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最好的老師

責(zé)任編輯：李丁文

Mr.Whitson taught sixth-g rade science.On the first day of class,he gave us a lecture about an animal called the Cattywampus,an ill-adapted nocturnal（夜間的）animal that was wiped out during the Ice Age,he passed around a skull（頭骨）as he talked.We all took notes and later had a quiz.

When he returned my paper,I was shocked. There was a big red“X”through each of my answ ers.I had failed.There had to be some mistakes!I had written down exactly what Mr. Whitson said.

Then I realized that eve ryone in the class had failed.What had happened?Very simple,Mr. Whitson explained.He had m ade up all that story about the Cattywampus.There had never been any such animal.The information in our notes was,therefore,inco rrect.Did we expect credit for inco rrect answ ers?

Needless to say,we were outraged（激怒）. What kind of text was this?And what kind of teacher is?

We should have figured it out,Mr.Whitson said.After all,at the very moment he was passing around the Cattyw ampus skull(in truth,a cat’s),hadn’t he been telling us that no trace of theanima l remained?He had desc ribed its

惠特森先生教六年級(jí)自然科學(xué)。第一天上課時(shí)，他給我們講了一種叫卡蒂萬(wàn)波斯的動(dòng)物，這種動(dòng)物夜間活動(dòng)，在冰河時(shí)期，因不適應(yīng)自然環(huán)境而滅絕了。他邊說(shuō)邊遞過(guò)一個(gè)頭顱讓我們傳看。我們做了筆記，而后進(jìn)行了測(cè)試。

試卷發(fā)下來(lái)時(shí)，我震驚了。每個(gè)答案后面都打了一個(gè)大大的紅“X”，我沒(méi)及格。一定是弄錯(cuò)了!我寫(xiě)的明明都是惠特森先生講的。

后來(lái)我發(fā)現(xiàn)班上同學(xué)都沒(méi)及格。怎么回事?很簡(jiǎn)單，惠特森先生解釋說(shuō)，所有這些有關(guān)卡蒂萬(wàn)波斯的事都是他編造的。這種動(dòng)物根本就不存在。我們的筆記本上記錄的當(dāng)然是錯(cuò)誤的。錯(cuò)誤的答案難道還想得分嗎？

不必說(shuō)，我們都很憤怒。這是什么測(cè)試?什么老師呀？

我們應(yīng)該想到這一點(diǎn)，惠特森先生說(shuō)，畢竟，在他拿出卡蒂萬(wàn)波斯的顱骨 (實(shí)際上是貓的顱骨)讓我們傳看時(shí)，不是說(shuō)這種動(dòng)物一點(diǎn)兒遺跡都沒(méi)留下嗎？他描繪了它夜間驚人的視覺(jué)、皮毛的顏色和他不可能知道的許多情況。他還給這只動(dòng)物取了個(gè)可笑的名字，我們?nèi)晕床煊X(jué)。他說(shuō)我們測(cè)試得零分，會(huì)記在記分冊(cè)上。他真的這樣做了。

amazing night vision,the color of its fur and any number of other facts he couldn’t have known, he had given the animal a ridiculous name,and we still hadn’t been suspicious.The zeroes on our papers would be recorded in his grade book, he said.And they were.

Mr.Whitson said he hoped we would learn some thing from this experience.Teachers and textbooks are not always right.In fact,no one is.He told us not to let our minds go to sleep, and to speak up if we ever thought he orthe textbook was wrong.

Every class was anadven ture with Mr. Whitson I can still remember some science periods almost from beginning to end.One day he told us that his Volkswagen（大眾汽車(chē)，汽車(chē)的一種品牌）was a living organism.It took us two full days to put together a refutation he would accept.He didn’t let us off the hook until we had proved not only that we knew what an organism was but a lso that we had the fortitude to stand up for the truth.

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We carded our brand-new skepticism into all our classes.This caused problems for the other teachers,who weren’t used to being challenged.Our history teacher would be lecturing about some thing,and then there would be clearings of the throat and someone would say “Cattywampus”.

If I’m ever asked to propose a solution to the crisis in our schools,it will be Mr.Whitson. I haven’t made any great scientific discoveries, but Mr.Whitson’s class gave me and my classmates something just as important：the courage to look people in the eye and tell them they are wrong.He also showed us that you can have fun doing it.

惠特森先生說(shuō)，他希望我們能從這件事中汲取教訓(xùn)：老師和書(shū)本并不一定絕對(duì)正確。事實(shí)上，誰(shuí)都不可能絕對(duì)正確。他讓我們開(kāi)動(dòng)腦筋，認(rèn)為他或書(shū)本錯(cuò)了，就大膽地說(shuō)出來(lái)。

惠特森先生的每堂課都像是一次歷險(xiǎn)，他的幾堂自然科學(xué)課我現(xiàn)在仍記憶猶新。一天，他對(duì)我們說(shuō)，他的大眾汽車(chē)是一種有生命的生物體。我們花了整整兩天的時(shí)間，整理他認(rèn)為可以接受的材料來(lái)進(jìn)行反駁，直到我們證明自己不僅懂得什么是生物體，還能不屈不撓地堅(jiān)持真理時(shí)，他才善罷甘休。

我們持懷疑的態(tài)度走入課堂，這給其他老師帶來(lái)了許多麻煩。他們不習(xí)慣受到這樣的質(zhì)疑。歷史老師講課時(shí)，下面就會(huì)有同學(xué)故意咳嗽，然后有人說(shuō)：“卡蒂萬(wàn)波斯。”

如果有人問(wèn)我如何解決學(xué)校面臨的危機(jī)時(shí)，那就是惠特森先生的教學(xué)方法。我沒(méi)有任何偉大的科學(xué)發(fā)現(xiàn)，但是惠特森先生的課給我和同學(xué)們一個(gè)重要的啟示：我們要正視別人的眼睛，勇敢地告訴他們，他們錯(cuò)了。他也同樣指出我們的不足，這會(huì)獲得無(wú)窮的樂(lè)趣。

（Wendy編譯）

The Best Teacher I Ever Had