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A HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER
Mrs. Cox teaches English in a high school in San Francisco, a big city on the West Coast of the United States. She had wanted to become a teacher when she was young. She has taught eight years now and always enjoyed her work.
A school day at Mrs. Cox's high school is divided into six periods of one hour each. Mrs. Cox teaches five of these six periods. During her "free" period from 2 to 3 p.m., Mrs. Cox has to meet with parents, order supplies, make out examinations, check assignments, and take care of many other things. So Mrs. Cox works steadily from the time she arrives at school in the morning until she leaves for home late in the afternoon, and her "free" period isn't really free at all.
An English teacher usually divides her time among three subjects: language (grammar, punctuation, spelling, etc.), composition, and literature. Mrs. Cox's favourite subject is literature, and her most exciting classes are those on the literature of Black Americans. For Mrs. Cox, like most of the students in her school, is Black.
In her sixth period today, Mrs. Cox taught a poem by a well-known Black writer in the United States. She wrote the poem on the blackboard and read it aloud.
No sooner had she finished reading the poem than students' questions began pouring in. One boy said the poem was heartbreakingly sad. Another student, a girl, said she had read a book by the same writer, but she wasn't able to enjoy it as much as her mother did, and she didn't know why. A third, a keen viewer of TV theatre, recognized a phrase in the poem which had been used as the title of a recent play. As she answered the questions, Mrs. Cox made sure that her students understood every line of the poem. She asked them to discuss if the poem contained any message. The discussion became so lively that no one wanted to stop when the bell rang. Some said there was no message, some said there was, some said it really didn't matter, and the class ended at that.
As she drove home, Mrs. Cox thought about the class she had just left. Today she could feel good about what she had accomplished as a teacher. Not one of her students looked bored. Every one of them seemed interested in the poem. Once they started to talk, they forgot about the time. She did not have to make them learn; she only had to answer their questions and to guide the discussion. This, she thought to herself, is what teaching is all about!
一位中学教师
科克斯夫人在旧金山(美国西海岸大城市)的一所中学里教英语。她从小就想当一名教师。现在她已教了八年书，始终热爱自己的工作。
科克斯夫人所在的学校，一天六节课，每节课一小时，她一天教五节课。下午2点到3点是她的“空闲”时间，她在这段时间里会见家长，定购教学用品，出考试题，批改作业，还要料理许多杂事。实际上，科克斯夫人从早上一到校就不停地工作，一直到下午很晚离开学校为止，她的“空闲”时间实在一点也不空闲。
英语教师一般都分三种课程来安排时间，即语言(语法、标点、拼写等)，作文和文学。科克斯夫人特别喜爱文学课，她讲的最富有激情的课就是美国黑人文学，这是因为科克斯夫人和学校大多数学生一样是黑人。
今天第六节课，科克斯夫人讲一位美国著名黑人作家写的一首诗。她把这首诗写在黑板上，大声朗诵。
她刚朗诵完，学生们就接连不断地提开了问题。一个男生说，这首诗真令人伤心。一个女生说，她读过这位作家写的一本书，但不像她母亲那样喜欢它，不知道为什么。第三个学生是电视剧的热心观众，他记起了最近有一出剧就是用这首诗中的一句话作为剧名。科克斯夫人回答了学生的问题，力求使他们把每一行诗都弄懂。她让学生们讨论一下这首诗有无含义，讨论十分活跃，下课铃响了，大家还不愿停下来。有的学生说没有，也有的说有，还有的说有没有都无关紧要。这节课就这样结束了。
科克斯夫人在驱车回家的路上想着她刚上完的这节课。今天她完成了一个教师该完成的任务，她可以感到满意了。没有一个学生显得厌烦，每个学生都对这首诗感兴趣。他们一谈论起来，就忘记了时间。她没有向学生灌输，她只是回答学生的问题，引导讨论。这就是教学的真正目的吧，她想。
