自“虎媽”一詞誕生，現代教育的一些現象其實就又一次別人熱議，同時引發人們的思考。你怎麼看現在中國的“貓”爸“虎”媽?下面，一起來看一篇雙語閱讀文章。
“Parents born in the 1980s, unlike their predecessors, are more aware of the importance of the happiness of their child at kindergarten, instead of just the development of their academic capacities,” the official China Daily quoted the general manager of Kids R Kids in China as saying.
官媒《中國日報》(China Daily)援引Kids R Kids駐華總經理的話說：“80後父母與上輩人不同，他們更能意識到孩子去幼兒園更重要的是快樂，而不再僅僅關注孩子學業能力的進步。”
They would say that, wouldn’t they, since Kids R Kids is a US early education company whose motto is “hug first, then teach”. You can’t sell that kind of thing to Tiger Mum — but there must be more Cat Dads out there than before. Otherwise who will Kids R Kids peddle classes in things like infant sign language and “lying on the belly with friends” to?
當然了，人們肯定會說，這是因爲Kids R Kids是一家美國早教公司，其座右銘是“先擁抱孩子，再教授知識”。虎媽是不會接受這套說辭的，不過現在的貓爸肯定比以前多。否則Kids R Kids向誰推銷譬如嬰兒手語，“與朋友們趴着玩兒”這類課程呢?
The government also seems to be more on Cat Dad’s side these days: changes in official education regulations introduced in Shanghai this year halved the number of children interviewing for slots in highly competitive private kindergartens and primary schools, according to state media. Shanghai Daily said the goal was to “ease the parent frenzy about getting offspring into the best schools”. Sounds like feline fathers are getting the upper hand there, too.
近來政府似乎更站在貓爸的.一邊：根據中國官方媒體的報道，今年上海出臺教育條例改革，使競爭極爲激烈的民辦幼兒園和民辦國小的入學面試報考人數減半。《上海日報》(Shanghai Daily)表示，改革的目標是“緩解家長對於擇校的焦慮心態”。聽起來，貓爸們似乎逐漸佔了上風。
State media gave this as an example of the kind of question primary school interviewers might ask: You have a 5m pole. If you take a deep breath and climb up 2m, but then slip down 1m each time, how many deep breaths will you have to take before reaching the top?” I’m glad they didn’t ask my high schooler that.
對於參加國小入學面試的孩子們要回答的問題，官方媒體給出了一個例子：有一個5米的爬杆。如果你深吸一口氣能爬高兩米，但每次都會滑下1米，你需要深呼吸幾次才能爬到杆頂?我很高興我上高中的孩子過去沒被問到這個問題。
Yang Huiyu is a young dad with a child entering primary school next academic year, and he thinks pre-school cramming is a waste of money: he holds up a maths test from such a school — which even includes a few algebra questions — and points out that children only have a limited period to answer the questions. Not for him, he says: “It’s just a matter of time, my child will learn this in school anyway,” adding that if his son is given more than an hour and a half of homework per night, “I’ll ask him to take the unfinished work back to the teacher.”
楊輝宇(音譯)是一位年輕的父親，他的孩子下學年就要上國小了。他認爲學前填鴨式教育完全是浪費錢：他拿起一張這種學校提供的數學測試題，裏面甚至包含幾個代數問題，他指出孩子們只有有限的時間回答這些問題。他不認同這一做法，說：“這只是時間問題，我的孩子遲早會在學校裏學到，”他還補充說，如果兒子每天晚上的作業量超過了一個半小時，“我會讓他把沒完成的作業還給老師。”
Like many Chinese parents these days, he plans to administer after-school education himself — in a fun way. “I can teach him about physics by telling him the story of Archimedes while he’s in the shower,” he says. I hope my kids learnt that at school, since I surely wasn’t up to teaching them physics at bath time (and if you’re rusty on it, I can suggest a good infant cram school). Will he send his son for extra lessons after he finishes his primary school day? “Definitely not, unless he wants to,” says Mr Yang. Don’t let Tiger Mum hear you say that.
和現在的很多中國家長一樣，他計劃自己給孩子實施課後教育——用一種寓教於樂的方式進行。他說：“他洗澡的時候，我會給他講阿基米德的故事，教他物理知識。”我希望我的孩子能在學校裏學到這些，因爲我過去肯定沒打算在孩子洗澡的時候教他物理(如果你的物理生疏了，我可以給你推薦一個很好的幼兒補習班)。我問他會不會在孩子放學後送他去補習班?“絕對不會，除非他自己想去，”楊說。這番話可不能讓虎媽聽到。
