑课在我读研究生的时候是必修课。这门课是跨级别的本科高年级/研究生课程。Jaegwon Kim 教授这门课，我们唯一的教材是 W. V. Quine 的《逻辑方法》，我们完整地学习了这本书。我想我们在学习命题逻辑花了两周时间，然后才转向谓词演算。我们证明了紧致性、可靠性和完备性，可能还有一些我记不清的其他定理。
There is no possible way our students, unless they were math or computer science majors, would survive that class.
除非他们是数学或计算机科学专业的学生，否则我们的学生不可能在那门课上生存下来。
What’s changed? 发生了什么变化？
The average student has seen college as basically transactional for as long as I’ve been doing this.
在我做这行工作的这段时间里，普通学生一直把大学看作是一种交易。
They go through the motions and maybe learn something along the way, but it is all in service to the only conception of the good life they can imagine: a job with middle-class wages.
他们只是按部就班地学习，也许在这个过程中学到了一些东西，但这都是为了他们所能想象到的唯一的好生活：一份中产阶级工资的工作。
I’ve mostly made my peace with that, do my best to give them a taste of the life of the mind, and celebrate the successes.
我基本上已经接受了这一点，尽力让他们体验思想生活，并庆祝他们的成功。
Things have changed. Ted Gioia describes modern students as checked-out, phone-addicted zombies. Troy Jollimore writes, “I once believed my students and I were in this together, engaged in a shared intellectual pursuit. That faith has been obliterated over the past few semesters.” Faculty have seen a stunning level of disconnection.
情况发生了变化。泰德·吉奥亚将现代学生描述为心不在焉、沉迷手机的地狱僵尸。特洛伊·乔利莫写道：“我曾经相信我和我的学生是在一起的，共同追求知识。这种信念在过去几个学期里被彻底摧毁了。”教师们看到了令人震惊的疏离感。
What has changed exactly?
究竟是什么发生了变化？
- Chronic absenteeism. As a friend in Sociology put it, “Attendance is a HUGE problem—many just treat class as optional.” Last semester across all sections, my average student missed two weeks of class.
慢性缺勤。一位社会学朋友说：“出勤是个大问题——很多人把上课当作可选项。”上学期所有课程中，我的学生平均缺勤两周。
Actually it was more than that, since I’m not counting excused absences or students who eventually withdrew.
实际上，这个数字还要高，因为我没有计算请假或最终退学的学生。
A friend in Mathematics told me, “Students are less respectful of the university experience —attendance, lateness, e-mails to me about nonsense, less sense of responsibility.”
一位数学朋友告诉我：“学生对大学经历的不尊重——出勤、迟到、给我发关于琐事的邮件、责任感减弱。” - Disappearing students. Students routinely just vanish at some point during the semester. They don’t officially drop or withdraw from the course, they simply quit coming. No email, no notification to anyone in authority about some problem. They just pull an Amelia Earhart.
消失的学生。学生们在学期中某个时候会常规地消失。他们没有正式从课程中退学或退出，他们只是停止来上课。没有邮件，没有通知任何有权势的人关于某个问题。他们就是突然失踪，就像阿米莉亚·埃尔哈特一样。
It’s gotten to the point that on the first day of class, especially in lower-division, I tell the students, “look to your right. Now look to your left. One of you will be gone by the end of the semester. Don’t let it be you.”
现在到了这样的地步，在上课的第一天，尤其是在低年级，我会告诉学生们，“看看你右手边。现在看看你左手边。你们中会有一个在本学期结束时离开。别让你成为那个离开的人。” - They can’t sit in a seat for 50 minutes. Students routinely get up during a 50 minute class, sometimes just 15 minutes in, and leave the classroom.
他们连 50 分钟都坐不住。学生们在 50 分钟的课堂上经常起身，有时仅仅在 15 分钟的时候，就离开了教室。
I’m supposed to believe that they suddenly, urgently need the toilet, but the reality is that they are going to look at their phones. They know I’ll call them out on it in class, so instead they walk out.
我本该相信他们突然、急切地需要上厕所，但现实是他们会去看手机。他们知道我会在课堂上指出他们，所以反而选择离开。
I’ve even told them to plan ahead and pee before class, like you tell a small child before a road trip, but it has no effect. They can’t make it an hour without getting their phone fix.
我甚至告诉他们要提前计划好，在课前上厕所，就像在长途旅行前告诉小孩子一样，但毫无效果。他们不能在一个小时内不玩手机。 - They want me to do their work for them. During the Covid lockdown, faculty bent over backwards in every way we knew how to accommodate students during an unprecedented (in our lifetimes) health crisis. Now students expect that as a matter of routine.
他们想让我替他们做事。在新冠疫情封锁期间，老师们竭尽全力以我们已知的方式照顾学生，应对在我们有生之年前所未有的健康危机。现在学生们却把这当作理所当然。
I am frequently asked for my PowerPoint slides, which basically function for me as lecture notes. It is unimaginable to me that I would have ever asked one of my professors for their own lecture notes. No, you can’t have my slides. Get the notes from a classmate. Read the book.
