When you go to the dentist, what do you expect? That they will check your teeth, see if you need any fillings(补牙；填充物), give you some advice on oral hygiene? You probably don’t expect that they will teach your child to read, tackle youth unemployment or solve poverty.(你大概不会期待他们教你的孩子阅读、解决青年失业或消除贫困。)
当你去看牙医时，你期待什么？期待他们检查你的牙齿，看看是否需要补牙，给你一些口腔卫生建议？你大概不会期待他们教你的孩子阅读、解决青年失业问题或消除贫困。
But when it comes to(当谈到；就……而言) education, politicians are remarkably(非常地；显著地) relaxed about loading(把……加于；装载) wider social responsibilities on to schools. The suggestion from Alan Milburn, a former minister and now a senior government adviser, is that primary schools – that is, schools that educate children aged four to 11 – should identify children who might not be in education, employment or training at the age of 16.(前部长、现任政府高级顾问艾伦·米尔本建议，小学应识别那些到16岁时可能不处于教育、就业或培训状态的儿童。) “The warning signs are there from a very early, early age. You know, frankly from preschool,” he said. “So, definitely primary schools should be identify(识别；确认)ing children who are at risk of(有……风险的) being Neet(尼特族：未就业、未受教育或培训的年轻人). And secondary schools and other services should be intercepting(拦截；阻止), intervening(干预；介入), supporting and helping those young people to get on a different path.”
但谈到教育时，政客们却对把更广泛的社会责任压在学校身上表现得极为坦然。前部长、现任政府高级顾问艾伦·米尔本建议，小学——即教育4至11岁儿童的学校——应该识别那些到16岁时可能不处于教育、就业或培训状态的儿童。“预警信号在很早很早的年龄就出现了。你知道，坦率地说，从学前就开始了，”他说，“所以，小学绝对应该识别那些有成为‘尼特族’风险的儿童。中学和其他服务机构应该拦截、干预、支持并帮助这些年轻人走上不同的道路。”
Laudable(值得称赞的) in theory(理论上), but we need a bit of realism about what it is fair to make schools responsible for, and if making them responsible for so many things is going to cause more problems than it solves.
理论上值得称赞，但我们需要对让学校承担哪些责任才算公平保持一点现实态度，并且要考虑，让学校对这么多事情负责，是否会造成比解决的问题更多的问题。