【双语有声阅读】我不会让儿子上大学(下)

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“真的是这样，”我和吉米的老师建议道，“吉米得分很低的课程就没有必要再读下去。”

"Not at all," the teacher insisted, and then named a string of universities I'd barely¹ heard of, claiming they'd be perfect for Jim.

“这是不对的，”老师坚持说，然后拿出一系列我几乎都没有听过的大学的列表给我看，说这些学校都适合吉米。

It was at this point I realized how completely out of touch I was with the current educational thought.

此时此刻我感觉自己完全不了解现在的教育理念。

In the early 1980s when I was at school, a student with such poor grades as Jim's would never be considered university material.

20世纪80年代早期，我还是学生的时候，像吉米这样成绩差的学生会被视为不适合读大学。

Since then the percentage of eligible² population in Britain has risen from 14% to an astonishing 44%. The educational system is cramming³ even the most mediocre⁴ students into a degree curse.

从那时起，英国符合上大学的学生比例从14%上升到了44%。填鸭式的教育系统使得普通学生都可以继续读大学。

It affects the sort of the courses that universities offer: undemanding ones such as film studies and surfing; it affects the way universities advertise themselves—with student bar sizes and local clubs given priority⁵ over the quality of the courses.

这影响了大学教授的课程：要求不高的电影研究和冲浪；影响大学推销自己的方式——学生酒吧大小和当地社团的重要性高于课程质量。

Another fact is that when I went to university, a degree still counted for something.

还有一个事实，我上大学时，学位还是有价值的。

These days, the degree is so devalued that you are far better off going straight into the job market than spending three years treading⁶ water, running up big debts.

而现在，学位已经贬值，你还不如直接参加工作，而不是冒险浪费三年的时间，积累巨额债务。

Maybe it would be worth it if, as a result of his or her degree, your child would have a well-paid career.

上大学也许是值得的，因为他或者她的学历，你的孩子能有一份高薪的职业。

But there are now too many graduates running after too few graduate obs, and employers are becoming suspicious⁷ of the value of degrees.

但是太多的毕业生没有达到毕业的要求，雇主们开始怀疑学位的价值。

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