我经常被要求提供我的 PPT 幻灯片，这些幻灯片基本上就是我的讲义。我简直无法想象自己会向任何一个教授索要他们的讲义。不，你们不能要我的幻灯片。向同学要笔记。看书。
Come to office hours for a conversation if you are still confused after the preceding steps. Last week I had an email from a student who essentially asked me to recap an entire week’s worth of lecture material for him prior to yesterday’s midterm. No, I’m not doing that.
如果你在完成上述步骤后仍然感到困惑，可以来办公室找我谈谈。上周我收到一封学生的邮件，本质上是要我在昨天的期中考试前帮他回顾整整一周的讲义内容。不，我不这么做。
I’m not writing you a 3000-word email. Try coming to class.
我不会给你写一封 3000 字的邮件。试着来上课。 - Pretending to type notes in their laptops. I hate laptops in class, but if I try to ban them the students will just run to Accommodative Services and get them to tell me that the student must use a laptop or they will explode into tiny pieces. But I know for a fact that note-taking is at best a small part of what they are doing. Last semester I had a good student tell me, “hey you know that kid who sits in front of me with the laptop?
假装在笔记本电脑上记笔记。我讨厌课堂上用笔记本电脑，但如果我试图禁止它们，学生们就会跑去适应服务部门，让他们告诉我学生必须使用笔记本电脑，否则他们会爆炸成一小块。但我确信记笔记最多只是他们所做的事情的一小部分。上学期我有一个好学生告诉我，“嘿，你知道坐在我前面那个用笔记本电脑的孩子吗？
Yeah, I thought you should know that all he does in class is gamble on his computer.” Gambling, looking at the socials, whatever, they are not listening to me or participating in discussion. They are staring at a screen.
是的，我想你应该知道他在课堂上做的所有事情就是在电脑上赌博。” 赌博、看社交网站，诸如此类，他们没有听我讲，也没有参与讨论。他们盯着屏幕。 - Indifference. Like everyone else, I allow students to make up missed work if they have an excused absence. No, you can’t make up the midterm because you were hungover and slept through your alarm, but you can if you had Covid. Then they just don’t show up.
漠不关心。和其他人一样，如果学生有正当理由缺课，我允许他们补交作业。不，你不能因为宿醉没听到闹钟而补交期中考试，但如果你感染了新冠就可以。然后他们干脆就不来了。
A missed quiz from a month ago might as well have happened in the Stone Age; students can’t be bothered to make it up or even talk to me about it because they just don’t care.
一个月前错过的测验，简直就是石器时代发生的事情；学生们懒得去补考，甚至懒得和我谈论这件事，因为他们根本不在乎。 - It’s the phones, stupid. They are absolutely addicted to their phones. When I go work out at the Campus Rec Center, easily half of the students there are just sitting on the machines scrolling on their phones.
它就是手机，蠢货。他们完全沉迷于手机。当我去校园健身中心锻炼时，那里大概有一半的学生只是坐在机器上刷手机。
I was talking with a retired faculty member at the Rec this morning who works out all the time. He said he has done six sets waiting for a student to put down their phone and get off the machine he wanted.
今天早上我和健身中心的一位退休教员聊天，他经常锻炼。他说他等一个学生放下手机并离开他想要的机器上，已经等了六组。
The students can’t get off their phones for an hour to do a voluntary activity they chose for fun. Sometimes I’m amazed they ever leave their goon caves at all.
学生们无法花一个小时做他们自愿选择的有趣活动。有时我简直不敢相信他们竟然会离开自己的小洞穴。
I don’t blame K-12 teachers. This is not an educational system problem, this is a societal problem. What am I supposed to do? Keep standards high and fail them all? That’s not an option for untenured faculty who would like to keep their jobs. I’m a tenured full professor.
我不责怪中小学教师。这不是教育系统的问题，这是一个社会问题。我该怎么办？保持高标准并让他们全部不及格？这对希望保住工作的非终身教职教师来说不是个选项。我是一个终身制正教授。
I could probably get away with that for a while, but sooner or later the Dean’s going to bring me in for a sit-down. Plus, if we flunk out half the student body and drive the university into bankruptcy, all we’re doing is depriving the good students of an education.
我或许能暂时蒙混过关，但迟早院长会找我谈话。而且，如果我们让一半学生不及格，把大学拖入破产，那我们只是在剥夺好学生的受教育机会。
We’re told to meet the students where they are, flip the classroom, use multimedia, just be more entertaining, get better. As if rearranging the deck chairs just the right way will stop the Titanic from going down. As if it is somehow the fault of the faculty. It’s not our fault.
他们告诉我们要贴近学生，翻转课堂，使用多媒体，变得更有趣，做得更好。就好像把甲板上的椅子摆得再合适也无法阻止泰坦尼克号沉没。就好像这错全是教师的错。这不是我们的错。
We’re doing the best we can with what we’ve been given.
我们已尽力而为。
All this might sound like an angry rant. I’m not sure. I’m not angry, though, not at all. I’m just sad. One thing all faculty have to learn is that the students are not us.
这一切听起来可能像是在愤怒地咆哮。我不确定。我并不生气，一点也不。我只是感到悲伤。所有教师都必须学会的一件事是，学生不是我们。
We can’t expect them all to burn with the sacred fire we have for our disciplines, to see philosophy, psychology, math, physics, sociology or economics as the divine light of reason in a world of shadow.
