亚裔美国人家庭为教育付出了多少？

My parents bought a foreclosed farmhouse during the 2008 recession. For a decade afterward, we made hour long weekly trips from Kentucky, where we lived, to the farm, which is in Indiana. My parents spent long days there renovating thetermite-ridden 1970s farmhouse while I played in the fields or read in the car.I was in middle school when they bought it, too young to question their motivation for spending weekends toiling over a house in the middle of nowhere.

我的父母在2008年经济衰退期间买了一座丧失赎回权的农舍。之后的10年里，我们每周都要从我们住的肯塔基州出发，花一个小时的时间去这座位于印第安纳州的农场。父母花了很长时间翻修这座建于上世纪70年代、闹白蚁的农舍，而我则在田野里玩耍，或者在车里读书。他们买下这栋房子的时候我还在上中学，年纪还小，不懂得去质疑他们为什么要周末到荒郊野外辛苦劳动。

I remained oblivious to its purpose until last summer, when I began applying to graduate school and found that the M.B.A. programs I hoped to attend at Harvard and Stanford would cost more than $100,000 per year.

去年夏天我开始申请研究生院，发现我想上的哈佛和斯坦福的MBA课程每年费用都在10万美元以上，直到这时我才意识到那栋房子是为了什么。

“Don’t worry about paying for it,” my father said in Chinese. “We’ve prepared a house — for you.”

“不用担心钱，”父亲用中文说。“我们为你准备了一栋房子。”

The implication— which he later confirmed — was that he and my mother would sell their homeand move to the farm so they could finance my graduate education.

这意味着——他后来证实了这一点——他和母亲将卖掉他们的房子，搬到农场，这样就能资助我的研究生教育了。

My family is Chinese-American. Our race has become synonymous with educational achievement through archetypal icons like the Tiger Mom or popular memes like the High Expectations Asian Father. These stereotypes may be offensive, butthere is a certain validity to them. In 2019, the National Assessment of Educational Progress found that Asians had higher GPAs, and Inside Higher Ed reports that the average Asianstudent scores at least two points higher on the ACT or 100 points higher on the SAT than students of other races.

我家是个华裔美国人家庭。通过一些典型符号，比如虎妈或“望子成龙的亚洲父亲”这样一些流行模因，我们的种族已经成为教育成就的同义词。这些刻板印象可能令人不快，但它们也有一定的道理。2019年，美国教育进步评估小组(National Assessment ofEducational Progress)发现，亚洲学生的平均绩点更高，高等教育内部(Inside Higher Ed)的报告显示，亚洲学生在ACT考试中的平均成绩至少比其他种族的学生高2分，SAT的平均成绩至少比其他种族的学生高100分。

This academic success is not necessarily reflected in critical metrics, like admission toelite colleges. The college admissions scandal has demonstrated how rich andunethical parents can fake criteria from exam scores to sports accolades. Even legitimate academic achievement can be ineffective, as happened in 2018, when Asian-Americans had the lowest acceptance rate despite holding the highest SAT average in Harvard’s admitted students pool. A lawsuit, inwhich a decision is expected soon, accuses Harvard of setting a quota on admissions for Asian-American applicants and holding them to a higher standard than other races.

这种学术上的成功并不一定反映在精英大学录取率等关键指标上。大学录取丑闻表明，从考试成绩到体育荣誉，不道德的富有父母可以伪造指标。即使合法的学业成绩也可能无效，就像2018年发生的那样，尽管在申请哈佛大学的学生中，亚裔美国人的SAT平均分最高，但录取率最低。有诉讼指控哈佛为亚裔美国申请人设定了入学限额，并且为他们设定了比其他种族更高的标准，预计很快就会有裁决出来。

While Asians are divided over the Harvardcase, our familiesunite through our concern about the outcomes of these cases. They not only indicate how the courts will treat minorities like us. The possibility of gaming the admissions system also destabilizes the elevated position these elite institutions of higher education hold in American society, and nullifies the extraordinary, legitimate investment of money, labor and emotional energyin education by many families, Asian or otherwise.

虽然亚裔对哈佛一案意见不一，但我们的家庭出于对这些案子最终结果的担忧而团结在一起。它们不仅表明法院将如何对待像我们这样的少数群体。利用招生制度作弊的可能性也动摇了这些精英高等教育机构在美国社会中的崇高地位，并使许多家庭（无论是亚裔还是其他族裔）在教育上投入的大量合法金钱、劳动力和情感化为泡影。

The Asian cultural emphasis on educational attainment has financial consequences. A 2017 report by Lend EDU, which surveyed more than 1,400 college graduates, found that among black, white, Hispanic and Asian families, Asiansgave their children the most financial support in paying for college.

亚洲文化对教育程度的重视意味着财务上的更大投入。LendEDU2017年的一份报告对1400多名大学毕业生进行了调查，发现在黑人、白人、西班牙裔和亚裔家庭中，亚洲人为孩子上大学提供的经济支持最多。

The report found that 70 percent of Asian parents provide financial assistance for higher education, with a quarter paying for half or all of college, compared with about 50 percent of parents of other races.

