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Every teacher probably asks himself time and again: What are theeasons for
choosing teaching as a career? 也許每位教師都壹再問過自己：為什麽選擇教書作為自己的職業?
Do the rewards teaching outweigh the trying comments? Answering these
questions is not a simple task. Let's see what the author says.
教書得到的回報是否使老師的煩惱顯得不值得多談?回答這些問題並非易事。讓我們看看本文的作者說了些什麽。
Why I Teach 我為什麽當教師
Peter G. Beidler
Why do you teach? My friend asked the question when I told him that I
didn't want to be considered for an administrative position. 妳為什麽要教書呢?
當我告訴壹位朋友我不想謀求行政職務時，他便向我提出這壹問題。
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.
所有美國人受的教育是長大成人後應該追求金錢和權力，而我卻偏偏不要明明是朝這個目標“邁進”的工作，他為之大惑不解。
Certainly I don't teach because teaching is easy for me.
當然，我之所以教書不是因為我覺得教書輕松。
Teaching is the most difficult of the various ways I have attempted to earn
my living: mechanic, carpenter, writer. 我做過各種各樣的工作，籍ring than usual.
說精神沮喪，這是因為我1小時後走出教室時，確信這堂課上得比平常還要平淡無味。
Nor do I teach because I think I know answers, or because I have knowledge
I feel compelled to share. 我之所以教書，也不是因為我認為自己能夠解答問題，或者因為我有滿腹學問，覺得非與別人分享不可。
Sometimes I am amazed that my students actually take notes on what I say in
class! 有時我感到很驚異，學生竟真的把我課上講的東西做了筆記!
Why, then, do I teach? 這樣說來，我為什麽還要教書呢?
I teach because I like the pace of the academic calendar. June, July, and
August offer an opportunity for reflection, research and writing.
我教書，是因為我喜愛校歷的步調。6月、7月和8月提供了壹個供思考、研究和創作的機會。
I teach because teaching is a profession built on change. When the material
is the same, I change —— and, more important, my students change.
我教書，是因為教學是建立在“變化”這壹基礎上的職業。教材還是原來的教材，但我自身卻變化了--更重要的是，我的學生變化了。
I teach because I like the freedom to make my own mistakes, to learn my own
lessons, to stimulate myself and my students.
我教書，是因為我喜歡有讓自己犯錯誤的自由，有讓自己吸取教訓的自由，有激勵自己和激勵學生的自由。
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?
作為教師，我可以自行做主。如果我想要求壹年級學生通過自行編寫課本的辦法來學習寫作，誰能說我不可以那樣做呢?
Such courses may be huge failures, but we can all learn from failures.
這樣的課程也許會徹底失敗，但我們都可以從失敗的嘗試中獲得教益。 I teach because I like to ask questions that
students must struggle to answer. 我教書，是因為我喜歡向學生提出必須絞盡腦汁才能回答的問題。
The world is full of right answers to bad questions. While teaching, I
sometimes find good questions.
我們這個世界有無窮無盡的正確答案來對付拙劣的問題。何況我在教學過程中有時也會想到壹些出色的問題。
I teach because I enjoy finding ways of getting myself and my students out
of the ivory tower and into the real world.
我教書，是因為我喜歡想方設法使自己和我的學生從象牙塔裏走出來，步入現實世界。 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.
我曾經開過壹門叫做“在工業技術社會裏如何自力更生”的課程。我教的15位學生讀了愛默生、梭洛和赫胥黎的作品，記了日記，還寫了學期論文。
But we also set up a corporation, borrowed money, purchased a run-down
house and practiced self-reliance by renovating it.
但除此而外，我們還辦起壹個公司，借錢買下壹所破舊的房屋，通過對這壹建築物的整修翻新，我們就自力更生這壹課題進行了壹次實踐活動。 At the end of
the semester, we sold the house, repaid our loan, paid our taxes, and
distributed the profits among the group. 在期末我們把房子賣掉，還清貸款，繳了稅，余下的收益分給了參加實踐的學生。 So
teaching gives me pace, and variety, and challenge, and the opportunity to keep
on learning. 所以說，教學使我的工作進程有了規律，使我的生活變得豐富多彩，教學向我提出了挑戰，也給了我不斷學習的機會。I have left
out, however, the most important reasons why I teach.
不過，我要教書的最重要的幾個原因還沒有講到呢。
One is Vicky. My first doctoral student, Vicky was an energetic student who
labored at her dissertation on a little-known 14th century poet.
