Student Power
学生的力量

by Chris Rose
克里斯•罗斯

When most people think of strikes, they think of factory workers asking for better pay and conditions, or perhaps refusing to work to support a colleague who has been unfairly sacked. It is not often that people associate strikes with school students. But in Italy, it is different. While in many countries it is absolutely unthinkable, in Italy it happens almost every year. Some people may remember the “Paris spring” of 1968, when in the French capital university students and factory workers all went on strike in a crisis which almost made the French republic collapse, but for many this is a long time ago now. But in Italy, however, the tradition has remained. It seems that almost every autumn there is a reason to protest. Most of the protests are national, like the current opposition to the government’s planned educational reforms, but there are also protests against things like local issues such as heating in the classes or treatment of individual students.
当人们提到“罢工”这个词的时候，往往会联想到工厂工人为了要求更为优厚的薪水和待遇，亦或者是为了声援某个被不公辞退的同事而发起的活动。大多数人都不会将这个词和学校里面的学生联系在一起。但是在意大利，情况则不同寻常了：虽然于其他国家而言学生罢课不可思议，但这在意大利却几乎年年都会发生。一些人们或许会记得1968年爆发的“巴黎之春”，当时法国首都的大学生以及工人为了一场政治危机罢工罢课奔走街头，这场危机差点颠覆了法国的政权。对许多人来说这场罢工已经是遥远的记忆了，但是在意大利学生罢课的传统却一直保留了下来。几乎每年秋来的时候都会有种种罢课抗议的理由。大部分罢课抗议的理由都是关于国事，比如反对政府现行的教育改革计划；有时候也会有一些直接关于学校的问题，例如教室的供暖问题或者是对某个学生的不公待遇问题。

And what do students do to protest?
All over the country they go on strike, they have demonstrations in the streets, they occupy their schools, they have lots of meetings and sometimes they try to run the schools themselves for a period, setting up their own lessons and courses.
那么学生抗议时一般会做什么呢？
全国的学生都会集体罢课，他们有时上街游行，有时占领学校。在这段时期内学生会有很多会议要开，有时还会自己运作学校，自行设立科目和课程。

Are all the students behind this?
Well, it’s difficult to say exactly. But what is certain, is that very few students object.
是不是所有学生都支持罢课呢？
其实这个问题很难说，但是可以肯定的是，很少有学生反对罢课。

“I think it’s important to show what we feel” says one high school student, “The new school reform will be very bad for state schools.”
一个高中学生说：“我认为表明我们的感受是非常重要的，新的学校改革对于公立学校来说后患无穷。”

Other students are more sceptical. “I think it’s great!” says one student, “It means we get a few days off school.” Another student is openly cynical: “All the people who are doing this... well, some of them are just troublemakers, others are people who are already planning to become politicians. They want to start their career now.” Others say that the strike leaders are being manipulated or used by groups from outside the schools.
而另一些学生对罢课的目的则表示怀疑。一个学生说：“我认为这太棒了!罢课我就可以有好些天不用去上课啦。”另一个学生公开质疑道：“每个学生都在罢课，但是其中有些人纯粹就是捣乱的，另外一些人就是那些想做政客的，他们想从现在开始就磨砺他们的政治生涯。”还有些学生说，这些罢课学生领袖都是被校外的一些势力所操纵和利用的。

Problems occurred recently when students from one school which was being occupied marched to another school which wasn’t protesting. The strikers stood outside the school and shouted and threw things at the windows. The non-striking students sat in their classrooms and did nothing, but their teachers went out and began to shout at the students from the striking school.
而往往当一个闹罢课的学校学生向一个没有罢课的学校进军游行时问题就出现了。罢课的学生在学校外面大声叫喊口号，并且向学校的窗玻璃上砸石头。而没有罢课的学生只得静坐在自己的教室里面无所事事，他们的老师则会走出去训斥那些罢课学校的学生。

In Britain, and a lot of other countries, such action is unthinkable. Students are not allowed to go on strike, and if they did they would probably face severe disciplinary measures.
在英国以及很多其他国家，这种事情简直是不可理喻。这些国家是禁止学生罢课的，即便是真的需要罢课那也得有严格的组织纪律。

The strange thing about this, however, is that despite the number of school hours lost to strikes, Italian students are certainly no less intelligent or knowledgeable than their European counterparts. Their national averages are the same as others, despite the fact that on average they spend up to 20% less time in the classroom – with strikes being only one of the many interruptions of the Italian school year.
然而古怪的是虽然罢课减少了学生们在校学习的时间，但是意大利学生无论是在智力上还是在知识储备上都并不逊色于欧洲其他国家的学生。意大利国民除了平均花在课堂上的时间比其他国家国民的平均值少20%之外（其实罢课只是意大利学校停课的种种原因中的一个），其他的平均指数都和他国无异。

Troublemakers or not, perhaps there is something to be learned from the Italian way of studying!
不论是不是捣乱者，也许我们都该从意大利式学习中汲取一些经验！