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有些人上不起学，而有些人则是毕不了业。求学之路上总是困难重重。在美国南卡罗来纳州的奥康尼县，学生在高中辍学似乎是稀松平常的事情，他们逃课、打架，甚至吸毒。即便如此，他们也依旧努力为自己寻找一条出路。也许学是上不下去了，但生活却还是要继续。
This week, we’ve been talking about dropouts and how they’re doing in this tough economy. The government has a name for schools that fail to graduate more than half their students: “dropout factories.” And they’re not just a big city problem. Small, rural districts also have their fair share. So, we’re going to South Carolina today. It has more dropout factories than any other state—50 in all.
Reporter: Oconee County, South Carolina, sits in the far west fringes of the state, just a few miles from the Georgia border. This is where Nick Dunn was born and where his father died in a car accident one day before Christmas. Nick was 11.
这个星期，我们一直在谈论辍学学生以及在这样艰难的经济环境下，他们是如何应对的。政府把毕业学生人数没有达到一半以上的学校称为：“辍学者工厂”。而这并不只是大城市的问题，农村的小地方也同样存在这样的问题。所以，我们今天将会去南卡罗来纳州看看。在50个州当中，有最多辍学者工厂的正是南卡罗来纳州。
记者：奥康尼县位于南卡罗来纳州偏远的西部边缘上，距离乔治亚州边界只有几英里。这里就是尼克·邓恩出生的地方，也是他的父亲在圣诞节前一天，因一场车祸而丧命的地方。那时尼克11岁。
Nick Dunn: When he died, everything went downhill. I didn’t know my wrongs and rights. I didn’t do anything. I was lazy. That’s when my anger built. I was just Mr. Bad Person. I mean, I really didn’t care about anything. Didn’t do my work at all. Thought about dropping out.
Reporter: Just like his older brothers and sister. They all dropped out before 10th grade. Nick, 16, is the youngest in the family. When he enrolled at Seneca Middle School, Nick was the kid with a hair-triggered temper—always angry, ready to 1)clobber anybody who looked at him the wrong way. Muscular—built like a wrestler—Nick was chronically absent.
Nick: I know many friends that dropped out. Some stay at home, do drugs. Some don’t even live with their parents. Some moved out, left, ran away.
Reporter: Oconee County school officials admit they don’t know exactly how many kids simply disappear. But every year, Al Leroy, the principal at Seneca Middle School, gets a list with the names of in-coming seventh graders with a history of 2)truancy and bad behavior. Leroy says Nick arrived with an especially tough group.
Al Leroy: These young men were extremely angry, very disrespectful. They were absent a lot and it was hard to track them. We didn’t know exactly where they were.
Reporter: Leroy says these kids had no interest in school. They think they’ll do just fine. You see, says Leroy, for a long time in this old railroad town, dropping out of school didn’t keep people from finding a job. In the local textile 3)mills or in farming, these jobs were passed from one generation to the next, so it was no big deal if you didn’t have a high school diploma.
尼克·邓恩：我的父亲去世后，一切开始走下坡路。我是非不分，我无所作为，我很懒惰。正是在那个时候，我养成了易怒的脾气。我就是众人眼里的坏人。我是说，我真的什么也不在乎，没有做过功课，我想过要辍学。
记者：尼克与他哥哥和姐姐的情况很相似，他们都在上十年级前就辍学了。16岁的尼克是家里最年幼的孩子。当尼克注册上塞内卡中学的时候，他脾气火爆，一触即发——总是生气，时刻准备要把任何一个斜眼看他的人痛打一顿。身材像摔跤选手般强壮的尼克长期旷课。
尼克：我认识的好多朋友也辍学了。一些呆在家里，吸毒。一些甚至没有和父母住在一起。他们搬出去，离家出走了。
记者：奥康尼县学校的官员承认他们不知道确切有多少学生就那样消失了。但每一年在接收七年级新生的时候，塞内卡中学的校长阿尔·勒罗伊都会收到一张有逃学和不良行为史的七年级新生的名单。勒罗伊说，与尼克一同入学的，是一个特别难对付的群体。
阿尔·勒罗伊：这些年轻人都极端地愤怒，并且没有礼貌。他们经常旷课，而且很难知道他们的去向。我们不知道他们到底在哪儿。
记者：勒罗伊说，这些孩子对上学毫无兴趣。他们认为自己的未来不会有问题。你们是知道的，勒罗伊说道，相当长的一段时间里，在这个旧铁路小镇，辍学并不会妨碍他们在当地的纺织厂找一份工作或者以务农为生。这些工作一代传一代，所以即使你没有高中文凭，也不是什么大不了的事情。
South Carolina ranks near the bottom nationally in high school graduation rates, in part because so many rural schools here have trouble hanging on to their students. In Oconee County, one out of four ninth graders doesn’t graduate. Schools superintendent, Mike Lucas, says it was a lot worse when schools were legally segregated not just by race but by class.