报告发现，70%的亚裔父母（其他族裔中这一比例为50%）为子女的高等教育提供经济上的帮助，其中四分之一的家长支付一半或全部大学学费。

My own experience in a solidly middle-class family also suggests that Asians pay forcollege not with extraordinary wealth but with extraordinary measures, like myparents’ eight-year renovation project. In many cases, Asian parents expect notonly to pay for higher education, but also to budget the cost into their finances decades in advance.

我自己在一个稳固的中产阶级家庭中的成长经历也表明，亚裔上拿得出大学学费并不是因为多有钱，而是因为动用了非比寻常的措施，比如我父母历时八年的翻修工程。在很多情况下，亚洲父母不仅认为有必要支付子女的高等教育费用，而且还会提前几十年将这笔费用计入财务预算。

I remember little of my life at age 4, but I have one distinct memory: a shopping mall with a well-lit plaza. My parents would take me there for a reading class every Sunday, and then sit through the course with me. At that time we still lived in Beijing, where two-day weekends had not yet been adopted, so my parents sacrificed their one free day to accompany me to class.

我对自己四岁时的生活几乎没有什么印象，但有一个清晰的记忆：一个购物中心，有着灯火通明的广场。每逢星期天，父母都会带我到那里，陪着我一起上一节阅读课。那时我们还住在北京，中国还没有实行双休日，所以父母牺牲他们唯一一天休息时间陪我上课。

When I was inhigh school, my mother would wake at 6 a.m. to make my breakfast, and sometimes remain at work until 6 p.m. so she could drive me home after I finished my extra curriculars.

上高中的时候，母亲常常早上6点起床做早饭，有时候工作到傍晚6点，这样她就可以等我课外活动结束后，开车载我回家。

My father,meanwhile, remained on call for my math questions and engineering projects. Hespent weekends helping me build catapults for Science Olympiad, and driving meto and from science fairs around the state so I could present my research. WhileI spent the entirety of my primary education in free public schools, my parents had invested thousands of hours of labor in me before I was ever accepted to college.

与此同时，父亲会守在一旁，随时等着回答我关于数学和工程项目的问题。他的周末都用来帮我建造参加科学奥林匹克赛(ScienceOlympiad)的弹射装置，开车载我往返于全州的科学学术活动，以便我有机会介绍自己的研究。虽然整个小学阶段我上的都是免费的公立学校，但在被大学录取之前，父母早已为我投入了数千小时的辛劳。

In the summer of my junior year of high school in 2013, I attended MIT’s Research Science Institute, a summer program for the best scientists my age. The program’sacceptance rate was about 3 percent, lower than that of Yale, Harvard or Stanford. In our class of less than 90, two have already died. A documentary, “Looking for Luke,”was filmed about the life and suicide of one of my classmates, to raise awareness of depression, particularly in an Asian-American context.

2013年上高三的那个夏天，我参加了麻省理工学院科学研究项目(MIT’sResearch Science Institute)面向最优秀的同龄科学人才的暑期项目。项目录取率约在3%，低于耶鲁、哈佛或斯坦福的同类项目。在我们不到90人的班上，两人已去世。一部名为《寻找卢克》(Looking forLuke)的纪录片讲述了我一位同学的生平与自杀经历，以提高对抑郁症的认识，特别是在亚裔美国人当中。

In my experience, the pressure that Asian families exert on their children takes the form not of actively demanding high marks but of quiet sacrifice in support of our education. While my parents insist my health comes above all else, I would often miss a few meals for class, or lose a few nights of sleep for anassignment in college, because these losses seem small when I know all that they have given for my education.

在我的经历中，亚裔家庭给子女施加的压力，不是表现在主动要求高分，而是默默牺牲自己以支持我们的学业。虽然我的父母坚持我的健康高于一切，但我常常为了上课而错过几餐，或者在大学里为了完成作业而熬几个通宵，因为当我知道他们为我的学业所付出的一切，这些损失似乎不算什么。

I feel incredibly fortunate that my parents saved me the worry of how to finance graduate school, but in doing so they have replaced the stress of paying offdebt with another sort of pressure. Debt feels different when I owe my parents instead of some faceless corporation. I notice how their hair has grayed, andthey have grown old in the process of supporting me. Then, I am consumed byguilt.

让我感到无比幸运的是，父母省去了我读研的经济烦恼，但这么做的同时，他们也把还债的压力替换成了另一种压力。当我欠的是父母的钱，而不是某个面目模糊的公司，那种债务的感觉是不同的。我注意到在支持我的过程中，他们的头发白了，人变老了。于是，我深感内疚。

Our homes arenot only the settings for our most cherished memories, but also the products of years of care, labor and investment. I have watched my parents pour their lives into their farmhouse over the course of the last decade. I am driven to work bythe knowledge that they are prepared to sell the house I grew up in to pay formy graduate school, and that if I failed to earn scholarships it would be the financial equivalent of burning down my parents’ home.

我们的家不仅承载着我们最珍视的回忆，也是多年打理、劳作和投入的结果。过去10年里，我看着父母把他们的生命倾注到他们的农舍上。我知道他们准备卖掉我长大的房子，以负担我的研究生学业；我也知道如果没能拿到奖学金，那在经济上就相当于把父母的家付之一炬。因此，我只能发奋学习。

文章来源网络，版权属于原作者