這是在育人而不是養花

WE ARE RISING CHILDREN, NOT FLOWERS

I recently heard a story from Stephen Glenn about a famous scientist who had made several very important medical breakthroughs. He was being interviewed by a newspaper reporter who asked him why he thought he was able to be so much more creative than the average person. What set him so far apart from others?

He responded that, in his opinion, it all came from an experience with his mother that occurred when he was about two years old. He had been trying to remove a bottle of milk from the refrigerator when he lost his grip on the slippery bottle and it fell, spilling its contents all over the kitchen floor—a veritable sea of milk!

When his mother came into the kitchen, instead of yelling at him, giving him a lecture or punishing him, she said, “Robert, what a great and wonderful mess you have made! I have rarely seen such a huge puddle of milk. Well, the damage has already been done. Would you like to get down and play in the milk for a few minutes before we clean it up?”

Indeed, he did. After a few minutes, his mother said, “You know, Robert, whenever you make a mess like this, eventually you have to clean it up and restore everything to its proper order. So, how would you like to do that? We could use a sponge, a towel or a mop. Which do you prefer?” He chose the sponge and together they cleaned up the spilled milk.

His mother then said, “You know, what we have here is a failed experiment in how to effectively carry a big milk bottle with two tiny hands. Let’s go out in the back yard and fill the bottle with water and see if you can discover a way to carry it without dropping it.” The little boy learned that if he grasped the bottle at the top near the lip with both hands, he could carry it without dropping it. What a wonderful lesson!

This renowned scientist then remarked that it was at that moment that he knew he didn’t need to be afraid to make mistakes. Instead, he learned that mistakes were just opportunities for learning something new, which is, after all, what scientific experiments are all about. Even if the experiment “doesn’t work,” we usually learn something valuable from it.

Wouldn’t it be great if all parents would respond the way Robert’s mother responded to him?

【助讀詞匯】

◇slippery adj. 光滑的

◇veritable adj. 真實的，真的

◇puddle n. 水池，水坑，地上積水

◇sponge n.海綿，海綿狀物

◇mop n. 拖把

◇renowned adj. 有名的，有聲譽的

【參考譯文】

這是在育人，而不是養花

最近我從斯蒂芬·格倫那聽來一個故事，故事的主人翁是位很有名的科學家，在醫療研究方面取得了好幾個突破。他在接受一家報紙記者采訪時，記者問為什么他的創造力比普通人強那么多。是什么讓他如此與眾不同？

他回答說，他覺得這是源于兩歲那年和母親遇到的一件小事。當時他正把牛奶瓶從冰箱里拿出來，但是瓶子太滑，他沒拿穩，就掉了，牛奶灑得廚房一地都是——簡直是牛奶的汪洋。

當他媽媽走進廚房的時候，她沒有生氣地吼他，沒有教訓他，也沒有懲罰他，而是說：“羅伯特，你看你捅了個多么棒的亂子。我沒見過這么大一灘牛奶呢。灑都灑了。你想在打掃干凈之前蹲下去好好玩一會兒嗎？”

他真的這樣做了。幾分鐘后，他媽媽說：“你知道，羅伯特，只要你把東西弄得一團糟，你就得把它清理干凈，把每樣東西都回歸到原來的地方。你打算怎樣做呢？我們可以用海綿、毛巾或拖把，你選哪個？”他選了海綿，兩人一起把灑出來的牛奶擦洗干凈。

接著他媽媽說：“這是一次如何用兩只小手拿穩牛奶瓶的失敗實驗。來，我們到后院去，把瓶子裝上水，看看你能不能想出拿穩的方法。”小男孩發現等他用兩手抓緊瓶頸的時候瓶子不會掉。多么棒的一節課！

這位著名的科學家說，就是在那一刻他知道他不用害怕自己會犯錯，而且他認識到犯錯誤是學習的機會，說到底，是科學實驗的真諦。即使實驗沒成功，我們通常也能從中學到有用的東西。

如果家長們都能作出羅伯特母親那樣的反應，那該有多好。

【人生啟迪】

為什么我們會害怕犯錯誤？因為小時候犯了錯誤的后果是一頓打罵，所以我們養成了行事謹慎的習慣。其實犯犯錯又有何妨？你不犯錯，如何知道那樣做是行不通的？如何想出正確的處理方法？我們不再犯錯，也不再觀察，真相和事實就在眼前，我們卻發現不了。結果我們中大多數人與成功絕緣，平庸一生。