Mike Lucas: Even the white culture, there was a mill culture and there was a more affluent culture. And what’s different now is we have to educate every child.
Reporter: If not, says Lucas, one of three things happens:
Mike: They end up in prison. They end up on drugs or alcohol.
Reporter: And they end up jobless. The unemployment rate in Oconee County is more than 10%. It’s at least twice that for 18- to 24-year-olds. Lucas says kids are slowly realizing that without a high school diploma, their chances of getting a job that pays a living wage are 4)zilch. But even if kids want to stay in school, some face huge hurdles at home. Tammy Brock, one of Nick’s former counselors says lots of kids like Nick are living in what she calls “chaotic conditions.”
南卡罗来纳州的高中毕业率接近全国排名尾端，部分原因在于这儿的很多农村学校无法留住他们的学生。在奥康尼县，四分之一的九年级学生没有毕业。学校校监迈克·卢卡斯说，在学校合法地实行因社会地位而非种族进行隔离教学的时候，情况更加糟糕。
迈克·卢卡斯：甚至白种人文化，都有工厂文化和更富裕文化之分。而现在不同的是，我们要教育每一个孩子。
记者：如果做不到，卢卡斯说，这三种情况中的一种将会发生：
迈克：他们会进监狱、吸毒或者酗酒。
记者：还有他们最终会失业。奥康尼县的失业率超过10%，就18到24岁年轻群体而言，失业率至少是20%。卢卡斯说孩子们逐渐意识到，没有高中文凭，获得一份最低生活保障工作的机会就为零。但是即使孩子们想要上学，有些在家庭方面也面临着巨大的障碍。尼克的前辅导员之一塔米·布鲁克说，很多像尼克这样的孩子在她称之为“混乱条件”的环境下生活。
Tammy Brock: When I look at these children, they don’t have a clue what it means to be on a regular schedule at home. And that’s the difficult part because they can’t see beyond this next hour, much less into the future to see what’s gonna happen to them in the future. They are crippled by the fact that they don’t have that kind of support at home. So, if we don’t do it, who will do it? Reporter: If kids fall through the cracks, Brock says, it’s because rural school systems like Oconee County have only a fraction of the resources that urban and suburban schools have. And when parents don’t help, it’s almost impossible to rescue these kids. Although in Nick’s case, his mother’s advice doesn’t seem to matter to him. Despite her misgivings, Nick is fixated on becoming a professional, mixed martial arts fighter.
During my visit to his home, Nick ignores his mother’s objections and shows me his room piled high with all kinds of exercise gear.
Nick: Boxing equipment, wrestling equipment, weight equipment. I mean, got the whole nine yards.
Reporter: Nick says if his father were alive, he would approve. But even if his mom is right and the martial arts thing doesn’t work out...
Nick: I got a plan C, D, E. I got 5)welding; I got 6)masonry, carpentry, maybe computers.
Reporter: There’s nothing I can’t do, says Nick, with or without a high school diploma.
塔米·布鲁克：我看着这些孩子的时候，我知道他们对于定期待在家里意味着什么毫无头绪。而这会带来很大的难题，部分原因在于他们无法看到这一刻之后会是什么情况，更不用说看到未来，去想想未来将会发生什么事情。他们没有家庭方面的支持，所以他们的生活也受到影响。所以，如果我们不做，谁会去做呢？
记者：如果孩子们的问题未能得到重视，布鲁克说道，那是因为像奥康尼县这样的农村学校系统拥有的资源只是城市和近郊学校资源的一小部分。而如果家长们也不伸出援手，要拯救这些孩子几乎是不可能的。尽管在尼克的案例中，他母亲的建议对他来说也似乎无关紧要。尼克全然不顾母亲的担忧，专注于成为一名专业的、综合的武术格斗者。
我去拜访尼克家的时候，他不顾母亲的反对，向我展示了他房间里堆得高高的各种各样的锻炼器材。
尼克：拳击器材、摔跤器材、负重器械，应有尽有。
记者：尼克说，如果他的父亲还活着，他会赞成的。但是即使他的母亲是正确的，武术格斗行不通……
尼克：我还有C、D和E计划。我的计划里还有做焊接、做砖瓦工、做木工，或者从事计算机工作。
记者：没什么是我做不到的，无论有没有高中文凭，尼克这样说道。
This week, we’ve been talking about dropouts and how they’re doing in this tough economy. The government has a name for schools that fail to graduate more than half their students: “dropout factories.” And they’re not just a big city problem. Small, rural districts also have their fair share. So, we’re going to South Carolina today. It has more dropout factories than any other state—50 in all.
