Learning to Read
John Holt
close1RT 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 (冒险地).
学会去读书
约翰·霍尔特
在我曾经任教的一个班上有许多孩子学习起来非常吃力，尤其是阅读。因此我决定不惜任何代价消除他们对书籍的恐惧和厌恶心理，让他们能够多读些书，更勇于尝试。close
2RT 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."
开学没多久，我对孩子们说："我要跟你们说说读书的事，也许还没有哪个老师这样对你们讲过。今年我想要你们读许多书，你们只需要为寻求乐趣而读书，我不会去检查你们读懂了没有。如果你读了一点儿，觉得会喜欢这本书，并愿意把它读完，这就够了。我不会去考你们词语的意思。"close
3RT "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，"我继续说道，"你们不要觉得读一本书就得把它读完。先读三四十页，看看故事情节如何发展。如果你不喜欢书中人物，或者对他们的经历不感兴趣，只管合上书，放到一边，去读另一本。你们读的书是难还是容易、篇幅长还是篇幅短，我都不在意，只要你们喜欢就行。另外，我会写信把我的意思告诉你们的家长，好让他们知道没有必要在家里查问或检查你们的读书情况。"close
4RT The children sat stunned (使震惊) 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."
孩子们都愣住了，坐着不出声。这真的是老师在说话吗？其中一个女孩，因为功课不好最近才转学到我们学校来，后来我发现她非常有趣、活泼、聪明，在我所有的学生中都算突出的。我讲完后，她盯住我看了很久。然后，她继续看着我，缓慢而严肃地问："霍尔特先生，你说的话是真的吗？"我也同样严肃地回答："真的，一点不假。"close
5RT 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. After she had been in the class six
weeks or so and we had become good friends, I very tentatively (试探
性地) suggested that, since she was a skillful rider and loved horses,
she might like to read National Velvet. I made my sell as soft as
possible, saying only that it was about a girl who loved and rode horses,
and that if she didn't like it, she could put it back. She tried it, and
though she must have found it quite a bit harder than what she had
been reading, finished it and liked it very much.
显然，她打算照我说的办。她读的第一本书是索伊斯博士写的《格林奇偷走圣诞节》，这本书对大多数三年级的学生都不算难，更不要说这个年级的孩子了。有一阵子，她读的书都在这个难易度上。也许她是在消除对阅读的一些困惑，而以前她没时间去做，因为老师总是催促她看这个年级"该看的书"。她在这个班上学习了六七个星期后，我们成了好朋友。我试探地向她建议：既然她喜欢马，而且骑马的水平还不错，她可以读一读《侠女神驹》。我尽可能委婉地提出这个建议。我只告诉她那是一本关于一个热爱马并常常骑马的女孩的故事；如果她不喜欢读，她可以放回书架。她去读了，也许她觉得这本书比她先前读的书要难点，但是她读完了，而且挺喜欢。close
6RT During the spring semester, she really astonished me, however.
One day, in one of our many free periods, she was reading at her desk.
From a glimpse of the illustrations I thought I knew what the book was.
I said to myself, "It can't be," and went to take a closer look. Sure
enough, she was reading Moby Dick, in the edition with woodcuts (木
刻) by Rockwell Kent. When I came close to her desk, she looked up. I
said, "Are you really reading that?" She said she was. I said, "Do you
like it?" She said, "Oh, yes, it's neat!" I said, "Don't you find parts of it
rather heavy going?" She answered, "Oh, sure, but I just skip (略过，
跳过) over those parts and go on to the next good part."
春季的那一学期，她的表现可真的让我吃惊了。一天，在我们的自习课上我看到她坐在课桌前看书。我瞥了一眼书中的插图我就知道这是一本什么书了。但是我不相信我的眼睛："不可能吧。"我走过去仔细一看，果然她在读《白鲸》，那版本配有罗克威尔·肯特的木刻画。我走近她的时候，她抬起头来。我问她："你真的在看这本书吗？"她说，是的。我又问："你喜欢这本书吗？""嗯，是的。这本书很好。"她答道。"你不觉得有些地方很难吗？"我又问道。"有啊，不过，看不懂就跳过去，挑有意思的地方看。"她这样回答。close
7RT This is exactly what reading should be, but in school, reading is
not always an exciting, joyous (充满欢乐的) adventure. Find something,
dive into it, take the good parts, skip the bad parts, get what you can
out of it, go on to something else. Why should we insist that every child
should read the same book and get the same scrap(碎屑)of
"understanding" out of it?
真正的阅读就该如此。但是上学时，阅读不见得总是有趣或让人喜欢。拿上一本书，钻进去，读有趣的部分，跳过不好的部分，尽可能从书中得到点收获，然后再去读其他书。为什么非要让每个孩子读一样的书，作出同样的"理解"呢?close
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