家庭作业

Susan著 小哭译

家庭作业，我真的开始恨这个词儿了。以前，作业意味着一个炫耀的机会，一个再一次确认自己比同学们更聪明的机会。以前，我从来没有在作业上不得不努力学习，我总是比任何其它人做得都更好，因此也确信自己比任何别的同学都更特别和更聪明。然而今年，作业已经让我觉得完全是一个新的概念了。我确实开始憎恨这个新概念了。

首先，作业量加大了。以前，我最多也就是花两三个小时做作业。现在，如果我能够在三个小时内完成作业，就算是幸运的了。今年我在所有的快班，所以有着比普通班多得多的作业。我至少有：每晚一到两个小时的ELA作业；半个小时到一个小时的数学作业；半个小时的科学课作业；半个小时的ACE（这个是美国历史）作业；还有半到一个小时的西班牙语作业。每晚这些就得做三到四个小时，我是在说至少这些啊！

我在2点45分钟放学，校车至少要3点才开车，到家差不多是3点20分，然后我要花半个小时左右的时间喝点什么、安静下来，开始安排我的下午时间。如果我九点钟睡觉，那我每天只有五个小时属于自己。去掉一个小时的晚饭时间，就只剩下四个小时了。除了睡觉、吃饭和上学，每天我只有四个小时的自由时间。那么这宝贵的四个小时怎么样了呢？作业！作业！作业！作业！作业！还是作业！

作业接管了我的生活！学校接管了我的生活！我再也没有留给自己的时间了！早晨，我要去上学；下午，我回家做作业；晚上，我吃完饭后接着做作业；夜里，我得睡觉。然后第二天早晨，再开始一个这样的循环。这不是生活应该有的样子！生活应该比只是学习、学习、学习、学习再学习丰富得多。我正在学的大把东西根本就没有用！通常我不是这种反叛的性格，但是现在的作业也太多了！我觉得自己正在被推到一个系统中，而其主要的目的就是想控制青少年的生活，确保他们不再有童年。我这么说不是因为我不喜欢做作业。数量合理的作业还是不错的，但是如果多到不得不基于学校的功课来组织安排我全部的生活呢？这……这简直有病！

当然，实际上我并不能批评什么，因为我也没有一个更好的方案。我不是儿童专家，我不知道什么才是最好的育儿方法。我唯一能想到的办法就是一天有48个小时而不是24个小时。那样的话， 我就会有更多属于自己的时间去做我想做的事儿；那样的话，我就能体验生活了。只要我有时间去享受生活，我就确信自己能够感受到生活是一件多么美好的事情，

今年作业这么难的另一个原因是作业不再仅仅是一个手工劳动而已了。实际上我不得不在做作业的时候去思考。这对我很有挑战性。例如，今年的ELA课上将要学习哲学和宗教。老师已经给出了一本关于这样的一个人的书去读——这个人决定离开人类社会去森林里住二年半，因为他相信自然是他能够真正找到自己和发现上帝的地方。这是一本读起来非常难懂的书。一个小时我只读了17页的内容，而通常这几页纸仅需要我15分钟的时间。是的，今年的作业绝对是更有挑战性。但我还是对其有所期待。

我还要去做一个充满激情的大作业，是关于我所感兴趣的什么事儿或者我想去尝试的什么新鲜事儿。任何事儿都可以。有些人已经尝试去学一门新乐器了；有些人则创建了一个俱乐部或一个慈善募捐小组；还有一些人只想在某一科目上做大量的研究并展示成果；也有一些人从零开始修建一个玩具屋。我则决定去拍一个搞笑片。所以，我不得不想办法在一个半月的时间里拍出一个小电影，确保它能够让观众大笑。这是一个非常难、并且几乎是不可能完成的任务。但是它至少很好玩儿，不像所有我的那些其它作业。

