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The questions underpinning the Mystic Valley controversy cut to the core of public education: What does it mean to prepare children to be citizens of the United States?
神秘谷争议背后的问题触及了公共教育的核心:让孩子们做好成为美国公民的准备意味着什么?
To take their place in society? To be considered "educated”?
在社会上占据一席之地? 被认为是“受过教育的”?
And as society changes, when and how should those standards change in response?
随着社会的变化，这些标准应该在何时以及如何做出回应?
Andre DiFilippo, who attended Mystic Valley from kindergarten through his graduation in 2015, believes the school is failing to educate its students about the social realities that lurk beyond the pages of their textbooks.
从幼儿园到2015年毕业一直就读于神秘谷的安德烈·迪菲利波（Andre DiFilippo）认为，这所学校没有教育学生了解隐藏在课本之外的社会现实。
A son of Italian immigrants, DiFilippo was senior-class president and the first in his family to attend college.
作为意大利移民的儿子，迪菲利波是毕业班的班长，也是家里第一个上大学的人。
When he got to the University of Massachusetts Lowell, he found he was better prepared than many classmates for the rigors of higher education.
当他进入马萨诸塞大学洛厄尔分校时，他发现自己比许多同学做了更充分准备去接受严格的高等教育。
What he wasn't prepared for was the gradual realization that he was bisexual.
他没有料到的是，他逐渐意识到自己是双性恋。
"When you force people to deny their identity—their queerness, their Blackness, their womanhood, their culture—when you actively suppress that, it takes a toll on people's mental health,” he says.
“当你强迫人们否认他们的身份——他们的酷儿身份，他们的黑人身份，他们的女性身份，他们的文化——当你刻意地去压抑这些，这会对人们的心理健康造成损害，”他说。
"It takes a lot of people years of unpacking post–Mystic Valley to figure out why they're so unhappy.”
“很多人离开神秘谷后，经过数年的分析，才明白自己为何如此不开心。”
"LiFe, Liberty—there's one more, the pursuit of something. Who can tell me what it is?”
“生命，自由——还有一件事，就是追求某种东西。谁能告诉我是什么?”
It's almost dismissal time for Ms. Gregory's fourth-grade class, and the students sit in neat rows behind plastic COVID barriers as she roams the room looking for raised hands.
格雷戈里的四年级学生快要下课了，他们整齐地坐在塑料的新冠挡板后面，而她在教室里走来走去，寻找举手的人。
The school draws inspiration from the Core Knowledge approach invented by E.D. Hirsch Jr., a scholar whose heavily scripted curriculum is controversial but has been shown to achieve high test scores.
这所学校的灵感来自学者小E.D.赫希发明的“核心知识”方法，他过于照本宣科的课程虽然存在争议，但已被证明可以取得高分。
"Susanna? Yeah, the pursuit of happiness!” Gregory says. "All right, let's do the next one. Why did George Washington cross the Delaware?”
“苏珊娜? 是的，追求幸福!” 格雷戈里说。好了，我们来看下一个。 为什么乔治·华盛顿要穿越特拉华河?”
Dan, the director, stands by the classroom door, observing.
主任丹站在教室门口，观察着。
He knows Mystic Valley is not for everyone.
他知道神秘谷并不适合所有人。
"A lot of people look at this and say, ‘That's not what I want for my kids,'” he says.
他说:“很多人看到这种情况后会说，‘这不是我想要给孩子的。’”
But for other students, it can be a lifeline.
但对其他学生来说，这可能是一条生命线。
Growing up, Dan, who declined to disclose his racial background, attended Montessori school in Lansing, Mich., where he struggled with the experiential, student-centered style of instruction.
在成长过程中，丹拒绝透露自己的种族背景，他就读于密歇根州兰辛市的蒙特梭利学校。在那里，他努力适应体验式的、以学生为中心的教学风格。
"I was a student who needed to be put in a more structured environment with more stringent expectations to maximize my potential,” he says.
他说:“作为一名学生，我需要置身于一个更有组织、期望也更严格的环境中，以最大限度地发挥我的潜力。”
In Mystic Valley, where he started as a substitute in 2005, he found the structure he craved.
2005年，他开始在神秘谷做替补，在那里，他找到了自己渴望的教学体系。
"I always felt that allowing for differences in standards,” says Dan, who has two children in the school, "was giving up on students who were capable of so much more.”
丹有两个孩子在这所学校上学，他说:“我一直觉得，允许标准存在差异，就是放弃了那些能力更强的学生。”
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