雙語美文我在學校學到了什麼

　　我們應該怎樣確切地衡量一位教師的價值呢?接下來，小編給大家準備了,歡迎大家參考與借鑑。

　　The 1tumult over 2state budgets and 3collective bargaining rights for public employees has spilled over into resentment toward public school teachers, who are increasingly 4derided as “5glorified baby sitters” whose pay exceeds the value of the work they do.

　　有關國家財政預算和公職人員集體談判權的爭吵愈演愈烈，已經蔓延成對公立學校教師的憎恨，人們嘲笑他們只不過是“光鮮體面的保姆”，稱他們的工作價值不足以獲得當前的薪金。

　　But how exactly do we measure the value of a teacher?

　　但我們應該怎樣確切地衡量一位教師的價值呢?

　　As a writer, I often receive feedback from readers I have never met. But the other day, I received a most unexpected message in response to one of my essays: “I am so proud of you and all you have accomplished. I shared your opinion from 6The L.A.Times with my family and 7reminisced about you as my student at Hibbing High School.” It was signed Margaret Leibfried, who was my English teacher—a teacher who appeared at a critical 8juncture in my life and helped me believe that I could become a writer.

　　作為一名作家，我經常會收到讀者的反饋，卻與他們從未謀面。但前不久，我的一篇文章卻得到完全出乎我意料的迴應：“我為你和你所取得的成就感到驕傲。我與家人很認同你發表在《洛杉磯時報》上的觀點，我還回想起當年你還是我的學生，在希賓公立高中就讀。”這則資訊的署名是瑪格麗特·雷布弗雷德，我的英語老師。她在我人生中重要的時刻出現，是她讓我相信我可以成為一名作家。

　　Thirty years ago, in Hibbing, a town in northern 9Minnesota that is 10home to the world's largest 11open-pit iron mine, I entered high school as a 12bookish 13introvert made all the more shy because I was the school's only nonwhite student. I always felt in danger of being swept away by 14a sea of 15statuesque blond athletes. By 10th grade, I'd developed a 16Quasimodo-like posture and 　17crabwise walk, hoping to escape being teased as a “18brain” or a “19chink,” and then finding being ignored almost equally painful. I spent a lot of time alone, reading and 20scribbling stories.

　　希賓是美國明尼蘇達州北部的一個小鎮，也是世界上最大的露天鐵礦所在地。30年前，我在這裡上高中。那時候，我書生氣十足並且性格內向，由於我是學校裡唯一的非白人學生，所以我更加害羞膽怯。學校裡遍地都是金髮碧眼、輪廓優美的運動型學生，與他們相比，我總害怕自己被淹沒在人群之中。到十年級時，我已經學會了加西莫多般的姿勢和小心翼翼的走路方式，為的是避免被人嘲笑成“書呆子”或“中國佬”。與此同時，我發現被人忽略的滋味也一樣很痛苦。大部分時間，我都是一個人看看書或者胡亂寫點東西。

　　Ms. Leibfried taught American literature and composition grammar, which involved the usual—memorizing vocabulary and 21diagramming sentences—but also, thrillingly, reading novels. Thrilling to me, that is. Many of my classmates expressed 22disdain for novels because they were “not real.” For once, I didn't care what they thought. Ms. Leibfried seemed to notice my interest in both reading and writing, and she took the time to 23draw me out; she even offered reading suggestions, like one of her favorite novels, 24The Bell Jar.

　　雷布弗雷德老師教授美國文學和寫作語法課程，自然少不了要教授這些課程的慣例內容：背誦詞彙和分析句子，但也有令人興奮的部分：閱讀小說。至少對我來說，這是件令人興奮的事情。因為小說“非真實”，我的許多同學都對其不屑一顧。但這回，我可不在乎他們怎麼想。雷布弗雷德老師似乎注意到我對閱讀和寫作的興趣，她甚至在課餘時間與我交流，還給我提出了閱讀建議，例如她向我推薦她最喜歡的一本小說——《鐘形罩》。

　　That year's big 25project was a book report, to be read aloud to the class. However, Ms. Leibfried took me aside and suggested I do something “a little different.” Instead of a report, I was to pick a passage from a book, memorize it and recite it in front of the class. While I longed for the safety and routine of the report, I was curious how this new assignment might work out. By then obsessed with The Bell Jar, I chose a passage that I thought showed off the 26protagonist's growing depression as well as Sylvia Plath's 27sly humor.

　　那年的課外自修專案是寫一篇讀書報告，還要在同學們面前朗讀。但是雷布弗雷德老師把我叫到一邊，建議我弄點“別出心裁的東西”。她建議我不用寫讀書報告，而是從某本書中選取一段文字，然後在同學們面前背誦出來。雖然我很想寫讀書報告，因為寫讀書報告既保險，又可按照例行程式完成，但我又按捺不住對新任務的好奇心。那時，我沉迷於《鐘形罩》，於是我選擇了其中的一段，認為這段文字能展現主人公日益濃烈的憂鬱和作者西爾維婭·普拉斯的狡黠詼諧。

　　The morning of the presentations, I remember my palms sweating so badly as I walked to the front of the class that I held my hands 28cupped in prayer formation, so I wouldn't wipe them on my shirt.