Reporter: Oconee County, South Carolina, sits in the far west fringes of the state, just a few miles from the Georgia border. This is where Nick Dunn was born and where his father died in a car accident one day before Christmas. Nick was 11.
这个星期，我们一直在谈论辍学学生以及在这样艰难的经济环境下，他们是如何应对的。政府把毕业学生人数没有达到一半以上的学校称为：“辍学者工厂”。而这并不只是大城市的问题，农村的小地方也同样存在这样的问题。所以，我们今天将会去南卡罗来纳州看看。在50个州当中，有最多辍学者工厂的正是南卡罗来纳州。
记者：奥康尼县位于南卡罗来纳州偏远的西部边缘上，距离乔治亚州边界只有几英里。这里就是尼克·邓恩出生的地方，也是他的父亲在圣诞节前一天，因一场车祸而丧命的地方。那时尼克11岁。
Nick Dunn: When he died, everything went downhill. I didn’t know my wrongs and rights. I didn’t do anything. I was lazy. That’s when my anger built. I was just Mr. Bad Person. I mean, I really didn’t care about anything. Didn’t do my work at all. Thought about dropping out.
Reporter: Just like his older brothers and sister. They all dropped out before 10th grade. Nick, 16, is the youngest in the family. When he enrolled at Seneca Middle School, Nick was the kid with a hair-triggered temper—always angry, ready to 1)clobber anybody who looked at him the wrong way. Muscular—built like a wrestler—Nick was chronically absent.
Nick: I know many friends that dropped out. Some stay at home, do drugs. Some don’t even live with their parents. Some moved out, left, ran away.
Reporter: Oconee County school officials admit they don’t know exactly how many kids simply disappear. But every year, Al Leroy, the principal at Seneca Middle School, gets a list with the names of in-coming seventh graders with a history of 2)truancy and bad behavior. Leroy says Nick arrived with an especially tough group.
Al Leroy: These young men were extremely angry, very disrespectful. They were absent a lot and it was hard to track them. We didn’t know exactly where they were.
Reporter: Leroy says these kids had no interest in school. They think they’ll do just fine. You see, says Leroy, for a long time in this old railroad town, dropping out of school didn’t keep people from finding a job. In the local textile 3)mills or in farming, these jobs were passed from one generation to the next, so it was no big deal if you didn’t have a high school diploma.
尼克·邓恩：我的父亲去世后，一切开始走下坡路。我是非不分，我无所作为，我很懒惰。正是在那个时候，我养成了易怒的脾气。我就是众人眼里的坏人。我是说，我真的什么也不在乎，没有做过功课，我想过要辍学。
记者：尼克与他哥哥和姐姐的情况很相似，他们都在上十年级前就辍学了。16岁的尼克是家里最年幼的孩子。当尼克注册上塞内卡中学的时候，他脾气火爆，一触即发——总是生气，时刻准备要把任何一个斜眼看他的人痛打一顿。身材像摔跤选手般强壮的尼克长期旷课。
尼克：我认识的好多朋友也辍学了。一些呆在家里，吸毒。一些甚至没有和父母住在一起。他们搬出去，离家出走了。
记者：奥康尼县学校的官员承认他们不知道确切有多少学生就那样消失了。但每一年在接收七年级新生的时候，塞内卡中学的校长阿尔·勒罗伊都会收到一张有逃学和不良行为史的七年级新生的名单。勒罗伊说，与尼克一同入学的，是一个特别难对付的群体。
阿尔·勒罗伊：这些年轻人都极端地愤怒，并且没有礼貌。他们经常旷课，而且很难知道他们的去向。我们不知道他们到底在哪儿。
记者：勒罗伊说，这些孩子对上学毫无兴趣。他们认为自己的未来不会有问题。你们是知道的，勒罗伊说道，相当长的一段时间里，在这个旧铁路小镇，辍学并不会妨碍他们在当地的纺织厂找一份工作或者以务农为生。这些工作一代传一代，所以即使你没有高中文凭，也不是什么大不了的事情。
South Carolina ranks near the bottom nationally in high school graduation rates, in part because so many rural schools here have trouble hanging on to their students. In Oconee County, one out of four ninth graders doesn’t graduate. Schools superintendent, Mike Lucas, says it was a lot worse when schools were legally segregated not just by race but by class.
