Marva Collins‘Way翻译

1 Marva was a

striking

woman with high

cheekbones

and strong

angular

features, which she

inherited along with a love of jewelry from a great-grandmother who was a

Choctaw Indian. Slender though not

willowy

, Marva was immediately

discernible()

可辨别的

in a crowd——even without the visibility afforded by her height——for

she had acquired a

poise（体态，姿态）

and

sophistication（成熟，有教养的）

that

gave her appearance a

deliberate

（深思熟虑的） style.

马文是一个

引人注目的

女人,她有着高高的

颧骨

，

瘦

而强健，这都遗传自她那乔克托印

第安人血统的曾祖母。马文老师瘦削而不

软弱

，就算她没有那么高，在人群中时还是一眼

就能识别出来——因为她有着特别的镇静及教养，这些都使她有了一种

严谨的

风格。

2 Marva would rarely wear

slacks

, and she never wore loose-fitting shirts or

casually（随意的）

assembled（组合的）

bloused and skirts.

Sloppy

（肥大的）

dressing showed disrespect（无理）for oneself, for the children, and for the

profession（同行）. From the first day of class Marva was teaching that self-respect

is the most important thing a person can have. For herself and for the children

Marva dressed impeccably（无可挑剔的）, favoring cashmere sweaters, suits, and

herring-bone tweeds. Her clothing was tailored（裁制） and stylishly simple, but she

usually added an ornamental（装饰的） touch: a carved belt cinched over a sweater,

a gold medallion on a chain（链条）, an organdy boutonniere, or perhaps a lace

handkerchief fanned in pleats across a pocket and held in place by a beaded

lion’s-head brooch. In Marva’s opinion, it was important to have a unique

imprint（印记）. She felt she was different from most people and delighted in her

difference. It was an attitude often mistaken for arrogance（自大）.

马文很少穿

宽松衣服

，也决不穿宽大的直筒连衣裙或不正式的短衫及裙子。马文认为

宽大的衣服是对自己、对学生、对教师这一职业的不敬。从开学的第一天起，马文老师总

会告诉设法让孩子们懂得：自尊是一个人最可宝贵的东西。马文的着装总是无可挑剔，这

既是为了自己，也是为了学生们：她爱穿开司米羊毛衫、套装以及人字形花呢服装。她的

衣服都剪裁得很合适，时髦而简单，但她常常会加上一个装饰品：在羊毛衫上配上一条雕

有花纹的腰带，或一条有圆形浮雕的锁链，或玻璃纱襟花，抑或是一块用狮头胸针别在口

袋上的花边手巾。在马文老师看来，给人留下独特的印象是很重要的。她欣然于自己的与

众不同，但这有时也会引起一些误解，认为这是自大的表现。

3 “I am a teacher,” she said to the class on this first day. “A teacher is

someone who leads. There is no magic here. Mrs. Collins is no miracle worker. I do

not walk on water, I do not part the sea. I just love children and work harder than a

lot of people, and so will you.

4 “Some teachers sit behind a big desk, like a king in a castle, and the children

are like the poor peasants. The desk isolates them from the children. But I don’t

sit behind a big desk in front of the class. I walk up and down the rows of desks

every day and I hug each of you every day. “Have you ever been afraid to go up to

the teacher’s desk? Did you think someone would laugh at you if you made a

mistake?” Marva didn’t wait for an answer. She knew each child was following

her closely. “Tell me when I’m wrong. You must never be afraid to tell a teacher if

she is wrong. I’m not God. My mouth is no prayer（祈祷） book. We shall work

together. How many of you have been afraid to ask other teachers questions?”

Hands immediately went up.

“一些老师坐在大大的桌子后面，就像一座城堡里的国王，而学生们则像是贫困的佃

农——这桌子使老师和同学们分离开来。而我不会坐在教室前那张大大的桌子后面。我每

天都会在教室里来回走动，我每天都会拥抱你们。” “以前你们害怕走到老师的办公桌前

吗？你们是否觉得如果犯了错，有人会嘲笑你们？”马文并没有留给孩子们回答的时间，

她明白，大家此刻都在紧跟着她的思路。“如果我犯了错，请你们告诉我。如果老师错了，

你们不要不敢告诉她。我不是神，我的嘴也不是祈祷书。我们将会一起努力。你们中有多

少人原来害怕向老师提问的？”孩子们立刻举起了手。

5 “Why were you afraid to ask, Michele?” “I was afraid the teacher would

holler（抱怨）.” “Why were you afraid, Jerome?” “I was afraid I would get hit

with a ruler,” he said flatly（直截了当的）, expecting the snickers（偷笑） that came

from his classmates. “When you were afraid of a teacher, Bernette, what were

you afraid of?” “I was afraid she would make everyone laugh at me. My other

teacher used to act like she was perfect or something. She used to make me feel

dumb（哑的）.”