我们不能期望他们都像我们对学科的热情那样燃烧，将哲学、心理学、数学、物理、社会学或经济学视为阴影世界中理性的神圣之光。
Our job is to kindle that flame, and we’re trying to get that spark to catch, but it is getting harder and harder and we don’t know what to do.
我们的工作是点燃那火焰，我们正试图让那火花点燃，但这变得越来越困难，我们不知道该怎么办。
对《当今的普通大学生》的评论
Wow did people have a lot to say about that post. Over 350,000 people read it and nearly 1300 restacked it, thus making it more widely read than probably all of my professional writings combined. I am surprised and grateful for the engagement.
哇，人们对那篇帖子有很多话要说。超过 35 万人阅读了它，近 1300 人重新排列了它，因此它的阅读量可能超过了我的所有专业写作的总和。我感到惊讶和感激这种参与。
It’s been very interesting to me to see what resonated and what others have experienced.
看到什么引起了共鸣，以及其他人有什么经历，对我来说非常有趣。
I can say that of the professors and K-12 teachers who commented or contacted me privately, 99% agreed with me that they are seeing the exact same things that I am, and that they too are frustrated and dismayed.
我可以说，在评论或私下联系我的教授和 K-12 教师中，99%的人同意我的观点，他们认为他们看到的和我看到的是完全相同的事情，他们也感到沮丧和失望。
The remaining 1% seem to work at Ivy+ places and think I’m an obnoxious moron for moaning about my sports car students when they just need a tune-up.
剩下的 1%似乎在 Ivy+级别的学校工作，他们认为我为我的体育车学生抱怨是吵闹的白痴，而他们只需要一个小修。
I invite them to walk a mile in my tweed jacket, teaching four courses a semester with no TAs to students who scored a 960 on the SAT. I’m not complaining, mind you, just stating the facts.1
我邀请他们穿上我的粗花呢夹克走一英里，在一个学期里教四门课程，没有助教，而学生们的 SAT 成绩是 960 分。请注意，我并不是在抱怨，只是在陈述事实。1
I wish those percentages were reversed. I wish 99% of people had said, “what? This is nuts. All my students are awesome, driven, hard working, intellectually curious, and keep asking me for book recommendations” and only 1% were in agreement with me.
我希望这些百分比是颠倒的。我希望 99%的人会说：“什么？这太疯狂了。我所有的学生都很棒，有动力，努力工作，充满求知欲，并且一直向我索要书籍推荐”，而只有 1%的人同意我。
I’d much rather be in the minority. It leaves me in the weird position of being simultaneously gratified and disappointed.
我宁愿成为少数派。这让我处于一种奇怪的位置，同时感到满足和失望。
Many of the comments can be classed into groups.
许多评论可以归入不同的类别。
Professors are being too easy 教授们太随意了
nnn:
Do you end up giving a lot of failing grades
你最后是不是给了很多不及格的成绩
Amelia Anderson in response to nnn:
Doubtful, they want to keep their cushy job after all so they'll play along with this self-destructive 'education' system while lamenting how terrible kids are at learning in said system.
怀疑他们终究想保住这份舒适的工作，所以他们会配合这个自我毁灭的“教育”体系，同时抱怨这个体系里的孩子学习有多糟糕。
You already admitted that you know what to do. Keep up high standards and fail students. Everyone in this system is about the money not the education including you.
你早已经承认你知道该怎么做。保持高标准，让学生不及格。这个体系里每个人都是为了钱而不是教育，包括你。
Sounds like self awareness is almost hitting you. Western University is a big scam as you are too scared to fail students who don't meet muster.
听起来自我意识几乎要击中你了。西方大学是个大骗局，因为你太害怕淘汰那些不达标的学生。
Instead of babying them, flunk them. If they get up and walk out of class, flunk them. If they disappear in the middle of the semester, flunk them.
与其溺爱他们，不如淘汰他们。如果他们站起来走出教室，就淘汰他们。如果他们在学期中消失，就淘汰他们。
Flunk ‘em all and let the Dean sort them out!
淘汰所有学生，让院长来处理吧 ！
I looked at my grade distribution from last semester. I taught two sections of Critical Thinking. I started with 70 students. 13 dropped/withdrew before they failed and the final grades for the remaining 57 were a D+ mean and a C- median.
我查看了上学期我的成绩分布情况。我教授了两门批判性思维课程。我最初有 70 名学生，其中 13 人在不及格之前退课了，剩下的 57 名学生的最终成绩是 D+的平均分和 C-的中位数。
I also taught two sections of Intro to Philosophy. Again, started with 70 students. 11 dropped/withdrew before they failed and the final grades for the remaining 59 were a C mean and an B- median. These are the two easiest courses in philosophy.
我还教授了两门哲学导论课程。同样，最初有 70 名学生。11 人在不及格之前退课了，剩下的 59 名学生的最终成绩是 C 的平均分和 B-的中位数。这是哲学系中最容易的两门课程。
Exactly how much more harshly should I grade? Grades are simply not the motivator for students that they used to be.
我应该如何更加严厉地评分？成绩对学生来说，已经不再是过去那样的激励因素了。
Also, not all universities are created equal. We have different missions. My university serves a high percentage of first-time college-goers from lower SES families.