其中壹個原因與維基有關。維基是我的第壹個博士生。她精力充沛，孜孜不倦地撰寫她那篇論述14世紀壹位不知名詩人的學位論文。 She wrote articles
and sent them off to learned journals. She did it all herself, with an
occasional nudge from me. 她寫過壹些文章，寄給了學術刊物。這壹切都由她獨立完成，我偶爾從旁略加指點。
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.
我親眼看到了她完成論文，看到了她得悉自己的文章被采用，親眼目睹她找到了工作並獲得了在哈佛大學當研究員的職位，著書論述她在做我學生時萌發的思想。
Another reason is George, who started as an engineering student, then
switched to English because he decided he liked people better than things.
另壹個原因與喬治有關。他開始學的是工程學，後來他深信自己愛人勝過愛物，所以改學英語。
There is Jeanne, who left college, but was brought back by her classmates
because they wanted her to see the end of the self-reliance house project.
還有珍妮。她中途輟學，但是她的同學把她拉了回來。因為他們想讓她看到自力更生整修舊房子這壹項目的結果。 I was there when she came
back. I was there when she told me that she later became interested in the urban
poor and went on to become a civil rights lawyer.
我親眼看到她回來了。我親耳聽到她對我說，她後來對城市貧民產生了興趣，繼而成了捍衛公民權的律師。
There is Jacqui, a cleaning woman who knows more by intuition than most of
us learn by analysis. 還要提壹提清潔女工傑基。她憑直覺了解的事情比我們多數人通過分析弄清的東西還要多。
Jacqui has decided to finish high school and go to college.
傑基已經決定讀完中學，然後還要上大學。
These are the real reasons I teach, these people who grow and change in
front of me. 這些在我眼前成長、變化的人，便是我要當教師的真正原因。
Being a teacher is being present at the creation, when the clay begins to
breathe. 當壹名教師意味著是創造的見證人，他目睹人體開始呼吸，開始了生命。
A "promotion" out of teaching would give me money and power. But I have
money. “升職了”，不再教書了，也許會給我帶來金錢和權力。 I get paid to do what I enjoy: reading, talking
with people, and asking question like, "What is the point of being rich?"
可是我現在也有錢。我拿了薪金去做自己樂意做的事：讀書、交談、提問，比如問：“做個富翁有什麽意思呢?”And I have power. I have the
power to nudge, to fan sparks, to suggest books, to point out a pathway. What
other power matters? 我現在還有權呢。我有權啟迪，有權激發才智，有權開出書目，有權指點迷津。還有其他什麽權力更值得考慮呢?
But teaching offers something besides money and power: it offers love.
但教書還會帶來金錢和權力以外的東西：那便是愛。
Not only the love of learning and of books and ideas, but also the love
that a teacher feels for that rare student who walks into a teacher's life and
begins to breathe. 不僅是愛學習、愛書本、愛思想，而且還有老師對出類拔萃的學生的愛。這樣的學生走進了老師的生活，老師自己也開始成長了。
Perhaps love is the wrong word: magic might be better.
“愛”這個字也許用得不恰當：用“魔力”可能更為貼切。
I teach because, being around people who are beginning to breathe, I
occasionally find myself catching my breath with them.
我教書，是因為在與開始成長的學生朝夕相處時，我有時感到自己也和他們壹起開始成長了。
And I have power. I have the power to nudge, to fan sparks, to suggest
books, to point out a pathway. What other power matters?
我現在還有權呢。我有權啟迪，有權激發才智，有權開出書目，有權指點迷津。還有其他什麽權力更值得考慮呢? But teaching offers something
besides money and power: it offers love. 但教書還會帶來金錢和權力以外的東西：那便是愛。Not only the
love of learning and of books and ideas, but also the love that a teacher feels
for that rare student who walks into a teacher's life and begins to breathe.
不僅是愛學習、愛書本、愛思想，而且還有老師對出類拔萃的學生的愛。這樣的學生走進了老師的生活，老師自己也開始成長了。Perhaps love is the
wrong word: magic might be better. “愛”這個字也許用得不恰當：用“魔力”可能更為貼切。I teach because,
being around people who are beginning to breathe, I occasionally find myself
catching my breath with them. 我教書，是因為在與開始成長的學生朝夕相處時，我有時感到自己也和他們壹起開始成長了。
希望對妳有用！