不知道大家看沒看過這個(gè)讓所有老師都會內(nèi)心地震的熱搜——#逐漸變成家長信任的樣子#。熱門帖子里，網(wǎng)友曬出了自己當(dāng)老師前和當(dāng)老師后的照片，差距之大，不能說完全不像，可以說是毫無關(guān)系。當(dāng)老師兩年后，學(xué)生問“老師你是不是30多歲？”被荼毒當(dāng)然不只有女老師，男老師同樣插翅難逃。當(dāng)老師前，元?dú)庑』铩?/span>愛因斯坦說：坐在心愛的姑娘身旁，1小時(shí)感覺像10分鐘，坐在炎熱的火爐旁，10分鐘感覺像過了1個(gè)小時(shí)。他沒說的是，當(dāng)老師兩年，感覺像過了20年。眼看自己逐漸變成家長信任的樣子，只能獨(dú)自在無人處緬懷自己稍縱即逝的青春。問題來了，為什么當(dāng)老師老得那么快？教師這個(gè)職業(yè)會讓人更年輕還是更衰老？牛津威廉姆斯勛爵學(xué)校的Stephen Petty 通過觀察自身經(jīng)歷發(fā)現(xiàn)，當(dāng)老師的確會使人衰老，但僅限于前幾年，等熬過這幾年，當(dāng)老師的人反而顯得更年輕。As a new teacher, Stephen Petty felt that he aged rapidly – but now he feels younger than non-teaching friends作為一名新老師，斯蒂芬·佩蒂曾覺得自己衰老得很快——但現(xiàn)在他覺得自己比不教書的朋友年輕了。“Clerks, operatives and teachers are the shortest-lived of all,” according to a report in Scientific American. 根據(jù)《科學(xué)美國人》的一份報(bào)告顯示，“文員、技工和教師是所有人中壽命最短的”。This breakingnews is, admittedly, from an 1858 edition of the magazine. It was further revealed that teachers tended to set off for the great staffroom in the sky at the ripe old age of around 30 to 35.誠然，這是一條來自該雜志1858年的突發(fā)新聞。這篇文章還進(jìn)一步透露了，老師們傾向在30到35歲左右的成熟年齡，辭去教職工作。Many teachers today might well feel a connection with those predecessors(前任). We might reflect on the stresses and strains of the past year, or on the approaching term of high-stakes marking and grading, or on the prospect of another few months of teaching in ventilated(通風(fēng)的) classrooms, with steamed-up glasses and inaudible masked children.如今許多老師也可能會與那些前輩有同樣的感受。我們可能在反思過去一年的壓力和過度勞累，或者想想即將到來的充滿高風(fēng)險(xiǎn)閱卷與評級的新學(xué)期，或者想起在通風(fēng)的教室里，戴著起霧的眼鏡，給左耳朵進(jìn)右耳朵出的戴著口罩的孩子再教幾個(gè)月的情景。However, some brighter and more recent news has also reached us from America. A report in 2019 found that teachers there now have the longest life expectancy of all public employees. According to the Society of Actuaries, female teachers now typically live to be 90 years old, while male teachers live until the age of 88. 然而，一些更有希望的、更新的消息也從美國傳到了我們這里。2019年的一份報(bào)告發(fā)現(xiàn)，目前，美國教師是所有公職人員中平均壽命最長的。根據(jù)精算師協(xié)會的數(shù)據(jù)顯示，如今的女教師通常能活到90歲，而男教師能活到88歲。Does teaching make us feel older or younger than other professions?