此外，并非所有大学都一样。我们的使命各不相同。我的大学服务于大量来自低收入社会阶层的首次上大学的学生。
At least part of our mission is offering the opportunity of higher education to students that maybe were not all that great in high school, but want to better themselves and turn over a new leaf. That’s not the same population who goes to MIT.
我们至少有一部分使命是为那些可能高中表现并不突出，但渴望提升自我、改过自新的大学生提供高等教育的机会。这与进入 MIT 的学生群体不同。
But I strongly believe in making college available to those who want it, not only to overachievers with straight As and a 1600 on the SAT. No, not everyone should go to college. But they should get the chance.
但我坚信，大学应该向那些想要上大学的人开放，而不仅仅是那些门门高分、SAT 考了 1600 分的天才。不，并非所有人都应该上大学。但他们应该获得这个机会。
Flunking every student who can’t meet MIT physics major standards is not the right approach.
对于那些无法达到 MIT 物理专业标准的学生，一概不及格的做法是不对的。
Here’s an easy solution 这里有一个简单的解决方案
Some people proposed solutions like this: to prevent AI-written papers, what I need to do is have all students compose their work on GoogleDocs, where I can track changes in real time and offer feedback on multiple drafts.
有人提出了这样的解决方案：为了防止 AI 写的论文，我需要让所有学生用 GoogleDocs 来写作业，这样我就能实时追踪修改并提供多稿的反馈。
Then instead of written tests, sit down with each one for an oral exam that really probes the extent of their knowledge. Then after that I can… Yeah. I’m not doing any of that.
然后不用书面考试，而是和每个学生单独进行口试，真正考察他们的知识程度。然后之后我……嗯。我都没做这些。
Let’s be honest, any proposal that begins with “how about you triple your workload to compensate for students’ cheating and lack of interest” is not a viable solution. Nobody but a few heroes heading for early burnout are going to do that.
老实说，任何以 “你最好把工作量增加三倍来弥补学生的作弊和缺乏兴趣” 开头的提议都不是可行的解决方案。除了少数几个准备过早耗尽精力的英雄，没人会做那件事。
I’m not working myself to death in the hopes of dragging a couple more students away from their opium phones and it is not a reasonable ask.
我不会拼命工作，希望能把几个学生从他们的鸦片手机上拉回来，这要求不合理。
Another common suggestion was to just ban phones and electronics from class. For example:
另一个常见的建议是干脆在课堂上禁止手机和电子产品。例如：
DH:
All essays are to be written in class, on paper, by hand. Electronic devices must be turned in beforehand and can be retrieved afterward.
所有作文都应在课堂上用纸手写完成。电子设备必须事先上交，之后可以取回。
This is one of those things that looks a lot better in theory than in practice. As in, literally how do I do it? Suppose I have a class of 35 students and tell them no phones. They sneak them in anyway. Then I’m playing whack-a-mole all class.
这就像是理论上看起来比实际操作中好得多的事情。也就是说，我到底该怎么做呢？假设我有一个 35 人的班级，告诉他们不准带手机。他们还是偷偷带进来了。然后我整个课堂都在忙着抓人。
Thank God I don’t teach mass lecture, but some of my colleagues over in psych and biology do. Policing phones in a class of 200 is impossible, so what’s the plan for them?
感谢上帝我不用教大班课，但我心理和生物系的有些同事要教。在 200 人的课堂上管理手机是不可能的，那他们的计划是什么？
Suppose I tell my students all their phones go in a basket at the beginning of class. How do I enforce that precisely? Frisk them on the way in? Then six students come late. Do I interrupt my own lecture six times to go make sure their phones are in the basket?
假设我在课前告诉学生他们的手机都放进篮子里，我该如何严格执行？在进教室时搜查他们？然后有六个学生迟到。我是否要打断自己的讲座六次去确认他们的手机是否在篮子里？
Then after class students complain someone took their phone by accident. Or they complain it took them so long to root through the basket for their phone they were late to their next class.
然后下课后，学生们抱怨有人不小心拿走了他们的手机。或者他们抱怨在篮子里翻找手机花了太长时间，以至于耽误了下一节课。
Then first time there’s a school shooting somewhere the admin will come tell me that phones are essential safety tools and I must allow students to have them.
然后第一次在某地发生校园枪击事件时，管理员会告诉我手机是必要的安全工具，我必须允许学生们使用它们。
I’m not trying to be negative about it—I would love to get rid of all electronics from my classroom. Truly, chalk is starting to look good to me again. I just don’t see how it is practical. If I had a 12-student honors seminar, then yeah, maybe.
我并不是想抱怨——我真想把我教室里的所有电子设备都清除掉。说真的，粉笔又让我觉得不错了。我只是觉得这不太实用。如果我有一个 12 人的荣誉研讨会，那也许可以。
But that’s far from a typical class.
但这远非一个典型的课堂。
The problems we as faculty are facing are, in my view, deep, systemic, and entrenched before we ever see a freshman. There’s not going to be either an easy solution or one that can be unilaterally implemented by the faculty. Not a solution that works, anyway.
