历史上的名师

他们的人生积极进取，他们的学识博大精深，他们的方法流传百世，他们的指导影响深远——他们是全人类的导师。

Teachers can be some of the most important people in our lives， influencing our education， our outlook on life， and the decisions we make. They have also been some of the important figures in history， changing the course of human events and teaching students along the way. Here， well take a look at four great teachers from history， two ancient and two modern， who have offered inspiration and guidance through the years.

Confucius

Known as the Great Master， Confucius is one of the most respected teachers in history. The famous philosopher was born in the sixth century BC， into an aristocratic1 family in the state of Lu. Confucius grew up in poverty， and was constantly urged by his mother to be diligent in his studies so he could escape a poor life and raise his status in society. He heeded2 her words， working hard and rising through the ranks to become a government official.

As a learned official， Confucius traveled throughout China， espousing3 his wisdom and political opinions and looking for states that could use his services. He became highly-regarded throughout the land， but Confucius still found that the many rulers he visited were not respecting his advice. So he chose to change paths， devoting his energy to teaching instead.

Students who had heard of his great wisdom came from far and wide4 to learn from him， and Confucius founded the first private school in China. He took on5 any student eager to learn， no matter their ability to pay tuition. This school likely included instruction in Chinese ritual， history， music and poetry， but most importantly， Confucius taught the importance of respecting all people， studying diligently， and thinking deeply for oneself.

Confucius would again travel throughout China， this time with his students， spreading his philosophy. His teaching and beliefs would be further taught and spread by his own disciples， becoming the bedrock of Chinese society. Confucius and his ideas have served as inspiration for the worlds teachers and students for millennia6.

Socrates

Little is known about the specifics of Socrates life， but it is known that by his middle age， he gave up professions as a soldier and a stonemason to work full-time doing what we know him for—teaching and philosophizing in the Greek city of Athens.

It all began when Socrates friend Chaerephon went to the Oracle of Delphi7 to ask if anyone was wiser than Socrates， and the Oracle answered that Socrates was the wisest. Socrates himself believed he had no wisdom at all， and decided to test the Oracles answer by going to the men of Athens who considered themselves wisest and asking them questions. His questions made them all look foolish， and Socrates decided that the Oracle was right， that he was indeed the wisest because he was the only one who knew of his own ignorance.

Socrates practice of always asking questions and challenging authority have become a central tenet8 of modern society， as well as of modern education. Socrates gained a large following of Athenian students， many of whom would follow in his step to become great thinkers and learned men as well， such as Plato9 and Xenophon10. His method of asking his students a series of questions to lead them to their own answer to a question they are pondering has become known as the Socratic Method. His method has been used in classrooms ever since.

Unfortunately for Socrates， the authorities in Athens eventually grew tired of his pesky11 habit of asking challenging questions， and tried him for corrupting the minds of the youth and heresy12 （for questioning the existence of the gods）. They convicted13 him， and he had to drink poison hemlockas punishment. But Socrates ideas and methods still live on in schools everywhere.

Maria Montessori

Maria Montessori was a pioneer in the fight to defy educational stereotypes14， and singlehandedly developed radical new education methods.

As a girl in a small Italian town in the 1870s， Montessori excelled in elementary school and wished to continue her education， which girls were discouraged from doing at the time. But her modern-thinking mother encouraged her， and she enrolled in an all-boys technical school in Rome when she was thirteen.

This allowed Montessori to defy15 stereotypes and pursue a technical career. She went on to break further gender barriers in education by becoming the first woman in Italy to earn a medical degree. As a doctor， she worked with mentally disabled children at a psychiatric clinic and concluded that helping these children was more an issue of teaching method than medical treatment. Her interest in helping such children led her to be placed in charge of a school for“hopeless”children， where her teaching methods saw tremendous success. She stressed personal attention and utilizing what she saw as a childs natural process for learning. This process of natural teaching involved learning through all five senses and letting children find what they are interested on their own—a philosophy now known as the Montessori Method.

Montessori went on to successfully teach many more children previously thought“unteachable”， including the mentally disabled and the extremely poor. The Montessori method is employed in schools throughout the world today， and her life serves as an inspiration for countless other teachers.

