紐時賞析／歐洲教師很難向學生解釋俄烏戰爭

Hard Questions From Students Across Europe

歐洲教師很難向學生解釋俄烏戰爭

As they returned from playing tag at recess on a recent sunny morning,

the red-cheeked children had lots of questions.

最近一個陽光明媚的早晨，一群孩子在下課時間玩完鬼抓人的遊戲回來，臉頰紅通通的他們問了許多問題。

“Russia is big enough; why does he want more land?” Max, 11, his eyes on

an atlas, asked his teacher about President Vladimir Putin of Russia.

11歲的麥克斯盯著一本地圖集，問他的老師關於俄國總統普亭的問題：「俄國夠大了，為什麼他還想要更多土地？」

Jessica, 11, stood with a knee on her chair. “Why are most crazy people

men?” she wondered.

11歲的潔西卡站著，把一隻腳的膝蓋放在她的椅子上，疑惑地說：「為什麼大多數瘋子都是男的？」

Issy, 11, turned to the teacher: “Would you stay and fight for your

country?”

11歲的伊西轉身問老師：「你會留下來為國作戰嗎？」

Tara Harmer, a teacher of 36 years, paused to think. “It’s a

difficult one, isn’t it?” she said in her elementary school

classroom in Horsham, a town in southern England. “My instinct

would be to protect you,” she reasoned. “Yes, I think I would

fight for my country.”

執教36年的老師塔拉．哈默停下來想了想。她在英國英格蘭南部霍舍姆鎮一個小學班級裡邊思考邊說：「這個問題很難，對吧？我的本能是要保護你們。對，我想我會為國家戰鬥。」

As Europeans have grappled with the shock of facing a war on

their doorstep and a frenzied news cycle, many teachers have

had little time to process what was happening; they had to

provide answers, and fast.

歐洲人設法應付戰爭發生在家門口的震驚和瘋狂的新聞播送之際，許多教師幾乎沒時間消化正在發生的事，他們必須提供答案，而且要快。

“I have had 100 questions,” said Sandro Pellicciotta, who

teaches geography at a high school in the northern Italian

city of Bologna. “And to be honest, I am quite afraid of

saying some nonsense.”

在義大利北部波隆納市一所高中教地理的桑德羅．佩利喬塔說：「我被問了100個問題，老實說，我很怕說出一些不知所云的話。」

Schoolchildren today were born long after the Balkan conflicts

of the 1990s, and some were toddlers when the war in Syria

was at its height. No conflict they are old enough to

remember has been so widely displayed on their TikTok feeds

as the war in Ukraine, or so close to home.

現今的學童在1990年代巴爾幹衝突過後很久才出生，其中有些人在敘利亞戰爭高峰期還是學步的幼兒。沒有一場他們年長到能記住的衝突像烏克蘭戰爭一樣，如此廣泛地展示在他們的TikTok動態消息中，或離家這麼近。

The distance between their world and that of geopolitics has

telescoped, and teachers have struggled to assuage fears that

this war might affect them all. After two years of a pandemic,

they also say the war has undermined their efforts to convince

children that the world is not a hostile place.

他們的世界和地緣政治學世界的距離縮短了，而老師極力平息學生關於這場戰爭可能影響他們所有人的恐懼。在疫情肆虐兩年後，教師也說，他們想說服兒童這個世界並非不友善的地方，這場戰爭削弱了這項努力。

Teachers across Europe described the challenges they were

facing in the classroom and the questions they had been asked.

歐洲各地的老師描述了他們在課堂裡面臨的挑戰和他們被問過的問題。

Governments around Europe have acknowledged the challenges

that the war in Ukraine poses for teachers and have drafted

guidelines for them.

歐洲各處的政府承認烏克蘭戰爭對老師構成挑戰，已為教師草擬指導原則。

In France, the government said teachers should explain the

common history of Russia and Ukraine, but make clear that it

“does not substantiate the thesis that Ukraine, a sovereign

state, does not have the right to independence.” According

to the guidelines, teachers should also not insist on

discussing the war if students are reluctant to do so.

在法國，政府表示教師應解釋俄國與烏克蘭的共同歷史，但要表明這段歷史「不能證明主權國家烏克蘭無權獨立的論點為真」。根據指導原則，如果學生不願討論這場戰爭，教師也不該堅持這樣做。

文／Emma Bubola 譯／李京倫

說文解字看新聞

【李京倫】

本文討論歐洲教師不容易跟學生解釋俄烏戰爭，因為對許多學童來說，這是他們記憶裡第一場轟動世界的戰爭，而且他們不熟悉俄烏歷史。

老師面對大量且變化快速的戰爭資訊，一時間很難消化。news cycle新聞周期是指媒體傳達新訊息的周期，如日報相隔一天，24/7 news cycle則是24小時新聞輪播。process是理解或接受（艱難或悲傷的事），也可以說come to terms with。

Grapple與struggle都指努力應對困難，與wrestle類似。struggle當動詞時有一種非正式用法，是指有失敗的危險，如a struggling business。

倒數第四段這裡的telescope從望遠鏡可伸縮的特性引申而來，其實就是shorten，用telescope顯得作者詞彙多。

Tag是指鬼抓人遊戲，鬼稱為it，抓到某人的動作稱為tag。