我们作为教师所面临的问题，在我看来，在招收新生之前就已经根深蒂固、系统且深刻。我们既找不到简单的解决方案，也无法由教师单方面实施。无论如何，都不是一个有效的解决方案。
I’m a terrible teacher who is out of touch 我是一个糟糕的老师，脱离了实际
A few people really wanted to tell me that I suck. Yeah, I might. On the other hand I heard from faculty from the four corners of the Earth2 saying that they are having the exact same experiences that I am, and they were the overwhelming majority of my correspondents. Plus I’ve won all the teaching awards my university has. So I’m inclined to think that I’m at least average.
有几个人真的想告诉我我很差劲。是的，我可能确实如此。另一方面，我听到了来自世界各地的一些教师说他们有着和我完全相同的经历，而且他们是我所有通信对象中的绝大多数。此外，我赢得了我的大学所设的所有教学奖项。所以我有理由认为我至少是平均水平。
One thing that was sort of funny to me is how many people insisted that student apathy is a rational response to the larger forces in their lives, but were oblivious to what the rational response of faculty might be to the forces in our lives.
对我而言，有一点颇为有趣的是，许多人坚持认为学生的冷漠是对他们生活中更大力量的理性回应，却对教师可能对我们生活中这些力量的理性回应一无所知。
Let me tell you. ALL pressure on us is to be lenient about grades. It’s what the students want, it’s what their parents want, it’s what our bosses want, it’s what gets us good student evaluations.
让我告诉你。我们面临的全部压力都是要放宽对成绩的要求。这是学生想要的，这是他们父母想要的，这是我们的上司想要的，这也是获得良好学生评价的关键。
Students refuse to put in the work, so why should we knock ourselves out trying to get them to do it? They won’t (or can’t) do the reading, so why should we assign any?
学生们不愿付出努力，那我们何必费尽心思让他们去做呢？他们不（或不能）读书，那我们何必布置任何作业？
If they use AI to write their papers, we might as well use AI to grade them and it can be a nice closed-loop system. Why give detailed feedback they will never read or care about?
如果他们用 AI 写论文，我们不妨用 AI 来评分，这样就能形成一个完整的闭环系统。何必给出他们永远不会读或关心的详细反馈？
If the students are doing as little as possible to pass, then I might as well do as little as possible to get my paycheck. You see what I mean? It’s just rationally responding to incentives.
如果学生们尽可能少地做就能通过考试，那我也可以尽可能少地做就能拿到我的薪水。你明白我的意思吗？这只是对激励的理性回应。
Of course that’s not what I do, or what most faculty I know do. I certainly didn’t get into philosophy for the money. I’m not that dumb! I’m here because I love my field and I want to share that excitement with others. When I went to college, I thought it was the greatest thing that ever happened. I wanted more books, more reading, more learning, more new smart friends talking to me about classical music, or fine art, or literature.
当然那不是我所做的，也不是我所知的多数教师所做的。我当然不是因为钱才选择哲学。我可不那么傻！我来这里是因为我爱我的领域，我想与他人分享这份激情。我上大学时，觉得那是最伟大的事情。我想要更多的书籍，更多的阅读，更多的学习，更多的聪明朋友和我谈论古典音乐、美术或文学。
I was a starving man at the banquet of heaven. When students tell me, “I don’t feel that way, I hate being made to learn,” I hear, “I tried ice cream once, meh, it wasn’t for me.” I feel dumbfounded, incredulous, mystified.
我在天宫的宴席上饥肠辘辘。当学生们告诉我，“我不这么觉得，我讨厌被迫学习，”我听到的是，“我试过冰淇淋一次，没感觉，不适合我。”我感到震惊、难以置信、困惑。
I’m begging my students to dine with me at the banquet of heaven and instead they walk away malnourished, heads bowed in obedience to a rectangle.
我恳求我的学生们和我一起在天宫的宴席上用餐，但他们却选择离开，营养不良，低着头，顺从地面对一个矩形。
How dare you blame students for anything!? 你怎么敢责怪学生任何事！？
It’s wild to me that you critique young people but take zero time to do any sort of self reflection upon yourself. Your perspective is skewed by your experiences and upbringing. Public schools in the US are incredibly inequitable.
让我难以置信的是，你批评年轻人，却从未花时间进行任何自我反思。你的观点受到了你的经历和成长背景的扭曲。美国的公立学校极其不公平。
That inequity has dramatically increased since your time as a K-12 student. Most are underfunded, understaffed, and tear down educators over time. Not everyone has access to the same resources afforded to those in wealthier districts.
这种不公平自你作为 K-12 学生时代以来已经急剧增加。大多数学校资金不足、人员短缺，并且随着时间的推移逐渐摧毁教育工作者。并非每个人都能获得富裕地区所享有的相同资源。
Even passionate educators can only do so much without support.
即使是有热情的教育工作者，在缺乏支持的情况下也只能做有限的事情。It’s no wonder to me that students feel apathy towards college when they have been given a cheap, propagandistic education in the US.
我不奇怪学生会对大学感到冷漠，当他们在美国接受到廉价、宣传性的教育时。
Then they show up to a college or university where educators would rather blame generational and environmental differences for the lack of engagement rather than their own inability to connect with their students.
然后他们来到一所大学或学院，教育者们宁愿将学生缺乏参与度归咎于代际和环境差异，而不是自己未能与学生建立联系。
Maybe spending more time trying to engage with students and teaching them the skills they lack rather than complaining about them on substack would be a good first step.
