Children’s Books Are Tackling Sexual Harassment and Abuse
天真不足以自保 童書教防狼
By Concepción de León

When Kate Messner read the testimonies of the gymnasts abused by Larry Nassar, she was struck by his behavior early on: giving the girls little gifts and back rubs, or sending them private texts.
當凱特．梅斯納閱讀被美國體操代表隊隊醫性侵的體操選手的證詞時，注意到納瑟實際犯案之前的行為：送小禮物給這些女孩，幫她們做背部按摩，或私下發簡訊給她們。

It got her thinking. “What if we could teach kids to recognize this and speak up, and tell us when someone made them uncomfortable?” she said. “And then, what if we really listened?”
這讓梅斯納開始尋思。她說：「要是我們教小孩認出這類行為並說出來，並在有人讓她們覺得不舒服時告訴我們，會怎麼樣？接著，如果我們真的有在聽，又會怎樣？」

The idea informed Messner’s latest novel, “Chirp,” about a young gymnast reckoning with the inappropriate behavior of an assistant coach during a summer at her grandmother’s cricket farm.
這個主意啟發梅斯納撰寫最新小說「蟋蟀鳴」，談一個年輕體操運動員夏天在她祖母的蟋蟀繁殖場，如何應付助理教練的不當行為。

“There’s no explicit sexual assault in the story,” because it is written for 10- to 14-year-olds, she said. “It’s all what we would look at, what experts would look at, and say, ‘That’s somebody grooming a child.’”
梅斯納說，「故事裡沒有關於性攻擊的露骨描述」，因為是寫給10到14歲孩子看的，「不過，裡面全是我們和專家看了都會說『有人在誘姦小孩』的情節」。

“Chirp” is one of several middle-grade books – typically geared toward children from 8 to 12 – published over the past year that address sexual consent, abuse and harassment, subjects previously considered off-limits for such young readers.
「蟋蟀鳴」是過去一年出版的幾本中級童書之一，這些書旨在處理性同意，性虐待與性騷擾等先前被認為不適合如此年幼讀者的主題。中級通常針對8到12歲小孩。

The writers were inspired by personal experiences with harassment or abuse, but the #MeToo movement added a sense of urgency to telling their stories.
這些作者因為親身受過性騷擾或性侵而勳念想寫這類故事，而「我也是」運動更讓他們覺得事不宜遲。

“I had no plans to write anything about it anytime soon a year and a half ago,” said Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, the author of “Fighting Words.” But reading the barrage of reports of sexual assault and harassment in the fall of 2018, she become angrier and angrier at how little had changed since her childhood, when she had experienced abuse.
童書「煽動仇恨的語言」作者金柏莉．布魯貝克．伯萊德利說，「一年半之前，我完全沒打算寫這類題材」，不過，2018年秋天，她讀到一連串關於性攻擊和性騷擾的報導之後愈想愈氣，氣這個世界從她幼時遭怪侵以來幾乎沒有政變。

“I just sort of had had enough,” she said. She wrote 40 pages of the novel in one sitting, and though she knew it was a taboo subject, she said she felt sure this was “the hill I was willing to die on.”
伯萊德利說：「我覺得受夠了。」她坐下來一口氣就寫了這本小說中的40頁，明知這主題是個禁忌，但很確定自己「不計毀譽，非寫不可」。

Young adult books, geared toward teenagers, have long explored topics such as sexual violence, but middle-grade writers have largely steered clear because of resistant parents and publishers wary of scaring them off. Yet a range of research and data show that many children are exposed to sexual harassment or abuse.
針對青少年的年輕成人書籍早已開始探討性暴力等主題，但中級童書作者大多避開這類主題，因為讀者家長抗拒，出版商也怕把家長嚇跑。不過，各類研究資料顯示，許多兒童已遭受性騷擾或性侵。

In a 2016 study published in Children and Youth Services Review, a third of sixth graders and more than half of seventh graders reported having experienced some form of sexualized harassment, most commonly in the form of lewd comments or jokes, with girls more likely to be on the receiving end than boys. According to the anti-sexual violence group RAINN, child protective services in the United States find evidence of or substantiate sexual-abuse claims every nine minutes.
發表在兒童與青年服務評論期刊上的一份2016年調查報告顯示，美國有三分之一的六年級生和過半數的七年級生自述曾遭受帶有性意味的騷擾，以猥褻語言或黃色笑話為主要形式，而且女孩比男孩更可能被騷擾。美國反性暴力組織「強姦、性侵和亂倫國家網絡」資料顯示，美國兒童保護機構平均每9分鐘就發現一件兒童遭性侵的證據，或證實一起兒童遭性侵的指稱。

“We’re waiting until they’re in high school to have conversations around harassment and sexualized mistreatment,” said Lisa Damour, an author and clinical psychologist who specializes in the experiences of teenage and young girls, but by then, “the topic is three or four years old.”
專精青少年與少女輔導的臨床心理學家兼作家麗莎．達摩爾說，「我們等他們上了中學，才談性騷擾和師事帶有性意味的不當對待」，但到那時候，「已經晚了3、4年了」。

原文參照：
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/17/books/childrens-books-middle-grade-metoo-sexual-abuse.html

2020-07-05．聯合報．D4．紐約時報賞析．李京倫譯 核稿/樂慧生

說文解字看新聞 李京倫

美國愈來愈多針對8到12歲兒童的童書以性騷擾和性侵為主題，因為作者認為，等到兒童上中學之後才跟他們討論這類主題，為時已晚。

sexual assault性攻擊是不經同意，迫使對方與自己發生性行為，也就是強暴（rape）。在法律上是指強迫他人與自己性接觸的刑事罪，各國定義不同，有的包括強暴，有的專指強暴。

一般來說，rape和sexual assault可以互換，但rape比較直白，語氣強烈，情緒也較濃，sexual assault則比較正式，偏向官方用語，警方、法院或是統計上經常使用。

hill to die on這個慣用語源自軍事訓練，原意是不計代價占領一處高地，衍伸義是某件事非常重要，不論多困難都要處理，通常用在反面說法，如：It’s not a hill I’m willing to die on.