　　我還記得做彙報的那個上午，當我走到全班同學面前時，我的掌心直冒汗，於是，我只好將雙手握緊成祈禱狀，好讓自己別把汗水揩到襯衫上。

　　I saw the days of the year stretching ahead like a series of bright, white boxes, and separating one box from another was sleep, like a black shade. Only for me, the long perspective of shades that 29set off one box from the next had suddenly snapped up, and I could see day after day glaring ahead of me like a white, broad, infinitely desolate avenue.

　　我眼中的日子彷彿一連串雪白明亮的盒子，無窮無盡，綿延不絕，只有宛如黑影的睡眠相間。只是於我而言，這些隔開盒子的長長陰影突然斷開，之後日復一日的歲月，在我眼前便成了一束刺眼的強光，如同一條白色寬廣又極盡荒涼的大街。

　　It seemed silly to wash one day when I would only have to wash again the next.

　　It made me tired just to think of it.

　　I wanted to do everything 30once and for all and 31be through with it.

　　Dr. Gordon 32twiddled a silver pencil. “Your mother tells me you are 33upset.”

　　如果明天照樣還得洗漱，那麼今天的洗漱是不是有點可笑。

　　僅僅是想想這件事情都會讓我疲憊不堪。

　　無論什麼事情，我都想一錘定音，一勞永逸。

　　戈登醫生旋弄著手中的銀色鉛筆，對我說：“你媽媽說你心煩意亂。”

　　I finished and, to my surprise, the class broke out in applause. “As a writer and a good reader, Marie has picked out a particularly sensitive piece of prose and 34delivered it beautifully,” Ms. Leibfried said, beaming. I felt, maybe for the first time, confident.

　　出乎我意料的是，當我背誦完畢，教室裡掌聲雷動。雷布弗雷德老師笑逐顏開地說：“瑪麗是一位作家，也是一位優秀的讀者，她挑選了一段特別有表現力的散文，並且誦讀得如此優美。”我想，也許那是我生平第一次感到自信。

　　Ms. Leibfried was followed the next year by Mrs. Borman, quiet, elderly and almost as shy as I was. She surprised everyone when she excused me from her grammar class, saying my time would be spent more 35productively writing in the library. I took the work seriously, and 36on a whim submitted an essay I'd come up with to 37Seventeen magazine. When they published it, it was big news for the high school—it was even announced on the 38P.A. system. Mrs. Borman wasn't mentioned, nor did she ever take any 39credit; in her mind she was just doing her job.

　　第二年，接替雷布弗雷德老師的是博爾曼老師，她上了年紀，寡言少語，幾乎跟我一樣害羞。她免除了我的語法課，說我利用這個時間在圖書館寫作會比上她的課更有成效，這決定讓所有人都感到震驚。我很重視這個“任務”，還一時心血來潮，將自己寫的一篇文章投給了《十七歲》雜誌。這篇文章後來被髮表了，成了學校裡的大新聞，連校內廣播系統都做了相關報道。博爾曼老師並未被提及，她也沒為自己邀功;在她看來，她只是在做自己的本職工作而已。

　　I can now appreciate how much courage it must have taken for those teachers to let me deviate so broadly from the lesson plan. With today's pressure on teachers to “teach to the test,” I wonder if any would or could take the time to 40coax out the potential in a single, shy student.

　　現在我能領悟到，那些老師當年讓我遠遠偏離課程計劃，這需要多大的勇氣啊!如今的教師面臨著“應試教育”的壓力，我不知道是否還會有老師不惜花時間去挖掘一個孤單而害羞的學生的潛能。

　　If we want to understand how much teachers are worth, we should remember how much we were formed by our own schooldays. Good teaching helps make productive and fully realized adults—a result that won't show up in each semester's test scores and statistics.

　　倘若我們想知道教師的價值，就應該想想我們的學生時代對自身的影響和塑造。良好的教育幫助孩子成長為富有創造力、能夠充分實現自我的成年人，但這一結果並不會顯示在每個學期的測試分數和統計資料中。

　　That's easy to forget, as budget battles rage and teacher performance is viewed through the cold 41metrics of the 42balance sheet. While the love of literature and confidence I gained from Ms. Leibfried's class shaped my career and my life, after only four short years at Hibbing High School, she was laid off because of budget cuts, and never taught again.

　　由於預算之爭甚囂塵上，而教師的業績只能通過資產負債表上一些冷冰冰的度量標準來呈現，所以這一點很容易被遺忘。在雷布弗雷德老師的課上，我逐漸愛上了文學並從中獲得了自信，這造就了我的職業和生活。然而，雷布弗雷德老師在希賓公立高中教學短短四年之後，便因學校縮減預算而被辭退，從此，她再也沒有從事過教學工作。