Author: John holt
Source: What Do I Do Monday
Translator: Esther
1. 老师是狱警
What teachers ought to do, all over the country, and what schools of education ought to be encouraging them to do, is quite simply to refuse to fill out these forms. If the schools want to run a jail business, let them find their own jailers, let them devise meth-ods of punching in, as at a factory, let them handle their self-made problem any way they want. But it is not the proper business of teachers, and we ought not to have anything to do with it. Mean-while, mark everyone present. Or if this arouses too much suspi-cion, mark only one or two people absent each day. We can hardly suppose that it is good for children to be in this kind of school or classroom, or that in setting the law on them we are doing them a favor.
全国各地的老师们应该做的,也是教育学院应该鼓励他们做的,就是拒绝填写这些(记录学生出勤)表格。如果学校想经营监狱,让他们自己去找狱卒,让他们自己设计打卡方式,就像工厂一样,让他们随心所欲地处理自找的麻烦。但那不是老师该做的事,我们不应和它有任何瓜葛。还有,给每人都记到。如果这引起太多怀疑,每天只记一两个人缺席。我们无法设想孩子们在这种学校或教室有任何好处,或认为把法律强加于他们,是为了他们好。
The place is mad and absurd, all right; but I am afraid noth-ing in it is as mad and absurd as this poor young teacher who after all is only trying to do the absurd things her absurd bosses have told her to do. Going to school, as she goes, is indeed going to war. But we, the adults, started the war, not the children. They are only fighting back as best they can. We promise poor kids that if they will do what we want, there are goodies waiting for them out there. They know that these promises are false. All this stop, stop, stop. Why is it so necessary? A child will open a notebook when he has something he wants to write in it. If he doesn’t want to write anything, what difference whether the notebook is open or not? “We have not started to learn yet. . .” The teacher certainly hasn’t, though the children have probably learned a good deal about the teacher, at least how to bug her. Why must all these other things be done before the learning starts? Let some worthwhile activity start, and is it not possible that many of these other things will gradually stop, just because they are less interesting? Is it not at least worth a try? Worth some thought?
这个地方荒谬可笑,那也罢了;不过我担心没有什么比这位可怜的老师更荒谬可笑,说到底,她不过是努力做她那荒谬的老板让她做的一切。像她那样去学校,其实是上战场。不过,是我们大人引发了战争,而不是孩子。他们只是竭力反抗而已。我们对穷孩子们保证,如果他们做我们希望的事情,就会有好东西等着他们。他们知道这些承诺都是空的。这些都得停、停、停。为什么必须这样?如果孩子有东西要写,他会打开笔记本。如果他不想写,笔记本摊开合上有什么区别?“我们还没开始学呢……”老师当然还没开始,虽然孩子可能已经对老师了若指掌,至少知道怎么跟她捣乱。为什么在学习开始之前,必须完成这些事情?让有价值的活动先开始。难道没可能这些事情因为乏味就逐渐停止?难道不值得尝试一下?不值得思索?
2. 老师是向导
We talk a lot about teachers “guiding” in schools. Most of the time we just mean doing what teachers have done all along—telling children what to do and trying to make them do it. There is, I sup-pose, a sense in which the word “guide” can mean that. If I guide a blind man down a rough path, I lead him, I decide where he is to go, give him no choice. But “guide” can mean something else. When friends and I go on a wilderness canoe trip in Canada, we plan our trip with a guide who knows the region. We know what we are looking for—fishing good enough to give us a chance to catch our food, a chance of good campsites, trails not too rough to portage and not too obscure to follow, not too many people, no airplanes dropping in, no loggers. We discuss this or that lake, this or that alternative route, how long it would take to get from this place to that. Eventually, using the guide’s answers to our ques-tions, we plan our trip. He, knowing the landings, the places— often hard to spot—where the trails meet the lake’s edge, comes with us, to help us get where we have decided we want to go.
我们经常谈论老师在学校“引导”。大多数时候,我们只表示老师们一直以来所做的事情——告诉孩子们做什么,努力让他们完成。我想,在某种意义上这正是“引导”一词的意义。如果我引领一位盲人走很崎岖的道路,我领着他,我决定他往哪走,不给他任何选择。但是,“引导”可以表示其他意思。当我和朋友在加拿大旷野乘独木舟时,我们和一位了解该地区的向导一起计划我们的旅途。我们知道我们要什么——多钓鱼保证我们饿不着,合适的野营地,路线不能太崎岖不便于水陆接驳,也不能太偏僻难以追随,人不能太多,没有飞机,没有伐木者。我们讨论这个湖那个湖,这种那种备用路线,从这到那要多久。最后,根据导游的答案,我们计划行程。他了解各个码头,了解道路和湖边接头的各个地方——通常都难以发现,和我们一起,帮助我们达到我们想去的地方。
Or, as a friend of mine put it, we teachers can see ourselves as travel agents. When we go to a travel agent, he does not tell us where to go. He finds out first what we are looking for. Do we care most about climate or scenery, or about seeing new cultures, or about museums and entertainment? Do we want to travel alone or with others? Do we like crowds or want to stay away from them? How much time and money do we want to spend? And so on. Given some idea of what we are looking for, he makes some suggestions. Here is this trip, which will take so long and cost so much; here is this one, here is that. Eventually, we choose, not he. Then, he helps us with our travel and hotel arrangements, gets us what tickets and information we need, and we are ready to start. His job is done. He does not have to take the trip with us. Least of all does he have to give us a little quiz when we get back to make sure we went where we said we would go or got out of the trip what we hoped to get. If anything went wrong he will want to hear about it, to help us and other clients plan better in the future. Otherwise, what we got out of the trip and how much we enjoyed it is our business.
或者,如我的朋友所说,我们当老师的可以把自己当作旅行代理。我们到旅行社时,旅行代理并不告诉我们到哪里去。他首先看看我们想要什么。我们最关心的是气候或景点,或者欣赏不同文化,或者参观博物馆和游乐场?我们想独自出门呢,还是结伴而行?我们喜欢热闹呢,还是想远离人群?我们准备花多少时间金钱?诸如此类。在知道我们想要什么之后,他会提出建议。行程是这样的,时间多长,费用多少;这是行程A,那是行程B。最终决策的是我们,不是他。然后他帮我们安排旅程和酒店,帮我们获取需要的各种票和信息,我们准备好出发。他的工作完成了。他不用和我们一起旅行。他也绝不会在我们回来时给我们测验,确保我们去了我们说了要去的地方,或者从旅行中获得我们希望得到的。如果任何事情出了差错,他也愿意听我们说,下次帮我们和其他客户更好地计划。否则,我们的旅行收获如何,我们是否喜欢这次旅行,都是我们自己的事。