北京四中国际校区怎么样呢?外教代表人文社科组组长发言！

北京四中国际校区怎么样？上周六，四中国际校区在新东方总部北楼举办了一场专场说明会，现场进行了主题演讲、模拟面试、答疑交流等环节。讲座期间，四中国际校区外教代表人文社科组组长Aaron Peterson做了一场主题为 "我在四中国际校区的十年" 的演讲。演讲稿内容如下。

Aaron Peterson：我在四中国际校区的十年

Hello, my name is Aaron Peterson. I’m honored to speaking before you, especially in the capacity of speaking on behalf of a school like Beijing No. 4, and I thank you for your attention.

大家好，我是Aaron Peterson。很荣幸今天能够代表北京四中这样的学校与各位分享，提前感谢各位的聆听。

Just the other day, I was recalling that it was exactly 10 years ago to the day—just after the Lantern Festival in 2012—when I received an offer to transfer to Beijing No. 4 High School. At the time, I was lured with promises that these were “the best students in China.” But frankly at the time I was quite happy with my students at a top school in Jiangsu and I suspected that the claims about No. 4 students were mere hyperbole anyways. At the time, what actually convinced me to move from Jiangsu to Beijing were all superficial matters: my preference for a Northern climate, the proximity of No. 4 to the Forbidden City, the ability to replace rice with noodles and dumplings, the fact that it had a well-connected international airport with direct flights to my home near Chicago, etc.  At the time, I had already taught at two other key public high schools in China and had concluded that all elite public schools in China are largely the same, all very pleasant teaching and learning environments. And so I moved to Beijing, with the expectation that I’d stay there for a year or two and then again move on to another school in a different province, fulfilling a dream to travel and live all over China. But 10 years later, I’m still here in Beijing at No. 4… because there’s something very special about this place.

前几天，我突然意识到，就在10年前，2012年春节之后，我收到了北京四中的工作邀约。当时吸引我的地方是，他们告诉我这里有中国最优秀的学生。不过坦白地讲，当时我在江苏的一所顶级学校工作，与那里的学生在一起我也很开心。我很怀疑他们对于四中学生的描述是否有夸大的嫌疑。事实上，真正让我下定决心从江苏搬到北京的都是一些很简单的原因，比如我更喜欢北方的气候，四中的位置离故宫非常近，我更喜欢吃饺子和面条而不是米饭，北京的机场有能够直飞我的家乡-芝加哥的航线。10年前，我已经在两所中国顶级的公立学校教过书。两段工作经历让我觉得中国的顶级公立学校都会有非常舒适的教学环境。所以我搬到了北京，同时期待着一两年之后能够再次去往别的省份教书，完成我在中国各地旅行和生活的梦想。不过，10年过去了，现在的我依然在北京四中，因为我发现这里有一些地方非常特别。

Upon arriving at No. 4, I encountered its magic immediately. On the first day of class, a student approached me after the lesson to ask how currency exchange rates affect balance of trade so that he could evaluate a point of contention between Barack Obama or Mitt Romney. This showed me how curious, globally aware, and intellectual our students are. I was also surprised by how friendly students were; everyone greeted me in the hallways, despite not really knowing me yet and without regard for whether I was their teacher or not. This was my first clue to how warm-hearted and amiable our students are, and how boldly they face the world. I met a student who was designing an AI program to allow driverless cars go through intersections from all directions without ever needing to stop. This gave me a deep sense of how inventive and solution-oriented and tenacious our students are. I met students who founded their own clubs and brought them to high levels of achievement, most especially via the Model UN Club that I was invited to advise, with students responsible for the core leadership of the club. This opened my eyes to the students’ initiative and independence and maturity. And all combined I had an overwhelming sense that I was in the company of tremendous talent, the ones who will lead our society into the future… and the ones who would make teaching at No. 4 captivating and demanding.

