翻译《家庭图书馆提供巨大教育优势》

Home Libraries Provide Huge Educational Advantage

家庭图书馆提供巨大教育优势

Will your child finish college? The answer may be as close as your bookshelves, or lack thereof.

你的孩子能够读到大学么？答案与你的书架关系非常密切，哪怕你没有书架。

By Tom Jacobs

作者：汤姆·雅各布斯


Get thee a home library. Research shows that your child's academic success may depend on it. (Doug Miller / flickr.com)汝备一藏书阁。研究显示你孩子的学业成功可能会取决于斯。（米立道）

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In an era of electronic entertainment, the term “home library” increasingly has the word “video” in the middle. But before parents start giving away books to clear shelf space for DVDs, they’ll want to consider the results of a comprehensive new study.

在电子娱乐的时代，“家庭图书馆”里的“视频”越来越多。但是在家长开始腾出书架上的地方放DVD之前，希望他们考虑一个新的综合研究的成果。

After examining statistics from 27 nations, a group of researchers found the presence of book-lined shelves in the home — and the intellectual environment those volumes reflect — gives children an enormous advantage in school.

通过来自二十七个国家的统计调查，一组研究人员发现，家里书架上如果摆满书籍——以及这些书籍体现出来的知性环境——能为孩子在学校提供巨大的优势。

“Home library size has a very substantial effect on educational attainment, even adjusting for parents’ education, father’s occupational status and other family background characteristics,” reports the study, recently published in the journal Research in Social Stratification and Mobility. “Growing up in a home with 500 books would propel a child 3.2 years further in education, on average, than would growing up in a similar home with few or no books.

最近发表在《社会分层与流动研究期刊》上的研究报告称，“家庭图书馆的大小对于教育获得有着非常重要的影响，甚至能调整家长的教育、父亲的职业地位，以及其他家庭背景特性。在有五百本书籍的家庭中成长，与没有书籍或只有少量书籍的类似家庭相比，能够让小孩在教育上平均向前推进三点二年。”

“This is a large effect, both absolutely and in comparison with other influences on education,” adds the research team, led by University of Nevada sociologist M.D.R. Evans. “A child from a family rich in books is 19 percentage points more likely to complete university than a comparable child growing up without a home library.”

内华达大学社会学家埃文斯领导的研究团队补充道：“与其他教育影响相比，无论相对比例还是绝对数量，这都是个巨大的影响。来自藏书丰富的家庭的孩子，比在没有家庭图书馆的家庭成长起来的类似孩子，完成大学学业的可能性高出百分之十九。”

This effect holds true regardless of a nation’s wealth, culture or political system, but its intensity varies from country to country. In China, a child whose parents own 500 books will average 6.6 more years of education than a comparable child from a bookless home. In the U.S., the figure is 2.4 years — which is still highly significant when you consider it’s the difference between two years of college and a full four-year degree.

这一影响完全与国家的财富、文化及政治体制无关，但其强度因国家而异。在中国，家长拥有五百本书籍，孩子要比没有书籍的家庭的类似孩子，在教育上平均向前推进六点六年。在美国，这个数字是二点四年——当你考虑两年大专和四年本科的区别时，这个数字就非常重要了。

The researchers used data from the World Inequality Study, which pooled information from a series of representative national samples. In most nations, survey participants (a total of more than 73,000 people) were asked to estimate the number of books in their parents’ home when they were 14 years old. The scholars compared that figure with other factors influencing educational achievement, including the education levels of one’s parents.

研究人员利用来自世界不同研究的数据，从一系列有代表性的国家样本中汇集信息。在大多数国家，参与调查者（一共超过七万三千人）被要求估计自己十四岁时父母家里书籍数量。

“Regardless of how many books the family already has, each addition to a home library helps the children get a little farther in school,” they report. “But the gains are not equally great across the entire range. Having books in the home has a greater impact on children from the least-educated families. It is at the bottom, where books are rare, that each additional book matters most.”

研究人员称，“不管家里有多少本书，家庭图书馆每增加一本书，都能帮助孩子在学校走远一点点。但是各阶层收益并不同样巨大。家里有书籍对受教育程度最低家庭孩子的影响非常大。低教育家庭处在最底部，家里很难见到书本，每增加一本书，影响都很巨大。”

Evans and her colleagues contend the number of books at home is an excellent reflection of a family’s “scholarly culture,” which they describe as a “way of life in homes where books are numerous, esteemed, read and enjoyed.” An early immersion in such a culture “provides skills and competencies that are useful in school,” and/or engenders “a preference for and enjoyment of books and reading that makes schooling congenial, or enjoyable,” they conclude.

埃文斯及其同事声称，家庭书籍数量，是家庭“学术文化”的最佳体现，他们把这描述为“藏书丰富、尊重书籍、享受阅读的家庭生活方式。他们断言：”早早沉浸在这种文化中“能够为学校生活提供有用的技巧与能力，”并形成“热爱并享受书本和阅读，令学校教育惬意或愉快。”

So mom and dad don’t have to be scholars themselves; they just have to read and respect books, and pass that love of reading down to their children. Anna Quindlen was clearly onto something when she wrote: “I would be the most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves.”

因此，父母不需要自己成为学者，他们仅仅需要阅读并尊重书籍，并将对阅读的热爱传递到他们的孩子。安娜·昆德伦写出如下文字的时候显然想表达些什么：“如果我的孩子长大之后，认为家居装修就是家里摆满书架，我会感到无比幸福。”

http://www.miller-mccune.com/culture-society/home-libraries-provide-huge-educational-advantage-14212/