IN PRAISE OF THE F WORD及翻译

IN PRAISE OF THE F WORD及翻译

In Praise of the F Word

Tens of thousands of 18-year-olds will graduate this year and be handed meaningless diplomas. These diplomas won’t look any different from those awarded their luckier classmates. Their validity will be questioned only when their employers discover that these graduates are semiliterate.

今年，成千上万的18岁学生将毕业并被授予毫无意义的文凭。这些文凭看起来毫无差别。它们的有效性只会在雇主发现持证的毕业生能力不足时才会受到质疑。

Eventually a fortunate few will find their way into educational-repair shops--adult-literacy programs, such as the one where I teach basic grammar and writing. There, high school graduates and high school dropouts pursuing graduate-equivalency certificates will learn the skills they should have learned in school. They will also discover they have been cheated by our educational system.

最终少数幸运的人会找到进修的地方——成人教育学校，例如我教基础语法和写作的地方。在这里，追求等价的毕业证书的高中毕业生和高中辍学的学生将要学习他们本应在学校已经学习的东西。他们还将发现自己被我们的教育系统欺骗了。

As I teach, I learn a lot about our schools. Early in each session I ask my students to write about an unpleasant experience they had in school. No writer’s block here! “I wish someone would have had made me stop doing drugs and made me study.”“I liked to party and no one seemed to care.”“I was a good kid and didn’t cause any trouble, so they just passed me along even though I didn’t read well and couldn’t write.” And so on.

在我教学的时候，我对我们的学校有了更深的了解。在每个学期前，我都让学生写一下他们在学校有过的一次不愉快的经历。每个学生在这个话题上都不会文思枯竭。有人说：“我希望有一个人可以使我停止吸毒，并让我好好学习。”；有人说：“我喜欢聚会，但好像没有人注意过我”；有人说：“我是一个好孩子，没有制造过任何麻烦。所以尽管学习不好，他们还是让

IN PRAISE OF THE F WORD及翻译

我通过了考试。”等等。

I am your basic do-gooder, and prior to teaching this class I blamed the poor academic skills our kids have today on drugs, porce and other impediments to concentration necessary for doing well in school. But, as I rediscover each time I walk into the classroom, before a teacher can expect students to concentrate, he has to get their attention, no matter what distractions may be at hand. There are many ways to do this, and they have much to do with teaching style. However, if style alone won’t do it, there is another way to show who holds the winning hand in the classroom. That is to reveal the trump card of failure.

我是你们的基本改良者，在上这个课之前，我把现今我们孩子在毒品，离婚上所拥有的贫乏的专业知识和其他阻碍归罪于他们为在学校表现良好所需的专注。但是，每次当我走进教室时，我都会重新发现，在一名老师期望学生能全神贯注之前，他必须先吸引学生的注意力，不管有什么样的干扰将要降临。有很多方式可以做到这一点，而它们与教学方式有很大关系。然而，如果单靠教学风格不能做到这点，还有另一种方法使你成为教室里的导引者，那就是翻出“失败”这张王牌。

I will never forget a teacher who played that card to get the attention of one of my children. Our youngest, a world-class charmer, did little to develop his intellectual talents but always got by until Mrs. Stifter became his teacher.

我永远都忘不了那位露出这张王牌来吸引我其中一个儿子注意力的老师。我最小的儿子，他后来成为了世界级魔术师，在斯蒂芙特女士成为他的老师之前，他很少在提高他的文

化知识上下功夫，但却总能通过，直到斯蒂芙特女士当了他的老师，这种局面就改变了。