美國大選這麼髒 中學老師很爲難大綱

EAU CLAIRE, Wis. — Maybe it’s the talk of fat shaming, or adultery, or sexual assault, or bans on Muslims and walls to keep out Mexicans. But Brent Wathke is having a rough time teaching this presidential campaign to his seventh graders.

威斯康辛州奧克萊爾市——也許是因爲涉及肥胖歧視、通姦、性侵、禁止穆斯林和修牆阻止墨西哥移民入境的話題。總之，布倫特•沃思科(Brent Wathke)發現自己難以給他的初中生們講解今年的總統選舉。

He is not planning to show his students the third presidential debate on Wednesday; he feels the debates have long ago crossed over into inappropriate. Television ads, particularly the ones from Hillary Clinton’s campaign that heavily quote Donald J. Trump, are filled with misogynistic comments. Even political cartoons, which Mr. Wathke would have liked to use to teach his students about the delicate art of satire, are too risqué.

他不打算把週三晚的第三次總統辯論放給學生們看。他覺得此前的幾場辯論早已少兒不宜。電視廣告，尤其是那些希拉里•克林頓(Hillary Clinton)團隊大量引用唐納德•J•特朗普(Donald J. Trump)原話的廣告，充滿了厭惡女性的評論。即便是那些沃思科本想用來教會學生關於微妙的諷刺藝術的政治漫畫，也太有傷風化。

“It is a total mess,” said Mr. Wathke, 33, sitting in his classroom at DeLong Middle School one morning last week, near a dry-erase board where he had scrawled “25 Days to Election” in a red marker. “Honestly, I just can’t wait until it’s over.”

“今年的大選是一團糟，老實說，我巴不得它馬上結束，” 上週的一個早上，33歲的沃思科在德朗中學他的教室裏這樣說道。他在白板上用紅色馬克筆寫下“距離選舉日還有25天”。

Mr. Wathke is one of countless teachers across the country who have anguished over the dark and sometimes shocking tone of the presidential campaign. Like many, he has searched for ways to talk about it in class. Some teachers are planning mock debates before the election; others, like Mr. Wathke, fear that the format could invite students to spout insulting rhetoric.

全國無數像沃思科一樣的老師們，爲今年大選那種陰暗且有時令人震驚的調子深感苦惱。和很多人一樣，沃思科也曾尋找在課堂上討論這次大選的方法。有些老師計劃在選舉前展開模擬辯論；有些則像他一樣，害怕這種模式會讓學生宣揚傷害性的言論。

His students, most of whom are 12 years old, have been buzzing with talk of the campaign all year. The first group of students poured into the classroom just before 7:30 a.m., clutching notebooks and binders, and sat in desks arranged in circles.

他的學生們大多數是12歲，已經熱議這次大選一整年了。第一批學生早上7點半以前就緊握筆記本和文件夾涌入課堂，坐在擺成一圈的書桌後面。

“I believe if Trump is elected, it’s going to be like ‘The Hunger Games,’ ” said Payton Foy, prompting nervous giggles around the room. “I’m not trying to be mean to Trump. I just really believe that.”

“我相信如果特朗普勝選，局面會變成‘飢餓遊戲’一般，”一名學生佩頓•弗伊(Payton Foy)說道，“我不是要對特朗普刻薄。我只是真的相信是那樣。”他的發言在教室裏引起一陣侷促的笑聲。

Another student piped up, saying she had watched the second presidential debate the night before. “And?” Mr. Wathke asked.

另一個學生插進來，說她前一晚看了第二場總統辯論。“怎麼樣呢？”沃思科便問。

“It was bad,” she said.

“很糟糕，”她說。

He grimaced. “I don’t want to shield you guys from that, but there are some things in there that just aren’t appropriate for school,” he said. “So we’re going to stick to the issues today.”

沃思科做了個痛苦的鬼臉。“我不想擋住那些東西，不讓你們接觸，但那裏面有些內容真的不適合學校這個環境，”他說。“因此我們今天還是討論議題本身。”

Mr. Wathke has spent down time on evenings and weekends worrying about the effect of the campaign on his seventh graders. In Chicago on a recent weekend to run his 13th marathon (he is also one of the school’s cross-country coaches), he read the news that an “Access Hollywood” microphone had captured Mr. Trump on a bus bragging about groping women. There was not time for Mr. Wathke to consider the political implications; his mind raced ahead to the coming Monday morning.