或许花更多时间尝试与学生互动，并教导他们所缺乏的技能，而不是在 substack 上抱怨他们，会是迈出的第一步。
this is really weird. 这真的很奇怪。
you, as a professor, seem to be blaming *students* for not wanting to learn, for being somehow lazy and determined to take shortcuts through dense intellectual material that may or may not resonate with them (material that desperately needs to be updated for a 21st century audience, btw), without interrogating WHY that might be the case.
作为教授，您似乎在责怪*学生*不愿意学习，责怪他们某种程度上的懒惰，以及决心通过可能与他们产生共鸣或可能不产生共鸣的密集智力材料走捷径（顺便说一句，这些材料急需为 21 世纪观众更新），而没有探究为什么会出现这种情况。are there maybe societal factors that contribute to students thinking a traditional college curriculum and spending $$ on books is an outdated and useless way to spend their time? are they feeling disengaged or overwhelmed by the state of the world right now?
难道没有社会因素可能导致学生认为传统的大学课程和花冤枉钱买书是一种过时且无用的方式来度过他们的时间吗？他们是否感到对当前世界的状况感到疏离或不知所措？in seeking the reasons for collective reading comprehension going down, or engagement decreasing in classrooms, i find it odd to point the finger at students, some of the most vulnerable members of society.
在寻求集体阅读理解能力下降或课堂参与度降低的原因时，我认为将矛头指向学生很奇怪，而学生是社会中最脆弱的成员之一。
I feel like a physician with 400 lb. patients regularly coming in for treatment. I tell them that they have hypertension, type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, and incipient arthritis in their knees. I prescribe some medication for the hypertension, diabetes, and cholesterol.
我觉得自己像是个经常接待 400 磅病人的医生。我告诉他们他们有高血压、2 型糖尿病、高胆固醇和早期膝关节关节炎。我给他们开了些降压药、降糖药和降脂药。
The patients refuse to comply. When I ask why, I’m told medications are expensive and didn’t they already pay to see me? They are not wrong, of course, but I have zero control over the price of medicines.
病人拒绝遵医嘱。当我问为什么时，他们告诉我药太贵了，难道他们没付来看我的钱吗？他们当然没错，但我对药价毫无控制权。
I tried to be cost-conscious in what I prescribed, and recommended generics, but there’s just not much more I can do. If they want to keep living, they need to take the meds.
我尽量在开药时考虑成本，推荐了些通用名药，但我能做的实在有限。如果他们想继续活下去，就必须服药。
I also tell my patients that they are morbidly obese, and that’s causing most of their problems. I recommend a simple diet and exercise program to safely take the weight off.3 The patients angrily accuse me of being fat-phobic and that they refuse to be shamed for being body-positive.
我还告诉我的病人他们严重肥胖，这是导致他们大多数问题的原因。我建议他们采取简单的饮食和运动计划来安全减重。3 病人愤怒地指责我恐胖，并表示他们拒绝因身体积极而受到羞辱。
Then I’m told that they are not to blame for their weight anyway, because it’s all due to food deserts, poverty, big corporations forcing us to eat highly-processed low-nutrition food, their natural metabolisms, the price of eggs, microplastics, Democrats, and late-stage capitalism.
然后我被告知他们根本不应该为体重负责，因为这一切都归咎于食物沙漠、贫困、大公司强迫我们吃高度加工低营养的食物、他们的自然新陈代谢、鸡蛋的价格、微塑料、民主党以及晚期资本主义。
It’s not their fault at all and how dare I insinuate otherwise?
这根本不是他们的错，我怎么敢暗示其他呢？
Well, maybe all that is true. I don’t know. Again, I can’t do a single thing about any of that stuff and have little interest in dispensing blame. I’m just a humble country doctor. It is still the case that they need to drop the weight if they want to make it past 40.
好吧，也许所有这些都是真的。我不知道。再次，我无法对任何这些事情做任何事，也很少有兴趣分派责任。我只是一个卑微的乡村医生。他们仍然需要减重，如果他们想活过 40 岁。
When I bring that point up as gently as I can, I’m told it’s my fault because I’m not sufficiently inspirational and I need to find just the right combination of cajoling and motivational rhetoric that solves all their problems.
当我尽可能温和地提出这一点时，我被告知是我的错，因为我激励得不够充分，我需要找到恰到好处的劝诱和激励性言辞组合，解决他们所有的问题。
At a certain point in this office visit, I want to say, “look, you came to see me. If you don’t want to follow any of my recommendations, save yourself the co-pay and stay home because I can’t help you.”
在这个就诊过程中的某个时刻，我想说：“听着，你来看我。如果你不想遵循任何我的建议，就省下你的共付费用，待在家里，因为我帮不了你。”
I’m a student who agrees with you, but I’m angry, scared, and don’t know what to do 我是一个同意你的学生，但我很生气、很害怕，也不知道该怎么办
Mel:
I’m 18 years old and I started my undergraduate program at a University in Lisbon a few months ago… I just want to show how is the perspective of the currently situation by a University student’s eyes that really just want to study and enjoy the academic world.
我今年 18 岁，几个月前在里斯本的一所大学开始了我的本科学习……我只是想通过一个真正想学习并享受学术世界的大学生的视角，展示当前的情况。The average students know what’s going on, and they don’t care about. They all know, someone of them, like 40% want to set free from this system of ‘zombieness’, they try, for… two days.