关于作业我还有很多东西可以说，但是我没有时间把所有的都列出来。结束本文前我想再说一件事儿。作业已经开始有点让我觉得压力过大了。只是有点，不是太多。但它正在开始让我觉得有压力。我不喜欢感觉到压力。这就是为什么我一点也不喜欢作业。我确实希望上帝能够帮我把压力从肩上卸掉，帮助我找到时间去拥有学校和作业以外的生活。我相信上帝，我相信他知道什么对我是最好的。如果他认为所有这些作业会帮助我更好地成长并成熟起来……那好吧！我相信他知道什么是最好的。但是到目前为止，我还没有看到一点迹象表明上帝多么喜欢让作业开始接管我的生活。

今天我就说这些吧。我希望你能明白我在说啥。写这种东西我觉得很难，希望你不会觉得理解起来太难。谢谢阅读。

【小哭介绍背景】本来Susan八年级的写作我想等到她初中毕业的时候再发表。可是暑假作文系列结束篇后，有两个文友表示了愿意继续跟读Susan的文章。我觉得他们一路都在支持暑假作文系列，并非仅仅是出于“情感”，可能还因为Susan的作文本身有着他们所需的某些信息，那就继续吧。

八年级的生活，从一开始就围绕着作业转了，充满了压力。直到昨天晚上，Susan才开心地说，下周一、二不上学，她有四天可以放松的日子！！！要好好享受一下。我这人真的是乌鸦嘴，马上来了句，那到时候就赶紧把后面的作业赶一赶，免得假后又赶作业。一看Susan面露不悦，又讨好地说，也要安排看看电影。结果Susan爸马上问我，你不是说不喜欢看电影吗？怎么老是你提议去看电影呢？嗨，直问自己，闭嘴会死啊？！

Susan提到的一些大作业，真的很有意思。有一个是有一天凌晨四点，她在后院支了一个帐篷，带上卧具，感受了凌晨时分一个小时后，就接着睡着了。第二天我起床后发现Susan不见了，吓得不轻，楼上楼下找不到人，才想起来她提到要去院子观察黑夜。赶紧去把她喊进来，后悔没有提醒她多带被子，搞到有点感冒。但是我读了她写的大作业后，真的觉得文章中充满了激情，我为她的这类大作业而替她高兴。如果留在国内，她的生活里面哪会有这些内容，她文中所报怨的只有上学和作业的生活，会年复一年地陪着她。

还有一个拍小电影的作业，她不得不上网去查找编辑软件，还得想办法下载。说实话，学生的付费软件大概要一百美元左右，她肯定是太希望我们能够支持她了。可是我们现在没有这个承受力，生活又不是一个软件可以搞定的，需要付钱的事情太多了。比如她冬天要参加的一个标准化考试，报名费要88美元。这类事情经常都会有，我们只能捡重要的支持。话说回来，她要庆幸有一个电脑“高手”老爸，最后Susan爸出手相助，总算是帮她下载并安装好了一个可用的编辑软件，她很遗憾于功能不能和电视台的相比。我心中暗想，如果她的兴趣能够持续下去一年，这一年内她确实因为内心的驱动还去做这类事情，就帮她买个学生版的支持她。安装好后她就通过网上教程学习用法，说是这个软件最大的好处是和以前电视台的界面很像。不过这个是WINDOWS版的，而电视台的是MAC版的，她很高兴终于可以再编辑视频了。有一天她把家用小相机带到了学校，和朋友们拍了一些场景，视频已经有了。她说剩下的就是编辑了，希望不要再补拍。本来她曾说过要补拍的，后来又说想通过编辑特效来弥补一些缺陷，不补拍可能也行。自从她开始写剧本，我就一直希望这件事能够有始有终，我们为着剧本的内容还在讨论的时候争执过，现在看着她的大作业就这么向前推进着，我其实真的挺羡慕她有这些大作业的。多好啊！我小时候哪有这些可以让人充分发挥想像力和创造力的作业啊，我的那些可怜的想象力和创造力不等上大学，就全都被磨没了：（现在有的时候我不理解她，也会怀疑是我自己本身的问题。

总之，作业多，和她动作慢关系很大。可是我不能否认作业多也是事实。这一周我没有批评过她呢：）我正在努力地学习做一个把指责变成鼓励的老妈，希望自己能够一直支持FOR她，陪她养成做事高效的好习惯。

附上英文原文：

Homework

Homework. I’m really starting to hate that word. Before, homework had meant an opportunity to show off, and opportunity to once again reassure myself that I’m more intelligent than my classmates. Before, I never had to work very hard on homework, and I always did better on them than anyone else, thus making me feel special and smarter than everyoen else. However, this year, homework has taken on a whole new definition. And I’m really starting to hate this new definition.