好幾個夜晚和週末，沒有課的時候，沃思科深爲這次大選對他的初中生們造成的影響感到擔心。最近一個週末在芝加哥參加他的第十三次馬拉松時（他是學校的越野跑教練），沃思科看到新聞，說《走進好萊塢》節目組的一個麥克風捕捉到了在大巴上的特朗普自誇調戲女性的經歷。他根本沒時間考慮該事件的政治影響。他的心思已經飛到了接下來的週一早上。

“All I’m thinking is, ‘How am I going to approach this?’ ” he said.

“我滿腦子想的都是，‘我該怎麼跟學生們討論這事？’”他說。

His students said they have also wondered what they were allowed to say about the campaign in class. “We self-censor a lot,” said Connor Felton, 12. “I think if you repeat some stuff that Trump says, you could get sent down to the principal’s office. Maybe even expelled.”

他的學生們說，他們也在想，關於這場大選，有哪些話可以在課堂上講。“我們經常自我審查，”12歲的康納•費爾頓(Connor Felton)說。“我覺得如果你重述一些特朗普的言論，你可能會被叫到校長辦公室，甚至可能被開除。”

Here in Eau Claire, a retail and manufacturing hub of 68,000 people in this crucial swing state, children and teenagers are most likely exposed to more political messages than most of their peers in other states.

奧克萊爾市是一個零售和製造業中心，人口6.8萬。該市所在的威斯康辛州是個關鍵的搖擺州。這裏的青少年很可能比其他州的多數同齡人接觸到更多的政治信息。

Campaign ads and yard signs are everywhere; both Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Trump have held rallies in town this year. Mr. Wathke said he gets nervous when he hears that his students are planning to attend rallies. At Mr. Trump’s rallies, the candidate has used foul language and mimicked a reporter with a physical disability. His supporters often wear T-shirts with crude sexual slogans referring to Mrs. Clinton.

到處都是競選廣告和庭院招牌。克林頓和特朗普今年都在這裏舉行過集會。沃思科說，他每次聽到學生們打算參加集會，就會緊張。在特朗普的競選集會上，這位候選人說過髒話，還模仿過一位身體有殘疾的記者。他的支持者經常穿着印有粗俗口號的T恤衫，內容涉及性，針對的是克林頓。

In Mr. Wathke’s own classroom, he has aimed for civility. A native of Eau Claire with a polite manner, he was once a student at DeLong, where he now teaches in the same classroom where he learned social studies. Now, those walls are plastered with campaign signs, many years or decades old: Bush/Quayle ’92, Dole for President, Irish Americans for Kerry/Edwards.

在沃思科自己的課堂上，他想要的是禮貌。沃思科是土生土長的奧克萊爾人，舉止彬彬有禮。他本人也曾就讀於德朗中學，如今在他當年上社會研究課的同一間教室教書。現在，教室的牆上貼滿了競選標語口號，都是幾年前甚至幾十年前的：“布什／奎爾 1992年”，“選多爾當總統”，“愛爾蘭裔美國人支持克里／愛德華茲”。

This semester, Mr. Wathke and his five social studies classes have been talking about politics — delicately — since August. He is teaching his seventh graders about the three branches of government, how democracies work and the differences between Republicans and Democrats.

這個學期，自8月份以來，沃思科和五個班的社會研究課學生小心翼翼地討論政治。他教學生們什麼是政府的三權分立，民主如何運作，以及共和黨和民主黨的區別。

Since he feels that free-form debate is risky, he prepared his class to discuss the campaign using “Socratic circles,” separating students into small groups. The students were armed with work sheets, filled out before class, answering questions he had posed. What are the most important issues facing the country? Where do the candidates stand? Which candidate would be a better president?

