Unit3 Three:Why I Teach我为什么当老师Why I TeachPeter G. BeidlerWhy do you teach? My 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. 你为什么要教书呢？当我告诉一位朋友我不想谋求行政职务时，他便向我提出这一问题。
所有美国人受的教育是长大成人后应该追求金钱和权力，而我却偏偏不选择明明是朝这个目标“迈进”的工作，他们对此感到迷惑不解。
Certainly I don't teach because 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 preparing. 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. 当然，我之所以教书并不是因为我觉得教书轻松。
我做过各种各样的工作借以谋生：机修工、木工、作家，教书可是其中最难的一行。
对我来说，教书是个会令人熬红眼睛、掌心出汗、精神沮丧的职业。
说熬红眼睛,这是因为我晚上不管备课到多晚,总觉得准备得还不充分。
说掌心出汗，是因为我跨进教室之前总是非常紧张，自信学生一定会发觉我其实是个傻瓜笨蛋。
说精神沮丧，这是因为我1小时后走出教室时，确信这堂课上得比平常还要平淡无味。
Nor do I teach because I think I know answers, or because I have knowledge I feel compelled to share. Sometimes I am amazed that my students actually take notes on what I say in class! 我之所以教书，也不是因为我认为自己能够解答问题，或者因为我有满腹学问，非与别人分享不可。
有时我感到很吃惊，学生竟真的把我课上讲的东西做了笔记！Why, then, do I teach? 这样说来，我为什么还要教书呢？I teach because I like the pace of the academic calendar. June, July, and August offer an opportunity for reflection, research and writing. 我教书，是因为我喜爱校历的步调。
6月、7月和8月提供了一个供思考、研究和创作的机会。
I teach because teaching is a profession built on change. When the material is the same, I change ——and, more important, my students change. 我教书，是因为教学是建立在“变化”这一基础上的职业。
教材还是原来的教材，但我自身却变了——更重要的是，我的学生变了。
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 freshmen to learn to write by creating their own textbook, who is to say I can't? Such courses may be huge failures, but we canall learn from failures. 我教书，是因为我喜欢有让自己犯错误的自由，有自己吸取教训的自由，有激励自己和激励学生的自由。
作为教师，我可以自行做主。
如果我想要求一年级的学生通过自行编写课本的办法来学习写作，谁能说我不可以那样做呢？这样的课程也许会彻底失败，但我们都可以从失败的尝试中获得教益。
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. 我教书，是因为我喜欢学生提出必须绞尽脑汁才能回答的问题。
我们这个世界有无穷无尽的正确答案来对付拙劣的问题。
何况我在教学过程有时也会想到一些出色的问题。
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 diaries. They wrote term papers. 我教书，是因为我喜欢想方设法使自己和我的学生从象牙塔里走出来，进入现实世界。
我曾经开过一门叫做“在工业技术社会里如何自力更生”的课程。
我教的15位学生读了爱默生、梭罗和赫胥黎的作品，记了日记，还写了学期论文。
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. 但除此之外，我们还办起一个公司，借钱买下一所破旧的房屋，通过整修翻新这一建筑物，我们就自力更生对这一课题进行了一次实践活动。
学期结束时我们把房子卖掉，还清贷款，缴了税，余下的收益分给了参加实践的学生。
So teaching gives me pace, and variety, and challenge, and the opportunity to keep on learning.I have left out, however, the most important reasons why I teach. 所以说，教学使我的工作进程有了规律，使我的生活变得丰富多彩，教学向我提出了挑战，也给了我不断学习的机会。
不过，我漏下了我要教书的最重要的几个原因。
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 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. 其中一个原因与维基有关。
维基是我的第一个博士生。
她精力旺盛，孜孜不倦地撰写她那篇论述14世纪一位不知名诗人的学术论文。
她写了一些文章寄给学术刊物。
这一切都由她独立完成，我偶尔从旁略加指点。
我亲眼看到了她完成论文，看到她得知自己的文章被采用，亲眼目睹她找到了工作并获得了在哈佛大学当研究员的职位，并著书论述她在做我学生时萌发的思想。
Another reason is George, who started as an engineering student, then switched to English because he decided he liked people better than things. 再一个原因与乔治有关。
他开始学的是工程学，后来他深信自己爱人胜过爱物，所以改学英语。