普通学生都清楚发生了什么，而且他们并不在乎。他们都知道，其中一些人，比如 40%，想要摆脱这种“行尸走肉”的制度，他们尝试了……两天。
They delete social medias, they try to read book, they are struggling, trying to keep strong, and then their friends, that are in the 60% and consciously know what is going on and just don’t care, they just like this cheap dopamine lifestyle, come and push the 40% back to the zombie state, mocking at them, saying that they are going to miss out things, and probably discrediting the university institution, reducing life to just easy pleasure and nothing more.
他们删除了社交媒体，他们尝试读书，他们挣扎着，努力保持坚强，然后他们的朋友，那 60%的人，有意识地知道发生了什么，但就是不关心，他们喜欢这种廉价的多巴胺生活方式，走过来把 40%的人推回行尸走肉的状态，嘲笑他们，说他们会错过很多事，而且可能还会贬低大学制度，把生活简化为轻松的享乐，除此之外什么都没有。
And the 40% are in a so fragile state of their change, still in the early stages, that they just give up, because they are already used to only getting things in the easiest way possible, and of course they will regret it and complain about how they aren’t better students and bla bla bla, but they are so addicted to easy stuff and too much afraid of missing out, since they live their life’s through others in instagram story’s and tiktok videos, so they just… swallow it.
而那 40%的人正处于他们改变的脆弱状态，仍处于早期阶段，以至于他们只能放弃，因为他们已经习惯了只以最简单的方式得到东西，当然，他们将来会后悔，会抱怨自己不是更好的学生，诸如此类，但他们太沉迷于轻松的东西，而且太害怕错过，因为他们通过 Instagram 故事和抖音视频中的他人来生活，所以他们只是……接受了。
As someone who's currently still a student, and has struggled massively with smart phone addiction in the past, I think part of the reason is that school doesn't have fast feedback cycles.
作为一名仍在上学的学生，并且过去曾深受智能手机成瘾困扰的人，我认为部分原因在于学校缺乏快速反馈循环。
When you think about it, grades are just letters on a paper, and any real consequences only happen after you graduate.
仔细想想，成绩不过是纸上的字母，而真正的后果往往发生在毕业之后。
The fastest feedback you might get after getting a bad grade is your parent or teacher scolding you, but parents and teachers seem increasingly hesitant to scold children for getting bad grades nowadays.
拿到坏成绩后，你最快能得到的反馈可能是父母或老师的责骂，但如今父母和老师似乎越来越不愿意因为成绩差而责骂孩子。Compare that with the instant gratification of short-form content. The feedback we get aren't really tethered to our actions anymore, and thus, we have a decreased understanding of what consequences really are.
相比之下，短内容带来的即时满足感。我们得到的反馈不再与我们的行为紧密相连，因此，我们对后果的理解也随之减弱。
This is just my theory, but I think teenagers are struggling more with the credit assignment problem on a neurological level. Personally, I feel like I have a hard time caring about the consequences of my actions even if I cognitively know I should care.
这只是我的一个理论，但我认为青少年在神经层面上正更难处理归因问题。我个人觉得，即使我理智上知道应该关心我的行为后果，也很难真正去关心。
Things that are not impacting me in this very moment do not feel like they're real.
那些不会在我此刻感受到影响的的事物，感觉并不真实。
Last year, as a college sophomore, ChatGPT and its counterparts gained traction, and I, just like 80% of students on my campus, began using them.
去年，作为一名大学二年级学生，ChatGPT 及其同类产品开始流行，我和校园上 80%的学生一样开始使用它们。
Over the course of the next two years, I noticed that my brain was legitimately turning to mush, and so I've gradually been weaning myself off since... I hate to say it so brusquely, we are no less than drug addicts.
在接下来的两年里，我注意到我的大脑真的变得一团糟，所以从那时起，我逐渐戒掉了它们……我实在不好意思这么直白地说，我们和药物成瘾者没什么两样。
And you know what they say, kicking a drug addiction is one of the most challenging things to accomplish. So yeah, this is how things will be. And I hope you see that students and faculty are on the same side of the issue.
而且你知道人们怎么说，戒除药物成瘾是完成最困难的事情之一。所以是的，事情就是这样。我希望你能看到学生和教职工在这个问题上站在同一立场。
What are we supposed to do to improve ourselves? I think I resent this post a bit because it brings a lot of shame and it’s harsh. But we came into this world with phones in our hands. It’s hard to get off the news now when it seems like we’ve got to be paying attention.
我们本该怎样提升自己？我想我有点讨厌这篇帖子，因为它带来了很多羞耻感，而且很苛刻。但我们一出生就手握手机。现在很难脱离新闻，似乎我们必须时刻关注。
Nothing about my academic life felt normal - I lived through COVID and learned from a screen while people died and the world stopped.
我的学术生活没有任何正常之处——我经历了新冠疫情，在屏幕前学习，而人们死亡，世界停摆。
I feel like it was here, where we experienced significant shifts in our reliance on technology and it was here where I feel my intrinsic motivation died. I also go to Columbia university (enough said if you’ve seen any news about Columbia in the past two years).
