谋杀机器(六)：师与徒

In the Middle Ages there were everywhere little groups of persons clustering round some beloved teacher, and thus it was that men learned not only the humanities but all gracious and useful, crafts. There were no State art schools, no State technical schools: as I have said, men became artists in the studio of some master-artist, men learned crafts in the workshop of some master-craftsman. It was always the individual inspiring, guiding, fostering other individuals, never the State usurping the place of father or fosterer, dispensing education like a universal provider of ready-mades, aiming at turning out all men and women according to regulation patterns.

在中世纪，到处都有一些小团体，围绕着他们敬爱的老师。他们不只学到了人文知识，还有所有优雅而实用的技艺。那时没有国立艺术学校，也没有国立技术学校：正如我所说，人们在某个大师的画室里成为艺术家，或在某个大师的作坊里学习技术。总是个人激励、指导、培养其他个人，而不是国家篡夺了父亲或养父的位置，像一个万能的供应商一样分发教育，试图按照规定的模式制造出所有的男人和女人。

In Ireland the older and truer conception was never lost sight of. It persisted into Christian times when a Kieran or an Enda or a Colmcille gathered his little group of foster-children (the old word was still used) around him; they were collectively his family, his household, his clann - many sweet and endearing words were used to mark the intimacy of that relationship. It seems to me that there has been nothing nobler in the. history of education than this development of the old Irish plan of fosterage under a Christian rule, when to the pagan ideals of strength and truth there were added the Christian ideals of love and humility. And this, remember, was not the education system of an aristocracy, but an education system of a people. It was more democratic than any education system in the world today. Our very divisions into primary, secondary, and university crystallize a snobbishness partly intellectual and partly social. At Clonard, Kieran, the son of a carpenter, sat in the same class as Colmcille, the son of a King. To Clonard or to Aran or to Clonmacnois went every man, rich or poor, prince or peasant, who wanted to sit at Finnian's or Enda's or Kieran's feet and to learn of his wisdom. Always it was the personality of the teacher that drew them there. And so it was all through Irish history. A great poet or a great scholar had his foster-children who lived at his house or fared with him through the country. Even long after Kinsale the Munster poets had their little groups of pupils, and the hedge schoolmasters of the Nineteenth century were the last repository of a high tradition.

在爱尔兰，古老而真实的教育观念从未被忽视。它一直延续到基督教时代，当基兰、恩达或科尔姆基勒把他的一群养子（古老的词语至今仍在被使用）聚集在他身边；他们共同组成了他的家庭、他的家人、他的氏族——有许多温馨而亲切的词语来表达这种关系的亲密。在我看来，在教育史上没有比这种在基督教规则下发展起来的古爱尔兰寄养计划更高尚的事情了，当时除了异教徒的力量和真理的理想之外，还增加了基督教的爱和谦卑的理想。这不是一个贵族阶层的教育制度，而是一个民族的教育制度。它比今天世界上任何一个教育制度都更民主。我们把教育分为小学、中学和大学，反映了一种部分是智力的，部分是社会的势利。在克洛纳德，木匠之子基兰和国王之子科尔姆基勒坐在同一间教室里。到克洛纳德或阿兰岛或克隆马克诺伊斯去的每一个人，无论富贵贫贱，王子或农夫，都是想要坐在芬尼安或恩达或基兰的脚下，向他们学习智慧。吸引他们的总是老师的个性。爱尔兰历史也是如此。一个伟大的诗人或学者总是有养子，他们住在他家里或跟随他走遍全国。甚至在金塞尔战败之后很久，芒斯特的诗人仍受到一小群学生追随。十九世纪的树篱学校的老师是这种高尚传统的最后传承者。

I dwell on the importance of the personal element in education. I would have every child not merely a unit in a school attendance, but in some intimate personal way the pupil of a teacher, or, to use more expressive words, the disciple of a master. And here I nowise contradict another position of mine: that the main object in education is to help the child to be his own true and best self. What the teacher should bring to his pupil is not a set of ready-made opinions or a stock of cut-and-dried information, but an inspiration and an example; and his main qualification should be, not such an overmastering will as shall impose itself at all hazards upon all weaker wills that come under its influence, but rather so infectious an enthusiasm as shall kindle new enthusiasm. The Montessori system, so admirable in many ways, would seem at first sight to attach insufficient importance to the function of the teacher in the schoolroom. But this is not really so. True. it would make the spontaneous efforts of the children the main motive power, as against the dominating will of the teacher which is the main motive power in the ordinary schoolroom. But the teacher must be there always to inspire, to foster. If you would realise how true this is, how important the personality of the teacher, even in a Montessori school, try to imagine a Montessori school conducted by the average teacher of your acquaintance, or try to imagine a Montessori school conducted by yourself.

我强调教育中个人因素的重要性。我希望每个孩子不仅仅是一个学校考勤的单位，而是以某种亲密的个人方式成为一个老师的学生，或者用更有表现力的词语，一个大师的弟子。在这里，我并没有与我的另一个观点相矛盾：教育的主要目的是帮助孩子成为他自己真实而最好的自我。老师不应当直接像学生灌输一套现成的观点或一堆切割好的信息，而应当给予他们启发和榜样；他的资质不应当来自强大的意志，以至于无论如何都要把自己强加给所有受其影响的较弱的意志，而是一种感染人的热情，以至于能点燃新的热情。蒙特梭利教育法在许多方面都很令人钦佩，但从表面来看似乎对教师在教室里的作用没有给予足够的重视。而那仅仅是表象。诚然，它会让孩子们自发的努力成为学习的主要动力，而不是普通教室里的教师的支配意志。但老师必须始终在那里激励、培养。如果你想意识到这是多么真实，教师的个性，即使在一个蒙特梭利式学校，也相当重要。试着想象一个由你所认识的普通教师经营的蒙特梭利式学校，或者由你自己经营的蒙特梭利式学校。