刚到四中没多久，我就感受到了这所学校的魅力。在四中的第一天，下课之后一名学生找到我，询问汇率会如何影响贸易平衡。他正在关注美国大选，奥巴马和罗姆尼的一个争论点让他无法评判，所以来找我了解一下。这位学生的问题让我意识到四中的学生是一个充满好奇心，拥有全球视野并且聪明好学的群体。同学们也都非常热情友好，无论认识还是不认识，无论我是否教他们，每一位在楼道里见到我都会主动地与我打招呼。他们让我知道四中的学生是一群热心，友善且勇敢地面对世界的群体。在这里，我遇到了自己设计AI项目让无人驾驶的汽车可以顺利地通过十字路口的学生。他让我知道四中的学生是一群富有创造力，问题解决型且执着坚守的群体。在这里，我遇到了自己建立模拟联合国社团并带领社团获得优秀成绩的学生。我被邀请为顾问老师但是整体的运营都是学生自己负责。他让我知道四中的学生是一群积极主动，独立自主且成熟自信的群体。所有的这些让我深深感受到，四中的学生极具天赋，未来能够在社会起引领作用。正是这些学生让我在四中的工作变得极具吸引力而又充满挑战。

Indeed students of this caliber require the most of teachers and thus bring out the best in us.  It’s hard to get jaded or complacent when you are daily encountering students with over-flowing enthusiasm, fresh questions, bountiful expectation, and grand potential. The result of this daily need to meet extraordinary people with our own excellence is that I have the joy of working with so many colleagues who burn with dedicated spirit and shine with talent. Chatting with Dr. Xu about the mechanics of free will vs predestination or appreciating a painting with Scott that evolves until we’re discussing the significance of An Lushan’s rebellion until half an hour later we’re talking about populism in contemporary US politics... aaah... these are delightful conversations…invoking curiosity to stir the soul.  And these dialogues convince me of how scholarly and thrilling their classes must be. And this we must be to resonate with the rhythm of ever-searching, intellectually hungry students.

不得不承认，学生的优秀也倒推老师们必须要不断努力，而这也让我们作为老师能够发挥出最好的一面。作为一名四中的老师你不会松懈或自满，因为在这里每天都会遇见热情洋溢的学生，会遇见提出全新问题的学生，会遇见充满梦想的学生，会遇见拥有无限潜能的学生。这些学生促使我们每天都需要结识非凡的人。这也是让我开心的地方，因为在这里我能与很多极具敬业精神且才华横溢的同事一起工作。我可以与徐鹰博士聊自由意志与宿命论，与Scott老师从一起欣赏画作，聊到安禄山叛乱的意义，再到半个小时之后谈论当代美国政治中的民粹主义。这些都是令人愉悦的对话，唤起我们的好奇心，激发灵魂的碰撞。这些对话让我相信这些老师的课程也一定是那么的学术，那么的激动人心。因为我们必须如此才能与不断探索、求知若渴的学生产生共鸣。

In the first year of teaching at No. 4, my heart sang constantly… with every flowing class discussion… with every after-school philosophy chat, with every speech at their Model UN conferences…an unending stream of joys. But it was only after a few years that I discovered what turns out to be the most impactful aspect of No. 4 life on me—the sense of belonging, identity, and family cultivated at this school. This sense of family manifests in our students’ habit of spending their university holidays and even weekends with each other rather than their university peers, often flying halfway across the US to arrange the reunions. This sense of family manifests in students who graduated in 2018 welcoming new No. 4 students to their university despite not knowing them. This sense of family manifests in the tradition of alumni returning each year for two days during winter holiday to share their university, internship, social life experiences for the edification of current students; last winter, there were multiple students who graduated in 2014 who took time off of their work to come back, both out of a sense of obligation to give back to later generations and certainly also out of anticipation of seeing teachers and peers again. This sense of family explains why alumni REGULARLY come back to visit our school, often multiple times per year. In fact, during this winter holiday, I met with two separate students who graduated before 2016 for tea and chat, each session lasting over 5 hours and ending only because the setting sun reminded us that we had missed lunch.

在四中任教的第一年，我的内心一直在欢唱。每一次流畅的课堂讨论，每一次课后的哲学对谈，每一次学生们在模拟联合国会议上的演讲都能给我带来源源不断的欢乐。但直到几年后，我才发现四中的生活对我影响最大的一面是让我有了家的感觉。这所学校给每一位四中人带来了归属感、身份感和家庭感。这种家庭感体现在我们学生在大学假期甚至周末的时候会与彼此，而不是大学同学一起度过的习惯上，他们会经常飞越美国安排团聚。这种家庭感体现在2018届的毕业生会迎接四中的学弟学妹来到他们的大学，尽管他们之前并不认识。这种家庭感体现在校友们每年寒假都会回学校两天，分享他们的大学生活、实习经历、社会生活经验，以启发在校的学生。去年冬天，有多名2014届的毕业生请假回来，既是觉得有责任回馈学弟学妹，也期待能再次见到老师和同学。这种家庭感解释了为什么四中校友经常每年多次回来参观我们的学校。事实上，就在这个寒假期间，我遇到了两位2016年之前毕业的学生，我们一起喝茶聊天，持续了5个多小时，最后是看到夕阳才意识到已经错过了午餐而不得不结束。

