正文翻譯
原創(chuàng)翻譯：龍騰網(wǎng) http://www.ltaaa.com 翻譯：聽海的礁石 轉(zhuǎn)載請注明出處

How is the USA the most technologically advanced country when it has one of the worst educational systems?

美國的教育系統(tǒng)是世界上最糟糕的之一，它是怎么成為科技最先進的國家的呢？

評論翻譯
原創(chuàng)翻譯：龍騰網(wǎng) http://www.ltaaa.com 翻譯：聽海的礁石 轉(zhuǎn)載請注明出處

James Kwon Lee, Film Writer-Director-Producer
In terms of the International Math Olympiad, USA has ranked 1st place in the world a whopping 4 times out of the last 5 years. China and South Korea are the only other competitive countries that have won 1st place nearly as many times throughout the history of the competition.
Above is a picture of Team USA, a group of six elite high school students that will undoubtedly lead our technological future. Notice anything unusual? All of them are Chinese-American except for that one ginger lad. Previous US world champions reflect a similar ethnic makeup.
My answer is a bit tongue-in-cheek, but it illustrates a salient point—the US routinely arbitrages the top talents of immigrants from other nations.
US immigrants and or their immediate descendants are the founders of:
Apple (Steve Jobs - 2nd gen Syrian-American),
Google (Sergey Brin - 1st gen Russian-American),
Amazon (Jeff Bezos - 2nd gen Cuban-American),
Tesla (Elon Musk - 1st gen South African American), and many more.
So why do immigrants come to the US in the first place?
Its “educational system.”

說到國際奧林匹克數(shù)學競賽，在過去五年中，美國占據(jù)第一名的次數(shù)達到了驚人的4次。
在這個比賽的整個歷史中，得第一名的國家中，中國和韓國是唯一能與美國競爭的國家。

上面這張照片是美國隊的合影，這六名優(yōu)秀的高中生，毫無疑問會引領(lǐng)我們科技的未來。注意到什么不尋常的了嗎？除了一個姜黃色頭發(fā)的小伙子，其他都是華裔美國人。美國之前的冠軍隊伍也是類似的種族構(gòu)成。
我的回答可能有些搞笑，但它說明了一個突出的問題：美國通常會對來自其他國家的移民的頂尖人才進行掐尖套利。

美國移民或他們的直系后裔，是這些公司的創(chuàng)始人：
蘋果（史蒂夫·喬布斯 第二代敘利亞裔美國人）
谷歌（謝爾蓋·布林 第一代俄羅斯裔美國人）
亞馬遜（杰夫·貝索斯 第二代古巴裔美國人）
特斯拉（埃隆·馬斯克 第一代南非裔美國人）
等等，還有很多。
所以，為什么美國是這些移民的首選呢？
它的“教育系統(tǒng)”。

William Lambert, Field Technician
Not even close. Do not let the numbers fool you. The United States test all of it students, the numbers are not a true reflection. I can take you to several prep schools were the average SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test) is 1400 on a 1600 scale.
We have ten of the top universities in the world.
The United States expectations are high for ALL students which skew the results, where it would a catastrophic to score poorly on a placement test in most countries, it''''s a minor inconvenience in the United States.
Are largest state California has a three tier secondary education system. They have U.C., state and community college. The outstanding student can enroll in a U.C., and the academic competition is stiff, students who unprepared for the rigors of U.C. can attend a state university. A person who slept (did not take serious) through high school can attend community college, to prepare for the other two tiers. I am using California, as it population is approximately 10% of the United States, the remaining 49 states have similar system in place.

跟事實不符吧。別要讓數(shù)字騙了你。美國會測試所有的學生，所以測試的成績不能反映事實。我可以帶去幾所預(yù)科學校，他們SAT的平均成績是1400到1600這個區(qū)間。
世界上的頂尖高校，我們美國有十所。
對于那些考試成績不理想的學生來說，進入美國高校這個目標還是比較高不可攀的。在大多數(shù)國家，大學入學成績不好的話，結(jié)果就是災(zāi)難性的。但是在美國，對學生來說，成績不好只是一個小小的不便罷了。

美國加州就有三個大學系統(tǒng)，他們有加州大學、加州州立大學和加州社區(qū)學院。優(yōu)秀的學生可以注冊加州大學，那里的學術(shù)競爭也很激烈。對于加州大學的嚴苛考試毫無準備的學生，可以上州立大學。對于那些睡著度過高中、沒認真學習的學生，可以先上社區(qū)學院，為成為其他兩級院校的學生做好準備。我用加州舉例，是因為它的人口約占美國的10%，其余的49個州的情況也大致如此。

