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. Lets see what the author says. Why do you teach? My frie
2、nd asked the question when I told him that I didnt 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 dont teach because teaching is easy f
3、or 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 preparing. Sweaty-palm, because
4、 Im 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 I have knowledge I feel compe
5、lled 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 because teaching is a profession
6、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, Im my own boss. If I want my freshmen to learn to write by creating
7、 their own textbook, who is to say I cant? 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 sometimes find good questions.I teach
8、 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 diaries. They wrote term papers.But we also set up a c
9、orporation, 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, and variety, and challenge, and the opportunity
10、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 sent them off to learned journals. She did it all
11、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 shed first had as my student.Another reason is George, who started as an engineering st
12、udent, 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 when she came back. I was there when she told me that
13、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.These are the real reasons I teach, these people who g
14、row 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, talking with people, and asking question like, “What is the point of
15、 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 of learning and of books and ideas, but also the love that a teacher fe
16、els for that rare student who walks into a teachers 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 myself catching my breath with them.我为何教书你为什么教书呢？当我告诉我的朋友我不想做任何行政职务时，他向我提出了这个问题
17、。他感到大惑不解的是，为什么所有的美国人受到的教育都是长大后追求金钱和权利，而不是想要明明是通往这个目标的一个“阶梯” 性的工作当然，我教书并不是应为教书对我而言很容易。我曾做过多种工作来赚钱谋生，如做机修工，木工，作家，而教书是其中最难的。对我来说教书是一件令人眼睛红肿，掌心出汗，精神沮丧的职业。眼睛红肿是因为无论我备课到多晚从未觉得胸有成竹。掌心出汗是因为在走进教室之前，我总是非常紧张，学生们肯定会发现我原来是个笨蛋。精神沮丧是因为我一个小时后我走出教室时总会觉得这节课比平常更加枯燥无味。我教书也不是因为我认为自己能够解答问题，或因为我觉得自己有非与人分享不可的知识。又使我感到惊愕不已，因
18、为学生竟真的把我课堂上讲的东西做了笔记。那么我为什么还要教书呢？我教书，是因为我喜欢教学日历的节奏。六月，七月，八月提供了思索，研究和写作的机会。我教书，是因为教书是一种以变化为基础的职业。当教材不变时，我在变-更重要的是我的学生在变。我教书，是因为我喜欢自由，我又犯错误的自由，吸取教训的自由，激励自己，激励学生的自由。作为教师，我是自己的老板。如果我让一年级的学生通过自己编写课本的方式学习写作，谁会干涉我呢？这样的课程也许会彻底失败，但我们都可以从失败中学习到很多东西。我教书，是因为我喜欢问学生一些需要绞尽脑汁才能回答的问题。这个世界充满了拙劣问题的正确答案。而我在教学中，有时也会发现一些不
19、错的问题。我教书，是因为我喜欢找到一些是我自己和学生们走出象牙塔，步入现实世界的方法。我曾经开过一门叫做“在技术社会里如何自己更生” 的课程。我的十五个学生读了爱默生，梭洛和赫胥黎的作品，他们记了日记，并写了学期论文。但我们也组建了一个公司，借钱买了一座破旧的房子，通过对这座房子的整修翻新，我们实践了自力更生的这一课题。学期末，我们卖掉了房子还清了贷款，交了税，所生的利润大家分了。所以教书是我的生活节奏分明丰富多彩，也向我提出了挑战，给了我不断学习的机会不过，我还没讲到我教书最重要的原因呢.其中一个原因是维基。她是我的第一个博士，是一个精力充沛的学生。他孜孜不倦地撰写了一篇关于一个鲜为人知的十
20、四世纪的诗人的学位论文。他还写过几篇文章，并寄给了学术刊物。她独立完成了这一切，只是偶尔从我这里得到一些启示。我亲眼看到她完成了论文，并得到她的文章已被采用。我还亲眼看到她找到工作，并获得了哈佛大学的研究学员的职位，著书论述在当我的学生时萌发的思想。另一个原因就是乔治。他本来是我的工程学学生，后来他认定自己的爱人之心胜过爱物之心，就转而学英语了。还有珍妮，他中途辍学，但是他被同学们拉了回来，因为他们想让她看看自力更生整修的旧房的结果。我请眼看到她回来了，亲耳听到她对我说，她后来对城市贫民产生了兴趣，继而成了一名维护公民权的律师。还得提一提清洁女工杰基，她凭直觉了解的事情比我们中大多数人通过分析
21、学到的东西还要多。杰基已经决定读完高中后还要上大学。这些在我眼前成长，变化的人就是我当教师的真正原因。当一名教师意味着亲眼看见泥人开始呼吸这一创造性的成果。“提升” 了，不在教书了，也许会给我带来金钱和权利。但是我有钱，我拿了工资去做我喜欢做的事情： 读书，与人交谈，提出诸如“富有的意义何在?”之类的问题。我也有权利，我有权给与启示，激发才能，有权开出书目，为人指点迷津。还有比这更重大的权利么？而教书还可也带来金钱和权利以外的东西，这就是爱。不仅是爱学习，爱读书，爱思想，而且还有老师对走人自己生活，并开始脱引而出的学生的爱。 “爱”这个字用在这里也学并不恰当， “魔力”可能更贴切些。我教书，是因为与开始获得新生的学生在一起，我有时觉得也与他们一起获得了新生。