First of all, the homework increased. Before, I only had about two or three hours worth of homework at most. Now, I’d be lucky if I only get three hours worth of homework. I’m in all advanced classes this year, so I have more homework than normal classes. I have at least: one to two hours of ELA homework every night, half an hour to an hour of math homework, half an hour of science, half an hour of ACE (that’s U.S. History), and half an hour of Spanish. That’s about three to four hours worth of homework each night, at the very least.

I get out of school at 2:45, the bus leaves at 3:00, I reach my house at about 3:20, and it usually takes me about half an hour to get a drink, calm down, and start organizing my afternoon. If I go to sleep at nine, I have about five hours to myself every day. Take an hour off for dinner, and that leaves me four hours. Four hours to myself every day apart from sleep, meals, and school. And what happens to those four precious hours? Homework. Homework, homework, homework, homework, homework!

Homework is taking over my life! School is taking over my life! I have no time left to myself anymore! In the mornings I go to school. In the afternoons, I come home and do homework, In the evenings, I eat dinner and do more homework. During the nights, I go to sleep, and the next morning, the cycle starts again. This isn’t what life is about! There should be more to life than just learning, learning, learning, learning, and learning. A bunch of the things I’m learning about is completely useless! I’m not usually the rebellious type, but this is just too much! I feel like I’m being forced to take part in a system whose’s main purpose to to control a teenager’s life and to make sure they don't get to have a childhood. I’m not saying this because I don’t like doing homework. A reasonable amount of homework is fine. But having to build and organize my whole life based on schoolwork? This…this is insane!

Of course, I’m not really in a position to criticize, since I don’t have any better alternatives. I’m no child expert, I don’t know that the best ways to educate children are. The only alternative I can think about is to extend the time we have every day to forty-eight hours instead of twenty-four. That way, I would have to more time to myself to do what I want. That way, I can experience life. And I’m sure I’ll find life to be a wonderful thing, if only I have the time to enjoy it.

Another reason that homework is harder this year is because it’s not just manual labor anymore. I actually have to think while I’m doing my homework. It’s actually challenging me. For example, we’re going to be studying philosophy and religion in ELA this year. My teacher already gave us all a book to read about this man who decided he wanted to go live in a forest away from civilization for two and a half years because he believes nature is where he can truly find himself and find God. It’s a very hard book to read. I spent more than an hour just to read seventeen pages a task I can usually do in fifteen minutes. Yes, homework is definitely going to be more challenging this year. But I’m looking forward to it.

I also have to do a passion project about something I’m interested in or something new I want to try. It can be anything. Some students have tried to learn a new instrument, some started a club or a fundraising charity group. Some just researched a lot on a subject and presented it, while some built a dollhouse from scratch. I decided to film a short movie that’s funny. And so, I have to somehow film a short movie in a month an a half, and make sure that it would make people laugh. A very hard and near-impossible task. But at least it’s fun, unlike all my other homeowork.

There are many more things I can say about homework, but I don’t have time to list them all. I would like to say one more thing before I go. Homework is starting to stress me out a little. Just a little, not too much. But it is starting to make me feel pressured. And I don’t like feeling pressured. Which is why I don’t like homework anymore. I really do hope that somehow, God will take the stress off my shoulders and help me find time to have a life outside of school and schoolwork. I trust in the Lord, and I trust that He knows what is best for me. If He thinks all this homework will help me better mature and grow up… great! I trust Him to know what’s best. But as of yet, I haven’t gotten any sign that God likes how homework is taking over my life.

That’s all I have to say for today. I hope you understand what I’m saying. This was a hard piece for me to write, and I hope it wasn’t too confusing. Thank you for reading.