6 “Sometimes I don’t like other grown-ups very much because they think

they know everything. I don’t know everything.” Marva said. “I can learn all the

time.” “You have a right to your opinion. You say what you think.” Marva told

him. “Don’t care what anyone else thinks. What’s inside of you is important.”

There was excitement building and Marva worked the momentum, like an

entertainer（表演者） who felt the pulse脉搏 of an audience. “Oh, I love to see

your eyes dance, ” she said. “New children have such dull目无光彩的 eyes, but

yours are already coming alive.” 马文老师触动了孩子们兴奋的神经，她就像是一个能

够触到观众脉搏的表演者。“哦！我喜欢看你的眼睛起舞！”她说。“新一届的学生总是两眼

呆滞，但你的双眼看上去却充满了生机。”

7 “I know most of you can’t spell your name. You don’t know the alphabet,

you don’t know how to read, you don’t know homonyms or how to syllabicate. I

promise you that you will. None of you has ever failed. School may have failed you.

Well, goodbye to failure, children. Welcome to success. You will read hard books in

here and understand what you read. You will write every day so that writing

becomes second nature to you. You will memorize a poem every week so that you

can train your minds to remember things. It is useless for you to learn something

in school if you are not going to remember it. “But you must help me to help

you. If you don’t give anything, don’t expect anything. Success is not coming to

you, you must come to it.” The Children looked puzzled. They were accustomed

to warnings, threats, and rules of order on the first day of class. If nothing else,

Marva vowed发誓 she would get through to these children because she was so

determined. Or just plain简单的 stubborn顽固. She was, in fact, more

strong-willed than most, maybe even a bit too strong-willed for her own good.

Over and over her mother used to warn her, “Marva, you’ll never come to any

good ‘cause once your mind is set, there’s no telling you what to do.’”

“我知道，你们中的大多数人都不会拼写自己的名字。你们不认识字母表，不知道如

何朗读那些字母，不知道同形同音异义词或者怎样读出各个音节。但我向你们承诺，你们

将会学会这些。你们都不是失败的孩子，是学校辜负了你们。现在，让我们对失败说再见

吧，成功正在前面等着你们。你们将在这里读到难读的书籍并充分理解它们。以后你们每

天都会写字，这样它就能变成你们的一种习惯。你们每周要背诵一首诗，这样你们便能很

好地训练你们的记忆力。如果你们不设法将在学校所学的东西记住的话，一切都只是枉然。”

“但要达到这些目标，我还需要你们的帮助。没有付出，便没有收获。成功不会主动向你

们走来，你们必须主动地迎向它。”孩子们都听得一脸茫然。开学的第一天里，他们受到的

通常是警告、威胁或是规章制度的洗礼。而如今，却是马文老师坚定的誓言——抑或仅仅

是固执。事实上，她的意志比绝大多数人都要坚定——甚至也许是坚定过度了。她的母亲

一再地警告她：“马文，你总是在做出决定后便听不进别人的建议，你这样是不会有好结果

的。”

8 It was Marva Collins’ attitude that made children learn. What she did was

brainwash them into succeeding. She was forever saying “You can do it,”

convincing her students there wasn’t anything they could not do. There were no

excuses for a child’s not learning. There was no point in fixing the blame on

television, or parents, or a child’s environment. The decisive factor was the

teacher up in front of the class. If a child sensed a teacher didn’t care, then all the

textbooks and prepackaged lesson plans and audio-visual equipment and fancy,

new, carpeted, air-conditioned building facilities weren’t going to get that child

to learn.

正是马文•科林斯的态度使学生们开始了真正的学习，她总是在给学生们灌输对于成功

的渴望。她一直在说“你能做到”，使学生们相信世界上没有他们做不到的事情。一个孩子

不愿学习没有任何的理由，责怪电视、父母或是成长环境都没有丝毫意义。真正的决定性

因素在于讲台前的那个老师。如果一个孩子察觉到老师并不在意他，那么，所有的课本、

预先准备好的教案、视听设备以及昂贵的铺上地毯并装有空调的新建筑设施也不会让这个

孩子产生想要学习的欲望。

9 “Children,” she began, “today will decide whether you succeed or fail

tomorrow. I promise you, I won’t let you fail. I care about you. I love you. You can

pay people to teach, but not to care.

10 She liked to begin the school year with “Self Reliance自力更生.” Marva

believed that it was one of the most important things a student, especially a black

student, could ever learn. “Now, she said, “self-reliance means to believe in

yourself. What does self-reliance mean? To be——.” “To believe in yourself,”

echoed a few faint虚弱的 voices. “Everybody, in big outdoor voices, what does it

mean?” “To believe in yourself,” the children said, more boldly.