教學(xué)工作讓我們比其他職業(yè)老得快還是更年輕？Assuming that the life of a teacher in America has never been vastly different from that experienced in the UK, this seems to be an impressive improvement on those 1858 findings. 假設(shè)美國老師的生活與英國老師的生活從沒有巨大的差距，這個(gè)發(fā)現(xiàn)似乎對1858年那篇文章來說，似乎是驕人的改善。We are now living nearly three times longer than we did in 1858. At this rate, some teachers next century are still going to be going strong when they are well beyond 200 years old.人類現(xiàn)在的壽命幾乎是1858年的三倍。以這個(gè)比率，下個(gè)世紀(jì)的部分老師在200多歲的時(shí)候會仍然健康強(qiáng)壯。Though I am less concerned here with the question of teacher longevity. I am more interested to know if teaching generally makes us feel older or younger than we would feel in other jobs, mentally and physically. 雖然我不太關(guān)心老師的長壽問題。我更感興趣的是，教學(xué)通常讓我們感覺自己比從事其他工作的人更老還是更年輕，無論是精神上還是身體上。I can only speak from personal experience, obviously, but I feel that I aged much more quickly than my friends in other jobs in the first few years of our various careers. But after that - and I know this may sound a bit odd - I think my ageing seemed to slow down relative to theirs. By “slowed down” I don’t mean in some weird Picture of Dorian Gray way, where friends would contemplate (注視) my never-changing fresh face and flowing locks with awe and astonishment. Just in other, less visual ways. 顯然，我只能從個(gè)人經(jīng)歷說起，但我覺得，在我當(dāng)老師的最初幾年里，我比從事其他工作的朋友們衰老得多。但在那之后——我知道這聽起來可能有點(diǎn)奇怪——我覺得我的衰老速度似乎相對于我的朋友們慢了下來。我說的“放緩”并不是指以類似于奇怪的《道林·格雷的畫像》的方式，而是朋友們驚訝地注釋我永不改變的精神飽滿的面孔和飄逸的頭發(fā)。只是視覺沖擊沒有特別強(qiáng)烈。And I certainly did not feel younger than them at first. In my first couple of years of teaching, I think I aged about 10 years. I grappled (應(yīng)對困境) unsuccessfully with classroom control and time management. The challenges felt huge, the work endless. I can well understandwhy so many give up teaching at that early stage.一開始，我當(dāng)然沒覺得自己比朋友們年輕。在我教書的頭幾年，我覺得自己老了差不多10歲。我在課堂控制和時(shí)間管理方面都沒有成功。每天面對巨大的挑戰(zhàn)和無窮無盡的工作。我很能理解為什么這么多人在早期階段就辭去了教職。At that time, whenever I met up with old non-teaching friends, I sensed how much more youth, zest (強(qiáng)烈的興趣) and vitality (活力) they still seemed to retain (保持，保留). With a couple of old school friends who had also become teachers, less so. 那時(shí)候，每當(dāng)我遇到不教書的老朋友時(shí)，我都能感覺到他們似乎還保留著些許青春、熱情和活力。和幾個(gè)同樣當(dāng)老師的老同學(xué)在一起，情況就不那么糟了。But while teaching remained an ongoing (持續(xù)存在的) challenge, I do think that my subsequent acquiring of experience, confidence and a degree of expertise (專門技能) meant that my sense of ageing began to slow, while theirs began to accelerate. 但是，雖然教學(xué)仍然是一個(gè)持續(xù)的挑戰(zhàn)，但我真的覺得，我隨后獲得的經(jīng)驗(yàn)、信心和一定程度的專業(yè)既能意味著我的衰老感開始減緩，而不教書的朋友的衰老感開始加速。Though the demands of the job still remained considerable, the horizon began to brighten for me. I started to feel that the job was actually helping me to grow and flourish at last, after previously causing me to wilt (變得萎靡不振) and wither (衰弱). 盡管這份工作的要求仍然很高，但對我來說，地平線開始露出曙光。我開始覺得這份工作在之前讓我萎靡不振和衰弱之后，最終幫我獲得成長和幸福。I began to feel rejuvenated (變年輕) by all those creative, energizing and inspiring young people, and by the countless brilliant, supportive and enterprising colleagues. (Though, yes, the odd pupil and colleague has still been an ageing influence - let’s not get too carried away.) 我開始感到煥然一新，因?yàn)樯磉呌懈挥袆?chuàng)造力、充滿活力和鼓舞人心的學(xué)生，和無數(shù)才華橫溢、給予我?guī)椭透挥羞M(jìn)取心的同事。（不過，是的，奇怪的學(xué)生和同事仍然是讓人衰老的因素——讓我們不要太得意忘形。）But for all the job’s stresses and strains, I think teaching has aged me less and less rapidly as I have got older, relative to people I know in other jobs. 盡管這份工作壓力很大，我認(rèn)為相對于我認(rèn)識人來說，隨著年齡的增長，教書使我衰老的速度越來越慢。你認(rèn)同Stephen Petty的發(fā)現(xiàn)嗎？
本文來源于 本文來源于來源：《現(xiàn)代語文》2019年第6期作者：陶熠娜，論文發(fā)表時(shí)為華僑大學(xué)華文教育研究院碩士研究生。版權(quán)歸原作者所有，若侵刪。責(zé)編：吳買樂 |
