Parents Staying Together Is the Best Way to Help Children

Joanna Moorhead

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父母都是望子成龙，望女成凤，所以孩子的教育问题会显得尤其重要。为了让孩子上所好学校，很多父母都不顾高昂的房价，搬家到学区房，但他们似乎忽视了一点——最影响孩子学习成绩的因素并不一定是学校……

Children with a stable1. stable: 稳定的。 home life do better at school. Focus less on catchment areas and more on relationship counseling2. catchment area:（学校的）招生地区；counseling: 疏导，咨询。

Parents do anything they can to give their kids the best chance to succeed. According to a report published by the Sutton Trust, a third of “professional parents” with children aged between five and 16 have moved to an area because they think it has good schools, and 18% to a speci fic school’s catchment area.3. 萨顿信托的一份报告显示，那些拥有五岁至十六岁孩子的“职业父母”中有三分之一都搬过家，因为他们认为新家附近有好学校，他们中有18%把家搬到某些学校的招生区。Sutton Trust: 萨顿信托，英国的一家教育慈善机构。

Some go further: 6% of the 1,000 parents surveyed admitted attending church services when they hadn’t previously to help their children get a place at a church school; 3% admitted using a relative’s address to get children into a particular school; and 2% said they had bought a second home and used that address to qualify for a place.4. survey: 调查，对……作民意调查；qualify for: （使）有资格，胜任。

As well as a fair few white lies, it all adds up to a colossal amount of money spent on trying to improve your children’s chances of doing better educationally—and the point the Sutton Trust wants to make is that the more money you have,the more you can do to “buy” an advantage.5. 除了一些善意的谎言外，这一切加起来是一大笔用来提升孩子教育机会的钱——萨顿信托想说的是，你拥有的钱越多，你能“买”到的机会就越多。white lie: 善意的谎言，小谎话；colossal: 巨大的，庞大的。Its recommendation—that the government should step in and encourage ballots for school places, to make selection fairer—seems a good one.6. recommendation: 建议，提议；ballot: 无记名投票。After all, the drive to make things as rosy as possible for your offspring is inherent in all us parents:7. drive: 驱动力，动力；rosy: 愉快的，称心如意的；inherent: 内在的，天生的。it’s what we’re designed to do, to achieve the best possible life chances for our children. That doesn’t,or shouldn’t, amount to fraud—it’s a braver person than me who would cast the first stone and condemn parents for trying to give their kids the best start.8. fraud: 诈骗，欺诈；condemn: 谴责，指责。

So it seems strange that parents, while focusing so intently on school, seem often to ignore a much cheaper way of improving their children’s educational lot.9. intently: 专心地，专注地；lot: 命运，运气。Because the more stable a home life children have, the better they will be able to concentrate at school, the better behaved they will be in school, and the better grades they will have on leaving school.10. concentrate: 专心，注意；behaved:（和 well 或 badly 这样的副词连用，构成形容词）表现得……的。

There’s plenty of research to back all this up: a recent study by the Childhood Wellbeing Research Centre found that children aged seven and older tended to do more poorly in exams and to behave badly at school if their parents split up.11. back up: 支持，证实（某种说法）；tend: 倾向（于），趋向（于）；split up: 分手，离婚。Another report funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, released at the end of last year, found that a stable family life meant children were more likely to take in what’s being offered in the classroom.12. release: 发布，发表；be likely to: （很）可能；take in: 理解，领悟。According to the Royal College of Psychiatrists13. Royal College of Psychiatrists: 英国皇家精神科医学院，成立于1841年，位于伦敦。其主要职责是订立精神科的专业水平以及考核有关专科医生的水平。,teenagers whose parents are fighting or separating may find it dif ficult to concentrate at school.

Of course, many marriages are completely on track,100% hunky dory, and here the only thing worth stressing about is a school’s SATs and GCSE results.14. 当然，很多婚姻都运行正常，而且非常完美，这时唯一需要注意的就是学校的标准成绩考试和普通中等教育证书考试成绩。on track: 在正道上，步入正轨；hunky dory: 极好的，了不起的；SATs: 标准成绩考试（Standard Attainment Tests），是英国的一个旨在评估学生对基础学科掌握情况的考试，检测科目包括3R（阅读、写作、算术）和科学。按规定，所有7岁、11岁以及14岁的英国学生都要参加SATs考试。考试成绩将与一个既定的国家要求对照，最高等级为第五级。GCSE:（英国面向15至16岁学生的）普通中等教育证书。But it may not be you, and I have to admit it’s not me either: I’ve been married for more than a quarter of a century, and the one thing I’m sure of is that it’s not a bed of roses. I’ve also got four children aged between 11 and 21; and while I’m truly grateful15. grateful: 感激的，表示感谢的。to the many teachers who have taught them, and the schools they’ve been pupils at, I’ve become more convinced as the years go by that a stable home is an absolutely vital ingredient in how they’re getting on—and certainly much more crucial than where their school sits in the local league table.16. convince: 使信服，使相信；go by:（时间）流逝，过去；ingredient: 要素，因素；league table: 排行榜，排名表。

So shelling out a few hundred quid for a course of Relate counselling sessions (and if you’re on a low income,it can be a lot less, or even free) could be a much better use of the family’s funds than spending thousands on moving house.17. shell out: 支付，为……花费一大笔钱；quid: 一英镑；Relate: 英国一家关于情感、婚姻、家庭的咨询机构。Sure, your children might end up at a school whose exam results aren’t quite so glowing—but that’s more than offset by the fact that they are likely to do better for having happier parents (and moving house, after all,puts even more pressure on a relationship).18. glowing: 绚丽夺目的，发光的；offset: 抵消，补偿。

According to Relate, 80% of clients who went for adult relationship counselling said their partnership19. partnership: 伙伴关系，合作关系。had been strengthened as a result. According to a whole pile of research stretching back across many decades, children tend to do best when they’re raised in a stable family.20. stretch back: 追溯；raise: 养育，抚养。I can’t help wondering whether the only sure winners from the scramble to live by the best school gates are estate agents rather than the very children the move is designed to help.21. 我不禁纳闷，在这场竞争中能靠好学校的门槛来谋生的最后赢家应该是那些地产经纪人，而不是父母想通过搬家来帮助的孩子们。scramble: 竞争，争夺；live by: 以……为生，靠……谋生；estate agent: 房地产经纪人。