Roksolan Tonikski, Industrial designer and traveler (2000-present)
There’s a lot more to education than technical skill. Education rankings are generated by standardized tests. Everyone’s score is averaged out and compared across the world. This is utterly useless. Let me explain.
I’m an immigrant — moved to Detroit from E Europe in 6th grade. What I remember is that American classes were at least six months or more behind in math. But they had a lively, much more relaxed and comfortable atmosphere full of discussion and debate. It made my old school seem like an oppressive army camp where your success is determined by the ability to memorize and follow instructions.
By high school, we had the option of joining AP math classes if we wanted to, where we studied college level calculus and could even receive college credit. Besides math, AP was offered in biology, chemistry, history, English writing and literature. The classes were small and filled with interested people of similar academic level. This enabled the teacher to be much more efficient and even soar above the requirements of the textbook. On top of that, there were several sports teams and many other extracurricular activities that would provide experience in leadership, organization and entrepreneurship.
What do you have then? A much more diversely developed student body that, as a whole, would probably score lower in math than my fellow Europeans. That’s how you get top notch American talent at math competitions, while others have time to pursue other passions without being forced to study things they have no inclination of pursuing.
If you ask me, even this curriculum was outdated. Learning formulas and proofs is useless for the average person. A class in budget management and financial competency would be much more beneficial. One thing I do know — a place where conformity is rewarded, free thought and exceptionalism is punished, does not produce a creative society.

教育，遠遠不止技術(shù)技能，還有很多其他東西。教學排名是標準化考試產(chǎn)生的。每個國家的得分都是平均分，然后各國之間進行比較。這實際上是毫無意義的。下面我來解釋一下。
我是移民，六年級時，從歐洲東部移民到底特律。我記得，那時候的美國數(shù)學課程至少落后歐洲六個月，甚至更長的時間。但是他們有著活潑的、更輕松的、充滿討論和辯論的舒適氛圍。跟我原來的學校比起來，我原來的學校就像是個壓抑的軍營，在那里，你的成功取決于記性和聽從指揮的能力。

高中的時候，如果我們想的話，我們可以選修AP的數(shù)學課程，可以學到大學層次的微積分，甚至可以獲得大學的學分。除了數(shù)學，AP還有生物、化學、歷史、英文寫作和文學的課程。課堂規(guī)模很小，課堂上都是學業(yè)水平相近、對這門課感興趣的學生。這就使得老師的教學更有效率，甚至超過了教材的要求。除此之外，還有幾種運動隊和很多其他的課外活動可以參加，這會讓學生在領(lǐng)導(dǎo)、組織、創(chuàng)業(yè)等方面積累經(jīng)驗。

Ed Caruthers, Lifelong learner. Took up saxophone at 68.
錨點tl; dr: It’s the best of America’s education that advances our technology.
The US has two very different K-12 educational systems — one in poor areas and the other in not-poor areas. Just in the Rochester, NY, area, there is the Rochester City School District (poor) which struggles to get 50% of 9th graders graduated on time. And there are multiple suburban school districts, mostly not rich, with high graduation rates and high National Merit and SAT scores. The not-poor schools may be comparable to the schools in other countries. We can’t make good comparisons because we refuse to admit what’s happening. At least we still try to educate everyone, even if we can’t figure out how to do it.
The US also has two very different approaches to university education. One system puts off adulthood for four years, whatever the cost. The other teaches expertise. Often both systems exist within the same college. When I went to the University of Texas at Austin, it was a famous party school, but also had very good science, engineering, and math departments. (The humanities might have been as good, but my contact with them was too limited for me to judge.)
Fortunately, there are lots of students (including many foreign students) who benefit from the good educations that are available. And, as other answers describe in more detail, the US economy rewards those students when they produce technology advances.
Unfortunately, there are lots of students who leave school unable to distinguish showmanship from substance, insults from reasoning, and wishful thinking from serious planning.

太長不讀版：正是最好的美國教育，推動了我們的科技進步。
美國有兩種截然不同的K12教育體系，一個是在貧困地區(qū)，一個是在非貧困地區(qū)。就拿紐約的羅切斯特來說，有羅切斯特市學區(qū)（貧困地區(qū)），那里還在努力讓50%的九年級學生能夠按時畢業(yè)。也有很多郊外的學區(qū)，大部分都不算富裕，那里的畢業(yè)率就很高，國家測試和SAT的成績也很高。非貧困地區(qū)的學校，完全可以和其他國家的學校相媲美。我們不會做好壞的比較，因為我們拒絕承認正在發(fā)生的事情。至少我們依然在努力教育每個人，即便我們搞不懂該怎么做。

