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As all of us know, learning to read and write in a language is always a tough job and it takes a lot of time. But good teachers know how to encourage their students to learn. In the following text, the author tells us about his own experience in teaching a reading class.
我們都知道，用一種語言閱讀和寫作并非易事而且會花費很長時間。但是經驗豐富的老師知道如何鼓勵學生們學習。在接下來的這篇文章中，作者告訴了我們他教閱讀時的經驗。
Learning to Read
學會去讀書
John Holt
約翰·霍爾特
In one of my classes were many children who had had great trouble with schoolwork, particularly reading. I decided to try at all costs to rid them of their fear and dislike of books, and to get them to read oftener and more adventurously.
在我曾經任教的一個班上，許多孩子學習起來非常吃力，尤其是閱讀。因此我決定不惜任何代價消除他們對書籍的恐懼和厭惡心理，讓他們能夠多讀些書，更勇于嘗試。
One day soon after school had started, I said to them, "Now I'm going to say something about reading that you have probably never heard a teacher say before. I would like you to read a lot of books this year, but I want you to read them only for pleasure. I am not going to ask you questions to find out whether you understand the books or not. If you understand enough of a book to enjoy it and want to go on reading it, that's enough for me. Also I'm not going to ask you what words mean."
開學沒多久，有一天我對孩子們說：“我要跟你們說說讀書的事，也許還沒有哪個老師這樣對你們講過。今年我想要你們讀許多書，我想要你們只需要為尋求樂趣而讀書，我不會提問題去檢查你們讀懂了沒有。如果你讀懂了一點兒，覺得會喜歡這本書，并愿意把它讀完，這就夠了。我也不會去考你們詞語的意思。”
Finally, I said, "I don't want you to feel that just because you start a book, you have to finish it. Give an author thirty or forty pages or so to get his story going. Then if you don't like the characters and don't care what happens to them, close the book, put it away, and get another. I don't care whether the books are easy or hard, short or long, as long as you enjoy them. Furthermore, I'm putting all this in a letter to your parents, so they won't feel they have to quiz or check your reading at home."
“最后，”我繼續說道，“你們不要覺得讀一本書就得把它讀完。先讀三四十頁，看看故事情節如何發展。如果你不喜歡書中人物，或者對他們的經歷不感興趣，只管合上書，放到一邊，去讀另一本。你們讀的書是難是易、篇幅長或短，我都不在意，只要你們喜歡就行。另外，我會寫信把我的意思告訴你們的家長，好讓他們知道沒有必要在家里檢測或查問你們的讀書情況。”
The children sat stunned and silent. Was this a teacher talking? One girl, who had just come to us from a school where she had had a very hard time, and who proved to be one of the most interesting, lively, and intelligent children I have ever known, looked at me steadily for a long time after I had finished. Then, still looking at me, she said slowly and solemnly, "Mr. Holt, do you really mean that?" I said just as solemnly, "I mean every word of it."
孩子們都愣住了，坐著不出聲。這真的是老師在說話嗎？其中一個女孩，因為功課不好最近才轉學到我們學校來，后來我發現她非常有趣、活潑、聰明，在我所有的學生中都算突出的。我講完后，她盯住我看了很久。然后，她繼續看著我，緩慢而嚴肅地問：“霍爾特先生，你說的話是真的嗎？”我也同樣嚴肅地回答：“真的，一點不假。”
Apparently she decided to believe me. The first book she read was Dr. Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas, not a hard book even for most third graders. For a while she read a number of books on this level. Perhaps she was clearing up some confusion about reading that her teachers, in their hurry to get her up to "grade level," had never given her enough time to clear up.
顯然，她打算照我說的辦。她讀的第一本書是瑟斯博士寫的《格林奇偷走圣誕節》，這本書對大多數三年級的學生都不算難，更不要說這個年級的孩子了。有一陣子，她讀的都是這個難易度的書。也許她是在消除對閱讀的一些困惑，而以前她沒時間去做，因為老師總是催促她看這個年級“該看的書”。