Albert Einstein

It is said that when he was growing up， Albert Einstein flunked16 math. He did so poorly in school that a teacher told Einsteins father that he would never amount to anything17. But this supposedly poor student in fact went on to revolutionize the field of physics， win the Nobel Prize， and become synonymous with the word“genius”. And he would also become a much better teacher than the one he had.

Despite his struggles （or lack of interest） in school， he held a deep wonder for the world and its natural laws， and later discovered a love for theoretical math. He fell in love with geometry and its clear proofs， and mastered calculus at age 16. Einstein went on to publish his revolutionary physics papers with his theories of thermodynamics18 and relativity. These papers allowed him to take professorship positions at several universities around Europe. After receiving a few too many racist attacks on his academic work， he went on to teach students in Princeton University， becoming one of the most well-known teachers in America.

About teaching， he once said “If you cant explain it simply， you dont understand it well enough”， showing he was a truly understanding teacher that sympathized with confused students. He also gave a student those famous and very true words of advice，“Do not worry about your problems with mathematics. I assure you mine are far greater.” Perhaps Einstein learned from his own experience with bad teachers in order to become a great one.

老师可能是我们一生中最重要的人，我们的教育、人生观乃至我们的抉择，都会受到他们的影响。他们同样也是历史上的重要人物，改变着人类重大事件的发展进程，他们的教导与莘莘学子一路相伴。下面我们将看到的是历史上四名伟大的师者，其中两人来自古代，两人出自现代，多少年来他们让我们深受鼓舞，并指引我们不断前行。

孔子

孔子人称“圣人”，是史上最受尊崇的师者之一。这位著名的哲学家生于公元前6世纪鲁国的一个贵族家庭。孔子自幼在贫困中长大。他的母亲时常鞭策他勤奋学习，希望他将来不再受穷，并在社会上出人头地。他谨遵母亲教诲，孜孜求学，终于脱颖而出当上了官。

身为一名有学识的官员，孔子始终相信自己的智慧和政治主张，他周游中国各地，寻找着自己能为之效力的诸侯国。就这样，孔子受到了中原各国人民的高度赞许和敬重，可他仍然发现，许多他曾造访过的统治者并没有把他的谏言放在心上，于是他选择改变道路，全身心地从事起教书育人的事业。

对他的大智慧早有耳闻的学生们不远万里从四面八方赶来向他求学，孔子创办了中国第一所私立学校。只要好学，不管什么人，不管能不能交得起学费，都可以成为孔子的学生。这所学校传授的内容大致包括中国礼仪、历史、音乐以及诗歌，不过最重要的是，孔子教人懂得了尊重他人、勤奋学习以及深入反省自身的重要性。

后来，孔子偕同他的学生再次周游中国各地，向众人传播自己的哲学思想。在弟子们的发扬光大下，孔子的教义和信仰成为了中国社会的坚固基石。几千年来，全世界的师生无不受到孔子及其思想的鼓舞和启发。

苏格拉底

对于苏格拉底的生平细节，人们都知之甚少，不过广为人知的是，他当过兵，做过石匠，到了中年后，这些他都不干了，一门心思做起了那些让他名传千古的事情——在希腊的雅典城教书并进行哲学思考。 事情是这样开始的：苏格拉底的朋友凯勒丰请示阿波罗神谕是否有人比苏格拉底更有智慧，神谕回答说苏格拉底是最有智慧的人。苏格拉底认为自己一点智慧都没有，于是决定验证一下神谕的回答。他找到雅典城里那些自认为最有智慧的人并向他们进行了提问。苏格拉底的问题让所有人都傻了眼，于是他得出结论：神谕是正确的，他自己的确是最有智慧的人，因为他是唯一一个认识到自己无知的人。

苏格拉底最常做的事情就是不断发问并挑战权威，而这已经成为当今社会同时也是现代教育的中心原则。在雅典城，苏格拉底弟子众多，他们中有很多人后来也追随苏格拉底的脚步，成了伟大的思想家和博学之人，比如柏拉图和色诺芬。对于学生们百思不得其解的问题，他的办法是反问学生一系列问题，从而引导他们找到自己对于该问题的答案，这就是后来众所周知的“苏格拉底法”。从那以后，课堂上都纷纷采用这种方法。