他認爲自由形式的辯論有風險，所以改用“蘇克拉底圓圈式教學法”引導學生討論大選。他把學生們分成一個個小組。學生們上課前先在作業紙上回答他的提問：這個國家目前面臨哪些重要議題？候選人的立場是什麼？哪個候選人會是一個更好的總統？

At the beginning of one discussion, he laid out a warning. “We’re going to be talking about some topics today that can get a little tricky today and a little heated,” he said. “But we want to make sure we’re being respectful of one another and we’re not hurting feelings. Remember when we watched some of that debate? And there was one thing that was the most annoying thing? The interruptions. We don’t want interruptions today.”

在一次討論開始時，他先給出一個警告。“今天我們討論的某些話題會有點棘手，有點激烈，”他說。“但我希望大家互相尊重，不要傷害別人的感情。記得我們看過的那場辯論中的一些情形嗎？裏面最讓人討厭的是什麼？打斷人家說話。今天我們不想看到有打斷別人講話的情形出現。”

At the end of one discussion, Mr. Wathke looked relieved. “I want to say that you did pretty darn good,” he said. “You avoided the memes you see on social media. You stuck to the issues.”

一次討論結束的時候，沃思科看上去鬆了一口氣。“我想說你們做得真不錯，”他說。“你們迴避了在社交媒體上看到的米姆，堅持討論議題本身。” （米姆 [meme]，指作爲一種流行的、以衍生方式複製傳播的互聯網文化基因，可以是卡通形象、動物、當紅視頻等——譯註。）

His approach: Tread lightly and let the students move their own discussion. If the conversation in class turns inappropriate, step in.

小心謹慎，讓學生駕馭討論。當發生不合適的談話時才介入。

“The campaign is ruining a lot of classes,” Mr. Wathke said. “You have kids saying, ‘We need to have a wall to keep Mexicans out.’ Well, what do you do if you have kids who are Mexican in the class?”

“這次大選毀了好多門課，”沃思科說。“有孩子說，‘我們需要建牆把墨西哥移民擋在邊境外面。’如果你的課上有墨西哥裔的孩子怎麼辦？”

That kind of conversation in the campaign arouses anger in some of his students. “Racial profiling is going way back in time,” said Donna Xiong, 12. “I don’t think it’s O.K. at all. If I got kicked out of a store for being Asian or for my skin tone, that’s not right.”

大選裏的這類談話讓他的一些學生感到生氣。“種族定性(racial profiling)已經存在太久了，”12歲的當娜•熊(Donna Xiong)說。“我認爲那是完全不對的。如果我因爲是亞裔或者因爲我的膚色而被趕出一家商店，那是不對的。”

Gabriel Morken, 12, said he believed the Black Lives Matter movement was one of the most important issues. “Donald Trump thinks it’s really bad,” he said. “Hillary wants everybody to be equal and stuff.”

12歲的加布裏埃爾•莫肯(Gabriel Morken)說，他認爲“黑人的命也是命”(Black Lives Matter)運動是最重要的議題之一。“唐納德•特朗普認爲是壞事，”他說。“希拉里想要的是所有人都平等之類的。”

DeLong has a history of holding mock elections, and for as long as anybody there can remember, maybe 20 years or more, the students have chosen the candidate who later won the presidential election. This year, the mock election will be on Nov. 8.

德朗中學有模擬選舉的歷史。在學校里人們的記憶中，過去20年甚至更長的時間裏，學生選中的那個候選人後來都真的當選了總統。今年的模擬選舉將在11月8日舉行。

After a group of his students filed out, Mr. Wathke said he never knows quite how much campaign news they have absorbed on YouTube and Snapchat, where they spend so much time. He assumes they see everything.

一羣學生結排離開教室後，沃思科說他完全不知道學生們在YouTube和Snapchat上吸收了多少競選新聞，畢竟他們在那些媒體平臺上打發了那麼多時間。他假定他們什麼都看到了。

A few weeks back, he decided to show them a Romney-Obama debate from 2012, for a contrast. “I thought I’d show them what a typical debate would be like,” he said. “The first response was, ‘That’s kind of boring.’ ”

幾周前，他決定給大家放2012年大選時米特•羅姆尼(Mitt Romney)和巴拉克•奧巴馬(Barack Obama)的一場辯論，作爲對比。“我想我要給他們看看一場典型的辯論是怎麼樣的，”他說。“第一個反應是‘好無聊啊’。”