大學教育，美國也有著兩種截然不同的教育體系。一種體系是無論代價多少，將成年期推遲四年；另一種體系則是教授專業(yè)的知識。這兩種體系經(jīng)常存在于同一所大學。我去的得克薩斯州奧斯汀分校，是一所非常著名的派對學校，但它也有著非常好的科學、工程和數(shù)學院系（人文學科可能一直很好，但是我跟他們的接觸太有限了，不好下結(jié)論）。

幸運的是，很多學生（包括很多外國學生）都受益于現(xiàn)有的良好教育。而且，正如其他答案提到的那樣，當那些學生推動科技進步的時候，美國經(jīng)濟就會回饋他們。
不幸的是，也有很多學生離開學校的時候，分不清本質(zhì)和表象，分不清推理和辱罵，一廂情愿地從嚴肅的計劃出發(fā)去思考。

John Dennis, former Finance
The worst educational system ? I don''''t know where your facts are coming from but USA’s higher education is home to the world''''s best research universities. Ever heard of Stanford (the birthplace of Google, Yahoo, Sun Microsystems) or Caltech (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) or Harvard (Harvard Mark II computer) ?
I understand that America''''s K12 system is indeed quite poor but let''''s not discount the numerous elite private and public high schools spread all over the nation (錨點Phillips Exeter Academy and The Hotchkiss School being two prominent private institutions while Stuyvesant High School and The Boston Latin School are public). Yes it is true, we need to strengthen our public K12 school system and currently we are doing a very poor job on that front.
However the economy advances and benefits from great research universities and America is still leading the world in this category. Because of that America is still far more innovative than its closest competitors.

最糟糕的教育系統(tǒng)？我不知道你的事實依據(jù)是哪來的，但是美國的高等教育，是世界上最好的研究型大學的發(fā)源地。聽過斯坦福（誕生了谷歌、雅虎、太陽微系統(tǒng)）嗎？聽過加州理工（誕生了噴氣推進實驗室）嗎？聽過哈佛（1947年誕生了哈佛馬克II電子計算機）嗎？

我知道美國的K12教育系統(tǒng)確實很差，但也不要低估數(shù)量眾多、遍布全國、私立的和公立的精英高中。菲利普艾斯特中學和霍奇科斯學校是兩所著名的私立學校，而蒂文森高中和波士頓拉丁學校則是公立的。是的，我們的確需要加強公立的K12學校系統(tǒng)，我們目前在這方面做得還比較差。
然而，經(jīng)濟的進步得益于偉大的研究型大學，美國在這方面依然領(lǐng)先世界。正因為如此，美國的創(chuàng)新能力，依然遠遠超過離它最近的競爭對手。

Clarke Morley, Proud Oregonian&American.
American companies are extremely rich and able to afford evolving their technologies. Public schools are not very good, no. But the American education of Public School system is nowhere near being one of the worst. The federal government helps states with public school money funding, but there’s not enough money. Honestly, I think our schools are great. Many are not, many need to get shut down because the government can’t afford keep it running.

美國的公司都非常的有錢，負擔得起他們那不斷發(fā)展的技術(shù)。公立學校不是很好。但是美國的公立教育系統(tǒng)還不至于是世界上最糟糕的之一。聯(lián)邦政府為各州提供了公立學校的資金，但是這些錢還不夠。老實說，我認為我們學校還是挺棒的。很多學校則不怎么好，很多學校需要關(guān)閉掉，因為政府負擔不起它的運營了。

Sam Sure, Well traveled, educated, multilingual, gay and not Caucasian
Education System - A mixed bag from mediocre to the best in the world.
There are sufficiently good schools and motivated students in this vast country so that a significant number of Americans are more than intellectually prepared as far as compulsory education (primary and secondary) is concerned.
Thereafter, there is great diversity and variance in the quality of education, processes, facilities or staff, with the private universities (that can pay salaries of $100k or more to professors, and have student tuitions of $60–90k per year) having the best infrastructure, marketing, fundraising and research output.
Some universities, like Harvard, Stanford or Yale, have “endowments”, donations from former alumni that are in the hundred(s) of millions of $. They are usually invested to provide an income. They are so “rich” that some can offer scholarships to students who cannot afford tuition.
In addition, univerisites get research grants, some exceeding $100 M per year (Johns Hopkins from the NIH, for example) that attracts the world’s best graduates. Some 40% of PhD students in the US are foreign.
Money Brings the Best to the US. What they need, they procure or import.
Not only does the rich endowment of private universities and the enormous subsidies and grants the US government makes to researchers mean that private US universities can out-pay and out-equip other universities in the world, but it also attracts the brightest minds to its shores.
Many of the high technology success stories involved foreigners who co founded firms from Yahoo, eBay, Paypal, Tesla…
The key difference is the favorable, wide and deep capital market in the US. The relatively high valuations and rapidly deployed capital in the US is unparalleled. Many frustrated entrepreneurs from Europe and Asia have found success whereas they would have been only making incremental progress in their home systems.

