教育專欄 (60) 任何人都可以教得不錯的

博幼基金會專門收功課不好的孩子,可是我們有一個堅強的觀念,那就是任何孩子都可以學得不錯的,我本人當然也作此想。

很多年前,我碰到一位高中生,這個小子當年考高中的時候,基測只考了108分(滿分300分),可以想見得到,他的英文是相當落後的。可是他遇人不淑,碰到了我,我就壓迫他接受我的輔導。他這個小子倒蠻好的,一直肯跟我唸英文,當然我還教他別的東西。現在他在當兵,出營以後就被我下令做英文翻譯。以下是他的翻譯。他翻的不錯吧!

我總認為我們國家有很多的人是可以有很好的競爭力的,可惜沒有人幫助他們。如果我們大家都注意到我們國家的弱勢孩子,也肯花時間輔導他們,我們整個國家就會好得多。

我敢說,我們全國絕大多數的國民都能夠像我這位學生一樣,可以看得懂不太容易的英文文章,可是總要有人教他們,他們總不會自己那麼厲害的。

Anna Karenina(安娜‧卡列尼娜)

Lev Tolstoy

The Real Spring Had Come

The spring had a slow start. During the last weeks of Lent the weather had been clear and frosty. There was a thaw in the daylight sunshine, but at night the temperature sank to sixteen degrees Fahrenheit; the snow was crusted over so hard that carts did not have to stay on the roads. Easter took place under the snow. Then suddenly, on Easter Monday, a warm wind began blowing, clouds came up, and for three days and three nights a warm, stormy rain poured down. On Thursday the wind died down and a dense gray mist came up as though to hide the secrets of the changes that were taking place in nature. The melted snow rushed down and beneath the mist, the river ice began cracking and moving forward, and the turbid, foaming torrents began flowing more rapidly; the following Monday, from evening on, the mist dissolved, the clouds broke up into fleecy cloudlets, the sky cleared, and the real spring had come.

春天是一個緩慢的開始。在過去幾週四旬期期間的天氣都冷若冰霜。

雪在白天陽光下融化,但夜間氣溫跌至華氏16度,雪在路上結了厚厚一層,道路上並沒有馬車在行駛。

這地方的復活節在下雪。突然,在復活節過後的星期一,一個溫暖的風開始吹來,持續三天三夜得短暫溫暖,這時狂風暴雨傾盆而下。

週四的風漸漸平息,密集灰色霧氣緩緩上來,好像是天氣正在發生變化的秘密。

在霧氣之下,融化的雪和裂開冰河開始前進,並混濁開始越來越快速流動;在接下來的星期一,從晚上,霧溶解,雲層成漸漸變成薄雲,天空放晴,而真正的春天已經來了。