大學(xué)英語三-Unit-3-Why-I-Teach課文及翻譯

1、Unit 3 Why I TeachPeter G. BeidlerEvery teacher probably asks himself time and again: What are the reasons for choosing teaching as a career? Do the rewards teaching outweigh the trying comments? Answering these questions is not a simple task. Let's see what the author says.Why do you teach? My

2、friend asked the question when I told him that I didn't want to be considered for an administrative position. He was puzzled that I did not want what was obviously a "step up" toward what all Americans are taught to want when they grow up: money and power.Certainly I don't teach be

3、cause teaching is easy for me. Teaching is the most difficult of the various ways I have attempted to earn my living: mechanic, carpenter, writer. For me, teaching is a red-eye, sweaty-palm, sinking-stomach profession. Red-eye, because I never feel ready to teach no matter how late I stay up prepari

4、ng. Sweaty-palm, because I'm always nervous before I enter the classroom, sure that I will be found out for the fool that I am. Sinking-stomach, because I leave the classroom an hour later convinced that I was even more boring than usual.Nor do I teach because I think I know answers, or because

5、I have knowledge I feel compelled to share. Sometimes I am amazed that my students actually take notes on what I say in class!Why, then, do I teach?I teach because I like the pace of the academic calendar. June, July, and August offer an opportunity for reflection, research and writing.I teach becau

6、se teaching is a profession built on change. When the material is the same, I change and, more important, my students change.I teach because I like the freedom to make my own mistakes, to learn my own lessons, to stimulate myself and my students. As a teacher, I'm my own boss. If I want my fresh

7、men to learn to write by creating their own textbook, who is to say I can't? Such courses may be huge failures, but we can all learn from failures.I teach because I like to ask questions that students must struggle to answer. The world is full of right answers to bad questions. While teaching, I

8、 sometimes find good questions.I teach because I enjoy finding ways of getting myself and my students out of the ivory tower and into the real world. I once taught a course called "Self-Reliance in a Technological Society." My 15 students read Emerson, Thoreau, and Huxley. They kept diarie

9、s. They wrote term papers.But we also set up a corporation, borrowed money, purchased a run-down house and practiced self-reliance by renovating it. At the end of the semester, we would the house, repaid our loan, paid or taxes, and distributed the profits among the group.So teaching gives me pace,

10、and variety, and challenge, and the opportunity to keep on learning.I have left out, however, the most important reasons why I teach.One is Vicky. My first doctoral student, Vicky was an energetic student who labored at her dissertation on a little-known 14th century poet. She wrote articles and sen

11、t them off to learned journals. She did it all herself, with an occasional nudge from me. But I was there when she finished her dissertation, learned that her articles were accepted, got a job and won a fellowship to Harvard working on a book developing ideas she'd first had as my student.Anothe

12、r reason is George, who started as an engineering student, then switched to English because he decided he liked people better than things.There is Jeanne, who left college, but was brought back by her classmates because they wanted her to see the end of the self-reliance house project. I was here wh

13、en she came back. I was there when she told me that she later became interested in the urban poor and went on to become a civil rights lawyer.There is Jacqui, a cleaning woman who knows more by intuition than most of us learn by analysis. Jacqui has decided to finish high school and go to college.Th

14、ese are the real reasons I teach, these people who grow and change in front of me. Being a teacher is being present at the creation, when the clay begins to breathe.A "promotion" out of teaching would give me money and power. But I have money. I get paid to do what I enjoy: reading, talkin

15、g with people, and asking question like, "What is the point of being rich?"And I have power. I have the power to nudge, to fan sparks, to suggest books, to point out a pathway. What other power matters?But teaching offers something besides money and power: it offers love.Not only the love

16、of learning and of books and ideas, but also the love that a teacher feels for that rare student who walks into a teacher's life and begins to breathe. Perhaps love is the wrong word: magic might be better.I teach because, being around people who are beginning to breathe, I occasionally find mys