不幸的是，雅典城的权贵们对苏格拉底老爱出难题这种令人生厌的做法终于忍无可忍，遂以腐化年轻人的思想和鼓吹异端邪说（即质疑神的存在）为罪名对他进行了审判。苏格拉底被判有罪，不得不服从刑罚喝下毒芹。尽管如此，他的思想和教学法在世界各地的学校里仍然得到了延续。

玛丽亚·蒙特梭利

玛丽亚·蒙特梭利是反对固有教育模式的先驱，她凭一己之力开创了彻底革新的教育方法。

19世纪70年代，在意大利的一个小镇上，身为女孩的蒙特梭利在小学里成绩出类拔萃，她希望继续自己的学业，可当时是不允许女孩这么做的。但开明的母亲却很支持她，后来她进入罗马一所男子技工学校就读，那时她13岁。

从此，蒙特梭利公然挑战固有的教育模式，走上了技术职业道路。后来，她成为意大利首位获得医学学位的女性，进一步打破了教育上的性别障碍。她在一家精神病诊所当医生的时候，接触了很多智障儿童。她最终发现，帮助这些孩子的关键不在于治疗手段，而在于教育方法。由于她有兴趣帮助这些孩子，就被安排到一所专门接收“无可救药”儿童的学校当负责人，在那儿她的教育方法大获成功。她强调给予每个孩子特别关注，并巧妙地利用她所观察到的儿童学习的自然过程。自然教学的过程包括让孩子通过五官感觉体验来学习知识，并找到他们自己感兴趣的东西——这一方法见解现在被人们称之为“蒙特梭利教学法”。

许多以前曾被认为“不可教”的学生都得到了蒙特梭利的成功施教，包括智障和成绩极差的学生。现如今世界各地的学校都纷纷采用了蒙特梭利教学法，而她的生平事迹也一直激励着无数的后来者。

阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦

据说爱因斯坦小时候数学不及格，由于在学校成绩很差，有一位老师就对爱因斯坦的父亲说他将一事无成。可事实上这位看似很差劲的学生后来却为物理学领域带来了翻天覆地的变化，不但赢得了诺贝尔奖，还被人看作是“天才”的同义词，而且还成了远比他那位老师更优秀的教师。

虽然爱因斯坦在校期间学习很吃力（或者缺乏兴趣），但对这个世界及其自然规律，他却一直深感好奇，后来又喜欢上了理论数学。他还爱上了几何学以及几何学中的定理证明，到16岁时就已经精通微积分了。再后来，爱因斯坦围绕热力学理论和相对论发表了具有开创性意义的物理学论著，凭借这些论著，他成了欧洲好几所大学的教授。在学术上受到很多种族主义者的攻讦后，他远赴美国普林斯顿大学教书，成为美国最有名的教师之一。

对于教学，他曾经说过，“如果你不能简单地把一个东西解释清楚，那是你还没有理解透彻”，这表明他的确是一个通情达理的老师，因为他能够理解和同情那些感到困惑的学生。他也为学生提出过一些名扬四海的真诚建议：“不要担心你在数学上遇到的困难，我敢保证我遇到的困难比你的要大得多。”也许正是因为他自己有过不称职的老师，爱因斯坦才以此为鉴，成了一名伟大的师者。

·单词卡片

1. aristocratic adj. （属于）贵族的

2. heed vt. 注意，留心

3. espouse vt. 信奉

4. far and wide： 到处，各处

5. take on： 接纳

6. millennia n. millennium 的复数。millennium n. 千年期，一千年

7. the Oracle of Delphi： 阿波罗神谕。

8. tenet n. 原则

9. Plato n. 柏拉图 （427-347BC，古希腊哲学家，创办学园，提出理念论和灵魂不朽说，其哲学思想对西方唯心主义哲学的发展影响很大）

10. Xenophon n. 色诺芬 （430-355BC，古希腊将领，历史学家，苏格拉底的学生）

11. pesky adj. <美口>恼人的，讨厌的

12. heresy n. 异端；异端邪说

13. convict vt. （经审讯）证明有罪，宣判有罪

14. stereotype n. 陈规，刻板模式

15. defy vt. 反抗，公然违抗

16. flunk vt. <美口> 通不过（考试等）

17. never amount to anything： 一事无成

18. thermodynamics n. 【物】热力学