Mike Lucas: Even the white culture, there was a mill culture and there was a more affluent culture. And what’s different now is we have to educate every child.
Reporter: If not, says Lucas, one of three things happens:
Mike: They end up in prison. They end up on drugs or alcohol.
Reporter: And they end up jobless. The unemployment rate in Oconee County is more than 10%. It’s at least twice that for 18- to 24-year-olds. Lucas says kids are slowly realizing that without a high school diploma, their chances of getting a job that pays a living wage are 4)zilch. But even if kids want to stay in school, some face huge hurdles at home. Tammy Brock, one of Nick’s former counselors says lots of kids like Nick are living in what she calls “chaotic conditions.”
南卡罗来纳州的高中毕业率接近全国排名尾端，部分原因在于这儿的很多农村学校无法留住他们的学生。在奥康尼县，四分之一的九年级学生没有毕业。学校校监迈克·卢卡斯说，在学校合法地实行因社会地位而非种族进行隔离教学的时候，情况更加糟糕。
迈克·卢卡斯：甚至白种人文化，都有工厂文化和更富裕文化之分。而现在不同的是，我们要教育每一个孩子。
记者：如果做不到，卢卡斯说，这三种情况中的一种将会发生：
迈克：他们会进监狱、吸毒或者酗酒。
记者：还有他们最终会失业。奥康尼县的失业率超过10%，就18到24岁年轻群体而言，失业率至少是20%。卢卡斯说孩子们逐渐意识到，没有高中文凭，获得一份最低生活保障工作的机会就为零。但是即使孩子们想要上学，有些在家庭方面也面临着巨大的障碍。尼克的前辅导员之一塔米·布鲁克说，很多像尼克这样的孩子在她称之为“混乱条件”的环境下生活。
Tammy Brock: When I look at these children, they don’t have a clue what it means to be on a regular schedule at home. And that’s the difficult part because they can’t see beyond this next hour, much less into the future to see what’s gonna happen to them in the future. They are crippled by the fact that they don’t have that kind of support at home. So, if we don’t do it, who will do it? Reporter: If kids fall through the cracks, Brock says, it’s because rural school systems like Oconee County have only a fraction of the resources that urban and suburban schools have. And when parents don’t help, it’s almost impossible to rescue these kids. Although in Nick’s case, his mother’s advice doesn’t seem to matter to him. Despite her misgivings, Nick is fixated on becoming a professional, mixed martial arts fighter.
During my visit to his home, Nick ignores his mother’s objections and shows me his room piled high with all kinds of exercise gear.
Nick: Boxing equipment, wrestling equipment, weight equipment. I mean, got the whole nine yards.
Reporter: Nick says if his father were alive, he would approve. But even if his mom is right and the martial arts thing doesn’t work out...
Nick: I got a plan C, D, E. I got 5)welding; I got 6)masonry, carpentry, maybe computers.
Reporter: There’s nothing I can’t do, says Nick, with or without a high school diploma.
塔米·布鲁克：我看着这些孩子的时候，我知道他们对于定期待在家里意味着什么毫无头绪。而这会带来很大的难题，部分原因在于他们无法看到这一刻之后会是什么情况，更不用说看到未来，去想想未来将会发生什么事情。他们没有家庭方面的支持，所以他们的生活也受到影响。所以，如果我们不做，谁会去做呢？
记者：如果孩子们的问题未能得到重视，布鲁克说道，那是因为像奥康尼县这样的农村学校系统拥有的资源只是城市和近郊学校资源的一小部分。而如果家长们也不伸出援手，要拯救这些孩子几乎是不可能的。尽管在尼克的案例中，他母亲的建议对他来说也似乎无关紧要。尼克全然不顾母亲的担忧，专注于成为一名专业的、综合的武术格斗者。
我去拜访尼克家的时候，他不顾母亲的反对，向我展示了他房间里堆得高高的各种各样的锻炼器材。
尼克：拳击器材、摔跤器材、负重器械，应有尽有。
记者：尼克说，如果他的父亲还活着，他会赞成的。但是即使他的母亲是正确的，武术格斗行不通……
尼克：我还有C、D和E计划。我的计划里还有做焊接、做砖瓦工、做木工，或者从事计算机工作。
记者：没什么是我做不到的，无论有没有高中文凭，尼克这样说道。