教育系統(tǒng)：從普通的到世界最好的，美國都有。
在這個龐大的國家，有足夠多的好學校、有上進心的學生，因此在義務(wù)教育方面（小學和中學），有相當多的美國人已經(jīng)在智力上做好了更多的準備。
此外，私立大學（可以像教授們支付10萬美元甚至更多的薪水，學生每年的學費在6萬至9萬美元之間）在教學質(zhì)量、教學進度、學校設(shè)備和教職員工方面，也都有著很大的差異，它們有著最好的基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施、市場營銷、募款和研究成果。

有些大學，例如哈佛、斯坦福和耶魯，都有“捐贈基金”，這些來自前校友的捐款多達幾十億美元。它們通常被用來進行投資以產(chǎn)生收入。它們是如此的“富有”，以至于可以向那些付不起學費的學生提供獎學金。
除此之外，大學還能得到研究補貼，有些補貼每年就超過一億美元（例如美國國立衛(wèi)生研究院給約翰 ·霍普金斯大學的補貼），這樣就能吸引到世界上最好的畢業(yè)生。美國大約40%的博士生是外國的。

金錢，給美國帶來了最好的東西。他們需要的，要么生產(chǎn)、要么進口。
私立大學的豐厚捐贈，以及美國政府給予研究人員的巨額津貼和補助，都可以讓私立大學過度地付薪、過度地買設(shè)備，這是世界上其他國家大學做不到的，這樣也就吸引了世界上最聰明的大腦前往美國。

在許多高科技公司的成功案例中，它們的創(chuàng)始人都是外國人，例如雅虎、eBay、PayPal、特斯拉……
關(guān)鍵的區(qū)別在于，美國有個良好的、充分的、深入的資本市場。相對較高的估值、迅速到位的資本，這點是其他國家無法相提并論的。許多來自歐洲和亞洲的、不得志的企業(yè)家，他們來了美國以后，迅速獲得了成功，而他們在本國制度下，只能獲得漸進的發(fā)展。

Cencio Farre, Natural born US Citizen
The worst educational system compared to who? Looks like it’s in about the middle of the other OECD countries. [1] And that only rates the primary and secondary education, not college or graduate school, where the US excels. It does so well that top students from around the world go to American colleges and universities, and then many stay on to become innovators in the US.
And we should also not forget that it’s not the whole college graduate population that innovates. It tends to be the few very best, if they are in the right context.

最糟糕的教育系統(tǒng)，跟誰比呢？在經(jīng)合組織國家中，美國看起來處于中游水平啊。而且這個測評只是針對初等教育和中等教育，而不是對學院或大學畢業(yè)生進行評估，后面才是美國擅長的。美國在大學教育方面做得太好了，以至于來自世界各地的頂尖學生都去念美國的學院和大學，然后很多人留了下來，成為了美國的創(chuàng)新者。
我們也不應(yīng)該忘記，并不是所有的大學畢業(yè)生都在創(chuàng)新，而且往往只有少數(shù)人做的特別好，這還是在他們天時地利的條件下。

Kevin Ossia, Software Consultant (2016-present)
It doesn’t have “one of the worst educational systems.”
In terms of primary and secondary education, our education “systems” vary by state, city, and even school district. Some of our public schools are world-class. Some of them are just temporary babysitting compounds for gangsters. No generalization can be made.
Our university system is world-class. That’s why so many people want to move to the US to study. We attract the world’s best and brightest, and then give them the opportunities for research and entrepreneurship that no other country can give.
Couple our universities with a massive economy, a penchant for risk-taking, and a culture that’s okay with failure, and you end up with innovation out the ass.

美國的教育系統(tǒng)并不是世界上的最糟糕之一。
中小學教育方面，我們的教育系統(tǒng)因各州、各市、甚至學區(qū)的不同而不同。我們一些公立的學校是世界級的。而有些公立學校只是替歹徒照顧孩子的臨時大院。不能一概而談。

我們的大學系統(tǒng)是世界級的。這也是為什么有這么多人想到美國學習的原因。我們吸引了世界上最優(yōu)秀、最聰明的人才，然后給他們提供研究的機會和企業(yè)家精神，這是其他國家給不了的。
龐大的經(jīng)濟體、愛好冒險的傾向、對失敗無所謂的文化，這些與我們的大學結(jié)合起來，最終肯定會以創(chuàng)新告終。