Unit-11-On-Becoming-a-Better-Student课文翻译综合教程三名师制作优质教学资料

Unit 11

On Becoming a Better Student

(abridged)

Donna Farhi Schuster

1 As students we expect a great deal from our teachers. We expect them to be

enthusiastic. We expect them reliable. We may even have expectations that they be

endless repositories of skill and knowledge from which we may partake at will.

2 As a teacher I have come to feel weighted by these expectations and have begun to

see that it is really not possible to teach. All the words and theories and techniques are of

no use to students who have yet to open themselves with receptivity and to take it upon

themselves to practice. So in a sense I have given up trying to “teach,” for I’ve come to believe that the greatest thing I can offer my students is to help them learn how to find

themselves through their own investigation.

3 Many factors come together to make a fine student. Find someone you think is

extraordinary, and you will find many, if not all, of the following qualities. People who

learn a great deal in what seems like a very short time embody these qualities.

4Curiosity Such people are tremendously curious. The whole world is of interest to

them, and they observe what others do not. Nobel Prize-winner physician Albert-Gyorgyi

put it well when he s aid, “Discovery consists of looking at the same thing as everyone else

and thinking something different.” With this curiosity comes an “investigative spirit”; learning is not so much the acquisition of information as it is an investigation—a

questioning, a turning over of the object of study to see all sides and facets. It is not

knowing in the sense of having a rigid opinion, but the ability to look again at another

time, in a different light, as Gyorgyi suggests, and to form a new understanding based on

that observation.

5Discipline Any discipline — but especially those with great subtlety and complexity,

can be a lifelong pursuit. Persistence, consistency, and discipline

like yoga or t’ai chi —

are required. Without these, our learning is but forth without substance. There are no

shortcuts. The fruit of these seemingly dry qualities (which we prefer to admire in others)

is the satisfaction of having tasted the fullness of completion, or the thrill of meeting a

difficult challenge with success. Perhaps, though, our culture is in need of redefining what

it means to study. If we can look at our chosen discipline or craft as an ongoing process

rather than as a discrete accomplishment, the potential for learning can be infinite. With

this attitude we may find ourselves treating even the most mundane discovery with