Two Small Birds

《兩只小鳥》

In 1973, Thomas, a schoolboy in California of the U. S, caught a small bird during an intervalbetween classes and mischievously hid it in the classroom. He didn't mean playing tricks. Hewas only interested in a bird's chirping and wanted to know its life and habits. The teacher wasgiving a language lesson when he heard the bird's chirping. He couldn't help frowning on it. However, he didn't blame the child. He only said in a solemn way that he would like to say aword about birds' habits. Birds like flying freely and hate being confined. It's in the nature thatthey find their warm nest. Then he went on with his lesson. Thomas felt he was flattered by theteacher's attention and immediately took action to send the bird back to the nature when theclass was over.

1973年，美國加利福尼亞州某小學某班級，一個調皮的小男孩托馬斯在課間休息時逮了一只鳥兒握在手心里。他并非惡作劇，只是對鳥兒的啁啾聲和生活習慣充滿了興趣。語言老師上課了，但小鳥的鳴叫突然響起，語言老師直皺眉，但他并沒有責怪小托馬斯，而是鄭重地告訴大家：我想講一下鳥兒的生活習性問題，鳥兒不喜歡被圈養著，它們喜歡自由飛翔，大自然才是它們的暖巢，下面，繼續上課。小男孩托馬斯受寵若驚，下課后將那只鳥兒放回了大自然。

Almost at the same time a small boy at a certain school of a certain city in China did the samething as his American counterpart. He held the small bird in hand, very interested in itschirping, which greatly interfered with the class that was going on. The teacher giving a lessonof Chinese language and literature was enraged. He relentlessly dragged the boy up from hisseat, robbed him of the bird and set it free through the window. He blamed the boy andordered him to copy an ancient poem 100 times as a sort of punishment.

同一時間，不同地點，中國某城市的某所學校，一名小男孩也將一只不知名的小鳥握在手心里，他也對它的叫聲充滿了興趣。小鳥不知疲倦地在課堂上發出了怪聲，惹得大家的目光鎖定在他的身上，語文老師怒氣沖沖，顯然他覺得這妨礙了自己的課堂紀律與教學質量。他走過去，毫不客氣地將小男孩拽了起來，將小鳥從他的手心里搶了過來，打開窗戶放飛了小鳥。小男孩受了批評，他不得不抄寫近一百遍的某首古詩。

In 2010 on the platform of a certain university in California an ornithologist was telling a storyabout his childhood. He said he was very grateful to his language teacher whose kindnesshelped him to keep up his interest in birds. Interest was an important factor to beginsubsequent development. What we needed was to follow our interest, not to change it.

2010年，美國加利福尼亞州某大學的演講臺上，一位鳥類老師在生動地講他小時候的故事：他說十分感謝當初老師的仁慈，沒有扼殺他對鳥兒的憧憬和興趣，興趣是決定人初始開發的一個重要因素，我們需要沿著興趣走而不是改變它。

Meanwhile on the platform of a certain university in China a doctor specialized in Chineselanguage and literature made a speech about his childhood. He said it was his language teacherthat prevented him from going astray. Thus he was able to pursue his studies that resulted inhis becoming an excellent doctorate scholar of Chinese language and literature.

同樣的時間，在中國某大學的講臺上，一位中文博士也在講他小時候的故事，他說道：語文老師將自己引入了正途，他現在已經成為一位優秀的語文博士。

Both of them were outstanding talents, though there might be something regretful. Atraditional ideology is quite different from a habit of creating something new. This differencedecides two little boys', even two nations' different interest and orientation. The differenttreatment of birds in their childhood points to two different education thoughts in the presenttime. That, in turn, creates two types of people in the world.

他們同樣都是優秀的人才，只是有些遺憾罷了，傳統意識與創新習慣的不同，改變了一個人甚至一個民族的興趣和方向。童年有兩只鳥，現實中有兩種教育，世上有兩種人。