Remember the MOOCs? After Near-Death, They’re Booming
線上教學平台 因疫情重生
By Steve Lohr

Sandeep Gupta, a technology manager in California, sees the economic storm caused by the coronavirus as a time “to try to future-proof your working life.” So he is taking an online course in artificial intelligence.
美國加州科技業經理古普塔認為，新冠肺炎引發的經濟風暴是「防止職業生涯被未來淘汰」的時機，所以修讀了一門關於人工智慧的線上課程。

Dr. Robert Davidson, an emergency-room physician in Michigan, says the pandemic has cast “a glaring light on the shortcomings of our public health infrastructure.” So he is pursuing an online master’s degree in public health.
密西根州急診室醫師戴維森說，疫情「使我們公衛基礎設施的弱點顯而易見」，所以他在修讀線上公衛碩士學位。

Children and college students aren’t the only ones turning to online education during the coronavirus pandemic. Millions of adults have signed up for online classes in the past two months, too – a jolt that could signal a renaissance for big online learning networks that had struggled for years.
在新冠肺炎大流行期間轉而接受線上教育者，不限於兒童和大學生。過去兩個月，數以百萬計的成人也註冊參加線上課程，這令人驚訝的事實可能意味苦撐多年的大型線上學習網路即將再起。

Coursera, in which Gupta and Davidson enrolled, added 10 million new users from mid-March to mid-May, seven times the pace of new sign-ups in the previous year. Enrollments at edX and Udacity, two smaller education sites, have jumped by similar multiples.
古普塔與戴維森註冊的Coursera，從3月中旬到5月中旬增加1000萬新用戶，是去年同期新增註冊人數的七倍。edX與Udacity這兩個規模較小的教育網站，新註冊人數也以類似倍數暴增。

“Crises lead to accelerations, and this is best chance ever for online learning,” said Sebastian Thrun, a co-founder and chairman of Udacity.
Udacity共同創辦人兼董事長史朗說：「危機導致改變加速發生，這是線上學習業未曾遇過的最佳良機。」

Coursera, Udacity and edX sprang up nearly a decade ago as high-profile university experiments known as MOOCs, for massive open online courses. They were portrayed as tech-fueled insurgents destined to disrupt the antiquated ways of traditional higher education. But few people completed courses, grappling with the same challenges now facing students forced into distance learning because of the pandemic. Screen fatigue sets in, and attention strays.
Coursera、Udacity和edX近十年前出現，嘗試與大學合作推出線上課程而備受矚目，這類課程名為「大規模開放線上課程」，簡稱「磨課師」。這種課程被描述為獲得科技支持的反叛者，意在顛覆傳統高等教育過時的授課方式。不過，很少有人能修完課程，這些人窮於應付的挑戰，與目前因為疫情被迫遠距學習的學生一樣。長時間盯著螢幕造成疲勞，而且注意力難以集中。

But the online ventures adapted through trial and error, gathering lessons that could provide a road map for school districts and universities pushed online. The instructional ingredients of success, the sites found, include short videos of six minutes or less, interspersed with interactive drills and tests; online forums where students share problems and suggestions; and online mentoring and tutoring.
不過這些線上企業透過反覆試驗來調整，並且積聚了可供被迫線上授課的學區和大學參考的知識和經驗。這些網站發現，線上授課成功的要素包括：短片時間不超過6分鐘，穿插互動練習和測驗；設立線上論壇，讓學生提出問題和建議；並提供線上指導和輔導。

A few top-tier universities, such as the University of Michigan and the Georgia Institute of Technology, offer some full degree programs through the online platforms.
有幾所頂尖大學，如密西根大學和喬治亞理工學院，透過這些線上平台提供一些正式學位學程。

While those academic programs are available, the online schools have tilted toward skills-focused courses that match student demand and hiring trends.
這些線上學校雖提供學術性學程，卻更傾向開設符合學生需要和雇用趨勢的技能課程。

The COVID-19 effect on online learning could broaden the range of popular subjects, education experts say. But so far, training for the tech economy is where the digital-learning money lies. With more of work and everyday life moving online – some of it permanently – that will probably not change.
教育專家指出，新冠肺炎可能會使線上課程熱門科目範圍變得更廣。不過到目前為止，針對科技經濟提供的訓練課程，才是數位教學業的金雞母。隨著更多的工作和日常生活轉移到線上進行，有些是永遠轉到線上，這種情況大概不會改變。

原文參照：
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/26/technology/moocs-online-learning.html

2020-07-05．聯合報．D4．紐約時報賞析．李京倫譯 核稿/樂慧生