【国旗下讲话】教育的力量

Z: Good morning, honorable teachers and fellow students,I'm Zheng Yawen from Class 12, Grade 8.尊敬的各位老师，亲爱的同学们，早上好！我是初二12班的郑雅文。

C: And I'm Chen Xinrui, also from Class 12.我是初二12班的陈欣睿。

Today, we are honored to share with you our reflections on an autobiographical novel — Educated.

今天，我们很荣幸能在这里，与大家分享一本自传体小说——《你当像鸟飞往你的山》的读后感悟。

This book tells the true story of Tara Westover, a woman whose life was profoundly shaped by her unusual family. One of the most striking aspects of the book is how vividly Tara portrays each character, revealing her deep ambivalence toward them. Her father, an extreme Mormon, had a strong desire for control and was deeply hostile to the government. Even more heartbreaking, her mother — an obedient midwife — never fully recovered from a terrible accident, both physically and mentally.

这本书讲述了塔拉·韦斯特弗的真实人生经历。书中最打动人心的莫过于塔拉对每一个人物的鲜活刻画，以及她字里行间流露出的对家人复杂又矛盾的情感。她的父亲是一名极端的摩门教徒，控制欲极强，对政府抱有深深的敌意；更让人唏嘘的是，她的母亲性格极度顺从，是一名助产士。更糟糕的是，在经历一场严重事故后，她的精神再也没能彻底恢复健康。

Growing up under their influence, Tara’s childhood was far from ordinary. Her family was like a fortress built from paranoia. Her father raised high walls with predictions of doomsday and locked the gates with chains of government conspiracy. Inside this fortress, wounds were to be healed with essential oils — because medicine would rot the body; knowledge was the whisper of the devil, meant to corrupt the soul. Ridiculous and absurd — yet this was the so-called faith of Tara’s parents. Living in such a family, Tara was torn by contradictions. The fractured love from her family left deep scars on her heart: her father would stay up all night worrying about her safety, yet refuse to take her to the hospital because of his beliefs; her brother Shawn would secretly slip her $100 when she couldn’t afford rent, only to shove her head into the toilet the next moment. This tangled mix of love and hate was like an inescapable web, making Tara desperate to flee, yet unable to let go.

在这样的家庭影响下，塔拉的童年与别的孩子截然不同。她的家像一座用偏执筑成的牢笼：父亲用世界末日的预言筑起高墙，用政府阴谋的锁链锁死门窗。在这座牢笼里，伤痛只能靠精油疗愈，因为现代医药会腐蚀肉体；知识是魔鬼的低语，只会玷污灵魂。荒谬无知居然是塔拉父母所谓的信仰。塔拉被无尽的矛盾撕扯。家人残缺扭曲的爱在她心上刻着刀刀伤痕：父亲会彻夜不眠担心她的安危，却又因偏执的信仰，拒绝送受伤的她去医院；哥哥肖恩会在她交不起房租时，偷偷塞给她一百美元，可下一秒，便会把她的头狠狠按进马桶。这种爱恨交织的情感像一张密不透风的网，让塔拉拼命想要逃离，却又无法彻底割舍。

 Just when she was deeply trapped in despair and on the verge of giving up, a precious ray of light suddenly appeared in her life — her brother Tyler. Having left home to pursue college and embraced a completely new life outside, he understood how precious knowledge and education truly were. He knew how suffocating their family’s rigid beliefs could be, and he firmly believed that Tara deserved a much better future beyond the mountains. He encouraged her to step out of her confined world, bravely pursue higher education, trust herself, and chase a life of her own choosing. His sincere words touched her soul, opened up a brand-new world for her, and planted an unshakable faith deep in her heart. With unwavering determination, Tara spared no effort studying day and night, overcoming huge gaps in basic knowledge and endless family pressure. Eventually, she was admitted to BYU, and later earned precious opportunities to study at world-renowned Cambridge and Harvard, completely rewriting her destiny.

就在塔拉深陷绝望、濒临放弃之时，一束光照进了她灰暗的人生——这便是她的哥哥泰勒。泰勒早已离家求学，拥抱了大山之外的全新生活。他深知知识与教育的珍贵，也彻底明白，这个家僵化偏执的信仰有多令人窒息。他坚定地相信，塔拉值得走出大山，拥有更广阔、更美好的未来。他一遍遍鼓励塔拉，走出封闭狭小的世界，勇敢追寻高等教育，相信自己，去争取自己选择的人生。泰勒真挚的话语触动了塔拉的灵魂，为她打开了一扇通往新世界的大门，更在她心底种下了坚定不移的信念。怀揣着这份执念，塔拉日夜苦读，拼尽全力弥补基础知识的巨大鸿沟，顶住来自家庭的重重压力，从未退缩。最终，她成功考入杨百翰大学，而后又获得了在世界顶尖学府剑桥大学、哈佛大学深造的宝贵机会，彻底改写了自己的命运。

Tara’s journey is not just a personal story — it is a powerful lesson for all of us. As the book conveys: "The most powerful determinant of who you are is inside you." The past is a ghost, insubstantial and unaffecting. Only the future has weight. We have all struggled under the expectations of others, defined success by worldly standards, and gradually blurred our own dreams under that weight. But this book tells us: growth is not about catering to others — it is about having the courage to write our own chapter.

You shall fly to your mountain like a bird. And that mountain is not a physical place — it is the faith and direction in your heart. You could call this selfhood many things: transformation, metamorphosis, falsity, betrayal. Tara calls it an education.

塔拉的蜕变之路并不仅仅是一个逆袭故事，更是要给我们这样的启示：“决定你是谁的最强大力量，从来都在你自己内心。”过往的伤痛如同虚影，无法定义我们；唯有未来才真正拥有重量。我们都曾在他人的期待中挣扎，用世俗的标准衡量成功，在外界的裹挟中渐渐模糊了自己最初的梦想。这本书告诉我们：真正的成长从不是迎合他人，而是拥有执笔书写自己人生篇章的勇气。

你理应化作飞鸟，奔赴心中那座专属山峦。它无关俗世疆域，而是灵魂栖居的信仰，亦是一生奔赴的远方。世人说这是破茧重生，亦或是与过往毅然割舍。唯有塔拉将其称之为——教育。

Education is not merely a way out of personal suffering — it is a gateway that connects us to a broader world and a higher state of mind. What traps us is never the external environment, but our own inner limitations; and no one but ourselves can free our minds. It is not our clothes or outward appearance that make us unique and distinctive. Instead, it is the light behind our eyes, the quiet determination in our bearing — a lingering hope, a firm belief, an unshakable conviction that life is never fixed, but always open to being reshaped and redefined.

教育不止是逃离个人困境的出路，更是连接我们与更广阔世界、抵达更高精神境界的大门。困住我们的从来都不是外界的环境，而是我们内心的枷锁；能救赎自己的，也从来只有我们自己。让一个人独一无二、闪闪发光的，从不是光鲜的衣着、出众的外表，而是眼底的光芒和心底不曾熄灭的希望，是毫不动摇的信念，是始终坚信：人生从没有既定的结局，永远都可以被重新塑造，重新定义。

That’s all for our speech. Thank you!

我们的讲话结束，谢谢大家！