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As all of us know, learning to read and write in a language is always a tough job and it takes a lot of time. But good teachers know how to encourage their students to learn. In the following text, the author tells us about his own experience in teaching a reading class.
我们都知道，用一种语言阅读和写作并非易事而且会花费很长时间。但是经验丰富的老师知道如何鼓励学生们学习。在接下来的这篇文章中，作者告诉了我们他教阅读时的经验。
Learning to Read
学会去读书
John Holt
约翰·霍尔特
In one of my classes were many children who had had great trouble with schoolwork, particularly reading. I decided to try at all costs to rid them of their fear and dislike of books, and to get them to read oftener and more adventurously.
在我曾经任教的一个班上，许多孩子学习起来非常吃力，尤其是阅读。因此我决定不惜任何代价消除他们对书籍的恐惧和厌恶心理，让他们能够多读些书，更勇于尝试。
One day soon after school had started, I said to them, "Now I'm going to say something about reading that you have probably never heard a teacher say before. I would like you to read a lot of books this year, but I want you to read them only for pleasure. I am not going to ask you questions to find out whether you understand the books or not. If you understand enough of a book to enjoy it and want to go on reading it, that's enough for me. Also I'm not going to ask you what words mean."
开学没多久，有一天我对孩子们说：“我要跟你们说说读书的事，也许还没有哪个老师这样对你们讲过。今年我想要你们读许多书，我想要你们只需要为寻求乐趣而读书，我不会提问题去检查你们读懂了没有。如果你读懂了一点儿，觉得会喜欢这本书，并愿意把它读完，这就够了。我也不会去考你们词语的意思。”
Finally, I said, "I don't want you to feel that just because you start a book, you have to finish it. Give an author thirty or forty pages or so to get his story going. Then if you don't like the characters and don't care what happens to them, close the book, put it away, and get another. I don't care whether the books are easy or hard, short or long, as long as you enjoy them. Furthermore, I'm putting all this in a letter to your parents, so they won't feel they have to quiz or check your reading at home."
“最后，”我继续说道，“你们不要觉得读一本书就得把它读完。先读三四十页，看看故事情节如何发展。如果你不喜欢书中人物，或者对他们的经历不感兴趣，只管合上书，放到一边，去读另一本。你们读的书是难是易、篇幅长或短，我都不在意，只要你们喜欢就行。另外，我会写信把我的意思告诉你们的家长，好让他们知道没有必要在家里检测或查问你们的读书情况。”
The children sat stunned and silent. Was this a teacher talking? One girl, who had just come to us from a school where she had had a very hard time, and who proved to be one of the most interesting, lively, and intelligent children I have ever known, looked at me steadily for a long time after I had finished. Then, still looking at me, she said slowly and solemnly, "Mr. Holt, do you really mean that?" I said just as solemnly, "I mean every word of it."
孩子们都愣住了，坐着不出声。这真的是老师在说话吗？其中一个女孩，因为功课不好最近才转学到我们学校来，后来我发现她非常有趣、活泼、聪明，在我所有的学生中都算突出的。我讲完后，她盯住我看了很久。然后，她继续看着我，缓慢而严肃地问：“霍尔特先生，你说的话是真的吗？”我也同样严肃地回答：“真的，一点不假。”
Apparently she decided to believe me. The first book she read was Dr. Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas, not a hard book even for most third graders. For a while she read a number of books on this level. Perhaps she was clearing up some confusion about reading that her teachers, in their hurry to get her up to "grade level," had never given her enough time to clear up.
显然，她打算照我说的办。她读的第一本书是瑟斯博士写的《格林奇偷走圣诞节》，这本书对大多数三年级的学生都不算难，更不要说这个年级的孩子了。有一阵子，她读的都是这个难易度的书。也许她是在消除对阅读的一些困惑，而以前她没时间去做，因为老师总是催促她看这个年级“该看的书”。