11 “The author of ‘Self Reliance’ was a man named Ralph Waldo Emerson,”

she continued. “Ralph Waldo Emerson was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and his

father was a minister. when Ralph was not quite eight years old, as old as some of

you, his father died. The family was so poor that Ralph and his brother had to share

the same winter coat. Yet Ralph and all of his three brothers studied hard and they

all went to Harvard College when they grew up.” She move around the room as

she spoke, patting a head of caressing爱抚的 an arm. “When he graduated, Ralph

Waldo Emerson became a teacher for a while to help pay for his brother William’s

college education, and then he became a minister. Mr. Emerson was always

questioning life, and he didn’t always agree with the church or the other

ministers. How many of you question life? How many of you wonder why things

happen the way they do?”

12 Two students immediately raised their hands. The rest watched curiously,

surprised by their classmates’ willingness to respond. “Do you mean to tell me

that only a few of you question the way things are?” Marva asked, exaggerating

夸张的 her amazement “Well, I guess most of you think life is wonderful.

Everyone always has enough to eat, a good place to live. There is no suffering, no

poverty…” Her words were muffled听不清的 by the children’s groans and

giggles轻笑. “Every time you say ‘That’s not fair’ or you wonder why

something is the way it is, you are questioning life, just as Mr. Emerson did. He

believe that every person has a free will and can choose to make his life what he

wants it to be. I believe that. I believe that you can make your life anything you

want it to be.” Mr. Emerson is telling us to trust our own thoughts, to think for

ourselves and not worry about what other people tell us to think.

两名学生立即举起了手，其他人于是好奇地看着他们，为两名同学回应老师的意愿而

感到吃惊。 “你们是想告诉我你们中仅有极少数人质疑过事物的本质吗？”马文老师发问

道，并且还夸大了自己的惊讶。“好吧，我想，在座的大多数人都认为生活是美好的。所有

人都总有足够的食物果腹并有好居所。这个世界上没有苦难，没有贫困……”她的话被孩子

们的抱怨声及咯咯的笑给掩住了。 “当然，你们不会这样想，”她缓缓地继续着。“每当你

们说‘这不公平’或思考事情为何会如此时，你们就是在叩问生活——就像爱默生先生那

样。他相信每个人都有自由的意志，并且可以选择去过自己想要的生活。我相信这一点。

我相信你们都能过上自己想要的生活。”

13 Tanya, what does Emerson tell us to do?” “Trust ourselves,” replied

Tanya. Freddie, tell me what you learned from Mr. Emerson’s essay.” Freeddie

looked attentively专心的 at Marva but didn’t answer. “You have a right to your

opinion. You say what you think.” Marva told him. “Don’t care what anyone

else thinks. What’s inside of you is important.” “I learned about self-reliance.”

Freddie whispered. “Speak in a big voice, peach. What does self-reliance mean?

Believing in——.” “Believing in yourself?” “Of course it does, but say it with

confidence so we all know you believe in what you’re saying. Let us all know how

bright you are.” Marva said, nodding. “Chris, what did you learn from Mr.

Emerson?”

14 “If you don’t think for yourself, other people will tell you what to think.”

Marva’s eyes glistened闪烁. She laughed, sweeping her arm dramatically引人注

目的 to her brow as she held herself up against the window sill, feigning a swoon

昏迷. “Oh, I just can’t stand it. You’re all so bright. You’re all so sagacious睿智

的. Sagacious means smart and wise. What does sagacious mean, children?”

“Smart and wise,” they chanted. “And who is sagacious?” “We are,” they

shouted.

马文老师突然间两眼放光：她笑了；靠着窗台，她戏剧般地抬起手扫了一下额头，佯

作晕厥。“啊，我再也忍受不了了！你们都是如此聪明，如此睿智。睿智的意思是聪明而有

智慧。孩子们，现在由你们来告诉我，睿智是什么意思？”

15 “You certainly are.” Marva put a throaty emphasis on certainly as she

walked the rows of desks ruffling hair, pinching a cheek, squeezing挤压 a shoulder.

It was a beginning. The skills would come later with the daily drills of sounds and

words over and over until Marva was tired of the litany冗长的故事. First she had to

convince the children she cared about them, convince them to trust her, and make

them believe they could do anything they wanted to do.“你们当然都是睿智的。”马

文老师用低沉洪亮的声音强调了“当然”二字。她一边说着，一边在学生们的桌椅间穿梭，

弄弄这个孩子的头发，捏捏那个孩子的脸蛋儿，或是压压另一个孩子的肩膀。这还仅仅是

个开始。日后，这间教室里还会有反复念诵单词的日常训练——直到马文老师都觉得重复

得厌烦了为止。首先，她必须让学生们确信她真的关心他们，说服他们相信她，并让孩子

们坚信他们可以做到任何他们想做的事情。