新西蘭的“放羊”學校

Deep among the streams and Kauri trees of rural south Auckland, New Zealand’s newest and most alternative school is in session. The weather is fine so a bout of fishing is in order, followed by lunch cooked on an open fire. Homework and classes? Indefinitely dismissed.

在南奧克蘭鄉間的溪流邊和貝殼杉樹下，新西蘭最新最另類的學校正在“上課”。天氣很好，所以學生們將會去釣魚，接着大家會在野外生火做午飯。作業和聽課呢？無限期取消了。

“We are called a school but we look nothing like any school out there,” says Joey Moncarz, co-founder and head teacher at Deep Green Bush School, which is in term two of its inaugural year.

深綠叢林學校的聯合創始人、校長喬伊?蒙卡茲說：“我們名爲學校，但一點也不像其他學校。”現在是學校創辦以來的第二學期。

“We don’t do things like telling kids it is time to write or learn maths. When they are interested in doing it, they do it.”

“我們不會告訴孩子該寫字或該學數學了。當他們感興趣的時候，他們就會去學。”

Moncarz is an ex-mainstream teacher. After five frustrating years in mainstream schools in New Zealand he quit to found Deep Green Bush school, which has a roll of eight, and no classroom walls, time-out chairs or tests.

蒙卡茲以前也是一個主流學校的老師。在新西蘭的主流學校裏待了五年後他覺得很灰心，於是就辭職創辦了深綠叢林學校。這個學校只有八名學生，沒有教室，沒有罰坐椅，也沒有考試。

Concerned that mainstream schools were not preparing children for the global problems of the future – such as climate change – Moncarz envisioned a radically different kind of education, rooted in the primal skills of hunting, gathering and survival.

由於擔心主流學校沒有指導孩子爲將來的全球性問題——比如氣候變化——做好準備，蒙卡茲設想出了一種截然不同的教育，這種教育基於打獵、覓食和生存等原始技能。

If the weather allows, pupils spend the majority of their day outdoors, exploring the New Zealand bush, learning to fish and hunt, trapping possums (which are considered a pest) and learning about the flora and fauna of their home.

如果天氣允許的話，學生大半天都會在戶外活動，探索新西蘭的叢林，學習釣魚和打獵，抓捕負鼠（負鼠被認爲是害畜），學習瞭解自家附近的動植物。

The more traditional school skills, such as reading, writing and arithmetic, are acquired at their own pace, after they begin showing an interest in them. Not, says Moncarz, when the teacher dictates it is time to learn.

至於那些更傳統的學校技能，比如閱讀、寫作和算術，學生將在產生興趣之後，按照自己的節奏來學習。而不是由老師來發號施令說該學習了，蒙卡茲說道。

“We don’t have what you’d traditionally consider problem kids,” says Moncarz.

蒙卡茲說：“我們沒有人們傳統意義上認爲的問題小孩。”

“Our parents saw their kids were unhappy and stressed in mainstream education and they started questioning; is it normal or right for kids to come home stressed and unhappy? Having taught in a mainstream school, I’d say most kids are stressed and unhappy.”

“我們學校的家長看見他們的孩子在主流學校裏不快樂，壓力也很大，於是他們開始質疑：孩子們每天回家時都壓力重重、不開心，這難道是正常的、是對的嗎？因爲我自己就在主流學校裏教過書，所以我敢說大部分孩子都有壓力，都不快樂。”

Bush school is registered with the Ministry of Education as an independent school, and therefore does not have to abide by the standard New Zealand curriculum, although it is subject to ministerial oversight.

叢林學校在教育部登記爲私立學校，因此不必按新西蘭標準課程來教，不過它也要接受教育部的監督。

Loosely inspired by the Sudbury Valley School in the US, which in turn was inspired by A.S Neill’s Summerhill school in the UK, since launching in January Moncarz has been fielding requests from around New Zealand and abroad to open chapters of Bush School in places as far afield as China and Europe.

這所學校是受到美國瑟谷學校的啓發，而瑟谷學校又是受到英國AS奈爾夏山學校的啓發。自從一月份建校以來，蒙卡茲就不斷收到新西蘭各地和國外請求開立叢林學校分校的請求，這其中也有來自中國和歐洲的請求。

Dr David Berg, a senior lecturer in education at the University of Otago, says there is a growing precedent for alternative “bush” schools worldwide, especially in Scandinavia, where some kindergarten children go ice-fishing during the school day.

奧塔哥大學教育系的高級講師戴維?伯格博士說，世界各地和叢林學校類似的先鋒學校越來越多，尤其是在斯堪的納維亞，那裏有些幼兒園的孩子在教學日去冰上釣魚。

Moncarz insists that the school isn’t an “experiment” in education, and is based on two million years of evidence of how parents have raised their kids, at one with nature.

蒙卡茲堅稱，這所學校並不是教育上的“實驗”，而是基於200萬年來父母養育孩子的自然經驗。

“We don’t want to be one of a kind, we want to replace mainstream schools,” said Moncarz.

蒙卡茲說：“我們不想做獨一無二的學校，我們想替代主流學校。”

“We are using the same wisdom parents have used to teach their kids for millions of years. Locking kids in a classroom and forcing them to learn just causes a lot of problems.”

“我們用的是數百萬年來父母教育孩子的智慧。把孩子關在教室裏，強迫他們學習只會導致很多問題。”