This sense of family is no small treasure. On the one hand, it affirms the ways that learners invest in each other and speaks to the delight that comes from 3 years of this exchange. Indeed it is for this reason that I personally refuse to measure my success as a teacher solely by the number of 5s my students can get on the AP exams; in addition and far more important than that, I measure our success as teachers by the quality of our relationships with the students because those relationships speak to the sum of academic,  moral, and social instruction that we must offer and they reveal the intangible magic that binds erstwhile strangers who now care deeply about each other after going through the fire together. Moreover, I would argue that this sense of family cultivated at our school offers a powerful tool for our futures. We live in a complex, competitive, uncertain, anxious world, a world that seems recently to dissolve ever further in that direction with each passing year. In all times—both smooth and tumultuous but especially during times like these—I believe that we humans sustain ourselves not by merely surviving nor by out-competing others to get rich and prosper, but rather by tapping into the sustenance that comes from interconnectedness valuing our interdependence and deriving purpose by being valued by others. It’s my hope that our school has done a decent job elucidating this point and also given the students and teachers enduring bonds to make good on the promise of this interconnectedness for wholesome, meaningful living. I can only be sure that it’s the most precious of all the wonders that Beijing No. 4 has given me in 10 years here.

这种家庭感是一笔巨额的财富。一方面，它肯定了同学们对彼此的投入，代表了3年交流所带来的喜悦。事实上，正是出于这个原因，我个人是拒绝仅仅以我的学生在AP考试中获得5分的数量来衡量我作为一名教师成功与否。更重要的是，我会通过我与学生的关系来判断我们作为教师是否成功，因为这种关系体现了我们带给学生的学术知识、道德指引和社会建议的总和。这些都是我们作为老师必须要传授给学生的知识。这些知识拥有无形的魔力，它能够将昔日的陌生人紧密联系在一起，成为彼此深切关心共度难关的伙伴。此外，我认为我们学校培养的这种家庭意识也为我们的未来提供了强大的工具。我们生活在一个复杂多变、充满竞争和不确定性、弥漫焦虑的世界中，这个世界最近似乎每年都在朝着这个方向进一步地消融。在每一个时代，无论平稳还是动荡，当然尤其是在现在这样的时代——我相信我们人类维持自己的生存不仅仅是通过自我个体的奋斗，也不是通过与他人竞争来获取财富和荣耀，而是通过彼此关系的维持，通过重视我们的相互依赖，通过能给他人带来价值来实现最终的目标。我很希望我们的学校有在清晰地阐明这一点，并且让学生和老师们建立了持久的羁绊。这份羁绊帮助这里的每一个人实现让生活健康，有意义的承诺。我能肯定的是，这是北京四中在过去10年给我带来的最珍贵的印记。

Beijing No.4 is pure magic to me. It’s the tradition. It’s the legacy. It’s the identity. It’s the values. It’s the teachers. And above all else, it’s the quality of our students. That’s why I’m so glad to talk with you today and hopefully answer any questions you have so that we can soon welcome you into our classmates. Thanks for this opportunity to speak with you and share with you my perspective.

“北京四中”对我来说是充满魔力的。它是一种传统，它是一份传承，它是一份身份的认同。它是一种价值观的体现。它代表着所有的四中老师们。最重要的是，它代表着所有四中学生的品质。这就是为什么我今天很高兴与各位分享，并希望回答您的任何问题，以便很快欢迎您的孩子走入四中成为我们一员。感谢今天有机会与各位交谈与分享我的观点。

可以看出Aaron Peterson老师对四中有着很深的情结，同样喜欢四中且目标国际部是四中国际校区的家长们，不要错过任何一个机会去了解真实的四中。

国际学校网《北京四中国际校区怎么样呢?外教代表人文社科组组长发言！ 》原文地址：https://guojixiao.com/z/14265.html