校长秋季开学典礼讲话稿

 校长秋季开学典礼讲话稿Hello, it’s mypleasure to be back in Zhengzhou, here at Zhengzhou #11, to be with all of youto celebrate the start of another school year. I want to thank Principal Guo and Director Xu for their strong supportof our program. My great thanks also goes to all of the international programteachers and staff members for their hard work to prepare for anothersuccessful school year.  And, above, allI want to thank our parents and our students for choosing our Zhengzhou #11-St.Mary’s School dual diploma program.  Wewill work hard to get you ready for success in college and in life . . . and weexpect you students to work hard too. I’ll sharesomething personal with you students now. In a few months I will turn 60 years old.  Somehow I’ve become an old man.  Old age sneaks up on you.  But I don’t think much differently now than whenI was in high school.  I just have moreexperience and more knowledge.  Reachingthis age, and still working in high schools, has made me think back more andmore upon my own school days.  When I wasa boy, I never took anything very seriously, but I always admired the motto ofmy high school.   It made sense to me.  Our motto was “Today Knowledge, TomorrowWisdom.”  There is an infinite amount ofinformation to learn in our world.  Thereis ancient knowledge worth exploring and basic knowledge in all subjectareas.  And then, every day, newdiscoveries are being made in all fields of science, new technologies areinvented, vast amounts of data are being collected and analyzed, wonderful newworks of art and literature are being created all over the world, and there arenew ways of looking at history and trying to learn from it.  Until you have jumped into this ocean ofdiscovery and acquired a solid base of knowledge and critical thinking skills,you are, by definition, an ignorant person and you cannot begin to developwisdom.  This is the reason you are inschool.  If you were brilliant and kneweverything already, we could just give you a diploma today and let you get onwith your lives.  But you all have a lotto learn on your never-ending path towards wisdom. And just like youhave a lot to learn, so does the human race. I read a great book this summer called “Enlightenment Now” by MITprofessor Steven Pinker.  He makes thepoint, with vast amounts of data to support his conclusions, that our world hasbeen getting better and better and better, very rapidly, for the last fewhundred years.  Today, all over theworld, people live longer, learn more, have better health, have moreconveniences in life, more leisure time, less violence and less war, and lesscrime, and more opportunities for personal advancement than ever before inhuman history.  You would not know thisfrom the news media.  The news is verymisleading because it focuses on the bad things that happen in the world, notthe great advances we have made and continue to make as a species.  Every generation has built on the knowledgeof the generation before it.  Everygeneration faces problems, but so far human intelligence has overcome thoseproblems and made life better.  We haveevery reason to believe we will continue to conquer the problems we face and toimprove life around the planet.  Youstudents are in a long line of humans who will live to see an even better worldthan the one we live in today.  But thatwill only happen if you commit yourselves to acquire knowledge and to becomelifelong learners and to participate intelligently in making a better world.  You are on a path to become globally educatedadults who can continue to make the world better and to enjoy that world you help create. The path to that success happens when you make your best effort day byday in every one of your classes.  So Iurge you to take your studies seriously, become knowledgeable, become wise, andto enjoy fully the wonderful world you are inheriting.  Have a great school year! 大家好！很高兴再次来到郑州，来到郑州十一中，和你们一起庆祝下一学年的开始。我要感谢郭校长和徐主任对我们项目的大力支持。我也非常感谢国际部所有老师和职工成员们为下一个成功的学年所付出的努力。最重要的是，我想感谢我们的家长和学生选择了郑州十一中圣玛丽双学位项目。我们会努力让你们在以后的大学和生活中取得成功，并且我们期望你们努力学习。现在我会和你们分享一些个人的想法。过几个月，我就要六十岁了。不知怎的，我已然变成了一位老年人。稍微不注意，时间就逝去，青春不再。但是，我认为我和高中时没什么不同。我只是获得了更多的经验和知识。到了这个年纪，仍然在高中工作，让我越来越多地回想起我自己的学生时代。当我还是一个小男孩时，我从来没有认真对待过任何事情，但是我一直很欣赏我高中的校训，这对我来说很有意义。我们的校训是“今天学的知识就是你明天的智慧”。在我们的世界里有无限的知识要学习。各学科领域上都有值得探索的古老的基础的知识。然后，科学上的各个领域每天都有新的发现、新的技术被发明，大量的数据被收集和分析，奇妙的新的艺术作品、文学作品正在世界各地被创作，而且有新的视角来看待历史，并试图从中学习。在你跳进这个发现的海洋，掌握坚实的知识基础和批判性思维之前，从名义上来说你是一个无知的人，你还不能开始开发智慧。这就是你需要上学的原因。如果你非常优秀，什么都知道，我们可以只给你一张文凭，让你继续你的生活。但是在通往智慧的永无止境的道路上，你们还有许多要去学习的东西。正如你有很多东西要学一样，所有人都要学习。我在这个夏天读了一本书，是麻省理工学院教授史迪芬·平克的《当下的启蒙》。他用大量的数据来支持他的结论，指出在过去的几百年里，我们的世界一直在快速地变得越来越好。现如今，全世界的人们活得更长，学得更多，身体更健康，生活更方便，休闲时间更多，越来越少的战争和暴力，犯罪事件也变少，个人的进步机会也就比之前更多。这些你们不会从新闻媒体中得知。新闻非常具有误导性，因为它关注的是世界上发生的坏事，而不是我们人类已经取得并将继续取得的伟大进步。每一代人都建立在前一代人的知识之上。每一代人都会面临困难，但是，迄今为止，人类的智慧已然克服了这些困难，让生活变得更好。我们有充分的理由相信我们将继续克服我们会面临的困难并改善地球上的生活。你们的人生之路还很长，会看见比现在更加美好的世界。但是，只有当你们致力于获取知识，成为终身学习者，并明智地参与创造一个更好的世界时，那才会发生。你们正在成为受过全球教育的成年人，这些人可以继续让世界变得更美好，享受你们帮助创造的世界。当你们每天每一节课都尽最大努力时，成功之路便会出现。所以我要求你们认真学习，要你们变得知识渊博，也变得更聪明，并且充分享受你们所传承的美好世界。祝你们新学年快乐！