17、elf catching my breath with them.精選我為何教書你為什么教書呢？當(dāng)我告訴我的朋友我不想做任何行政職務(wù)時(shí)，他向我提出了這個(gè)問題。 他感到大惑不解的是， 為什么所有的美國人受到的教育都是長大后追求金錢和權(quán)利， 而不是想要明明是通往這個(gè)目標(biāo)的一個(gè) “階梯 ”性的工作當(dāng)然， 我教書并不是應(yīng)為教書對(duì)我而言很容易。 我曾做過多種工作來賺錢謀生， 如做機(jī)修工，木工，作家，而教書是其中最難的。對(duì)我來說教書是一件令人眼睛紅腫，掌心出汗，精神沮喪的職業(yè)。 眼睛紅腫是因?yàn)闊o論我備課到多晚從未覺得胸有成竹。 掌心出汗是因?yàn)樵谧哌M(jìn)教室之前， 我總是非常緊張， 學(xué)生們肯定會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)我原來是個(gè)笨

18、蛋。 精神沮喪是因?yàn)槲乙粋€(gè)小時(shí)后我走出教室時(shí)總會(huì)覺得這節(jié)課比平常更加枯燥無味。我教書也不是因?yàn)槲艺J(rèn)為自己能夠解答問題， 或因?yàn)槲矣X得自己有非與人分享不可的知識(shí)。又使我感到驚愕不已，因?yàn)閷W(xué)生竟真的把我課堂上講的東西做了筆記。那么我為什么還要教書呢？我教書，是因?yàn)槲蚁矚g教學(xué)日歷的節(jié)奏。六月，七月，八月提供了思索，研究和寫作的機(jī)會(huì)。我教書，是因?yàn)榻虝且环N以變化為基礎(chǔ)的職業(yè)。當(dāng)教材不變時(shí)，我在變 更重要的是我的學(xué)生在變。我教書，是因?yàn)槲蚁矚g自由，我又犯錯(cuò)誤的自由，吸取教訓(xùn)的自由，激勵(lì)自己，激勵(lì)學(xué)生的自由。 作為教師， 我是自己的老板。 如果我讓一年級(jí)的學(xué)生通過自己編寫課本的方式學(xué)習(xí)寫作， 誰會(huì)干涉我

19、呢？這樣的課程也許會(huì)徹底失敗， 但我們都可以從失敗中學(xué)習(xí)到很多東西。我教書， 是因?yàn)槲蚁矚g問學(xué)生一些需要絞盡腦汁才能回答的問題。 這個(gè)世界充滿了拙劣問題的正確答案。而我在教學(xué)中，有時(shí)也會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)一些不錯(cuò)的問題。我教書，是因?yàn)槲蚁矚g找到一些是我自己和學(xué)生們走出象牙塔，步入現(xiàn)實(shí)世界的方法。我曾經(jīng)開過一門叫做 “在技術(shù)社會(huì)里如何自己更生”的課程。 我的十五個(gè)學(xué)生讀了愛默生， 梭洛和赫胥黎的作品，他們記了日記，并寫了學(xué)期論文。但我們也組建了一個(gè)公司， 借錢買了一座破舊的房子， 通過對(duì)這座房子的整修翻新， 我們實(shí)踐了自力更生的這一課題。 學(xué)期末， 我們賣掉了房子還清了貸款， 交了稅，所生的利潤大家分了。所以教書是我的生活節(jié)奏分明豐富多彩，也向我提出了挑戰(zhàn)，給了我不斷學(xué)習(xí)的機(jī)會(huì)不過，我還沒講到我教書最重要的原因呢 .其中一個(gè)原因是維基。她是我的第一個(gè)博士，是一個(gè)精力充沛的學(xué)生。他孜孜不倦地撰寫了一篇關(guān)于一個(gè)鮮為人知的十四世紀(jì)的