我觉得是这里，我们经历了对技术的依赖发生重大转变，也是在这里，我感觉我的内在动力消失了。我还在哥伦比亚大学上学（如果你看过过去两年关于哥伦比亚的新闻，就足够了）。
I think it’s more than that, the phone is so ruining. But it’s also such a coping mechanism and a way to understand an increasingly scary, disordered and unprecedented world. you can know exactly what’s happening right now. You can watch it live. How do I get better?
我觉得不止这些，手机正在毁掉我们。但它也是一种应对机制，一种理解这个越来越可怕、混乱且前所未有的世界的方式。你可以确切地知道现在发生了什么。你可以实时观看。我该如何变得更好？
I want to improve my life…
我想改善我的生活…
her:
im a highschool student myself and I can confirm that its the phone addiction that has rotten our brains. despite my constant efforts to get back on track i simply can not. everytime i sit down to study, i end up doom scrolling instead.
我是一名高中生，可以证实是手机成瘾毁掉了我们的头脑。尽管我不断努力回到正轨，但我就是做不到。每次我坐下来学习，最终都会陷入无节制地刷手机。
i feel like the constant dopamine has made the teenagers lazy and purposeless as we simply dont care about anything anymore.
我觉得持续的多巴胺已经让青少年变得懒惰和没有目标，因为我们已经不再关心任何事了。
i recently came across the terms "apathy" qnd "avolition" and i think these terms perfectly describe how a vast majority of teenagers feel now as we are simply not interested in anything and even if we are, we find ourselves unable to get things done.
我最近接触到了“冷漠”和“无欲”这两个词，我认为这些词完美地描述了现在大多数青少年感受，因为我们对此毫无兴趣，即使有兴趣，我们也发现自己无法完成事情。
i desperately hope that somehow we can reverse this brainrot.
我迫切希望我们能以某种方式扭转这种脑腐。
I have deep sympathy and compassion for these students, and my heart aches for them. I’m no kind of expert about addiction, but I did recently read a piece by someone who is, and maybe he has some actionable ideas.
我对这些学生深感同情和怜悯，我的心为他们疼痛。我对成瘾不是专家，但我最近读到了一个专家写的文章，也许他有一些可行的想法。
Owen Flanagan is a recently retired philosopher of mind and neuroscience from Duke University. He’s published a ton and is very highly regarded. He is also a recovering alcoholic and pill addict.
欧文·弗拉纳根是杜克大学最近退休的心理学和神经科学哲学家。他著作等身，备受推崇。他也是一位康复中的酒精成瘾者和药物成瘾者。
Flanagan recently published an excerpt from his new book on addiction in Psyche. He argues that a sense of shame, feeling ashamed, is valuable in helping people overcome addiction.
弗拉纳根最近在《Psyche》上发表了他新书中关于成瘾的节选。他认为，羞耻感，感到羞耻，在帮助人们克服成瘾方面是有价值的。
老庄日记： 感觉类似王阳明的致良知，让他扒底裤，看到自己还有一些在乎的东西，然后为了守护这个东西，去做点什么。
Cultures develop shame in order to protect their values, and if we abjure all forms of it as harmful and think we should feel good about whatever we do, then those values disappear. It’s not my fault I’m an addict and I shouldn’t feel shame about it! Then why change?
文化发展羞耻感是为了保护其价值观，如果我们摒弃所有形式的羞耻感，认为无论做什么都应该感觉良好，那么这些价值观就会消失。我成瘾不是我的错，我不应该为它感到羞耻！那为什么要改变呢？
Sex work is real work and I shouldn’t feel badly about it! Are we building the best society for our young people? Class is so boooooring; I don’t need to feel guilty about blowing it off! Are you becoming your ideal self?
性工作是真实的工作，我不应该为它感到难过！我们正在为年轻人建设最好的社会吗？阶级太无聊了；我不需要为翘掉它而感到内疚！你正在成为你理想中的自己吗？
Flanagan writes, “The shame of addiction, properly focused**,** invites the addict to recognise that they were a person before they were an addict – and that they can be that person again, or some new and improved version of that person, if they can find a way to undo their addiction… Shame is a perfectly sensible emotional response to failing to abide by norms for a good life.”
弗拉纳根写道：“如果正确地聚焦，成瘾的羞耻感会促使成瘾者认识到，在他们成为成瘾者之前，他们是一个人——而且如果他们能找到一种办法来戒除成瘾……羞耻感是对未能遵守良好生活规范的一种完全合理的情绪反应。”
Nobody likes feeling ashamed, I know, but maybe a bit of that would help. When I call on a student and they shrug their shoulders at me in silence, they should feel ashamed.
我知道没有人喜欢感到羞耻，但也许有点那种感觉会有所帮助。当我叫一个学生，他们对我沉默地耸肩时，他们应该感到羞耻。
When they bomb an assignment because they didn’t do the reading or come to class, being ashamed is the proper response. Addicts can’t be helped if they are filled with excuses and don’t want to change, but maybe their own sense of directed shame can lead them to a better life.
当他们因为没做阅读或没来上课而搞砸了作业时，感到羞耻是正确的反应。如果成瘾者充满借口并且不想改变，他们是无法得到帮助的，但也许他们自己那种有导向的羞耻感能引导他们过上更好的生活。
At least, it might be worth a try.
至少，值得一试。