The Best Teacher I Ever Had

我最好的老師

Mr. Whitson taught sixth-grade science. Onthe first day of class， he gave us a lecture aboutan animal called the Cattywampus， an ill-adaptednocturnal animal that was wiped out during theIce Age， he passed around a skull as he talked.We all took notes and later had a quiz.

When he returned my paper， I was shocked.There was a big red \"x \" through each of myanswers. I had failed. There had to be somemistakes! I had written down exactly whatMr.Whitson said.

Then I realized that everyone in the classhad failed. What had happened? Very simple，Mr.Whitson explained. He had made up all thatstory about the Cattywampus. There had neverbeen any such animal. The information in ournotes was， therefore， incorrect. Did we expectcredit for incorrect answers?

Needless to say， we were outraged. Whatkind of text was this? And what kind of teacheris?

惠特森先生教六年級自然科學。第一天上課時，他給我們講了一種叫卡蒂萬波斯的動物，這種動物夜間活動，在冰河時期，因不適應自然環境而滅絕了。他邊說邊遞過一個頭顱讓我們傳看。我們做了筆記，而后進行了測試。

試卷發下來時，我震驚了，我的每個答案后面都打了一個大大的紅“x”，我沒及格。一定是弄錯了!我寫的明明都是惠特森先生講的。

后來我發現班上的同學都沒及格。怎么回事?很簡單，惠特森先生解釋說，所有這些有關卡蒂萬波斯的事都是他編造的。這種動物根本就不存在。我們筆記本上記錄的當然是錯誤的。錯誤的答案難道還想得分嗎?

不必說，我們都很憤怒。這是什么測試?什么老師呀?

We should have figured it out， Mr.Whitsonsaid. After all， at the very moment he was passingaround the Cattywampus skull (in truth， a cat's)，hadn't he been telling us that no trace of theanimal remained? He had described its amazingnight vision， the color of its fur and any numberof other facts he couldn't have known， he hadgiven the animal a ridiculous name， and we stillhadn't been suspicious. The zeroes on our paperswould be recorded in his grade bogk， he said.And they were.

Mr.Whitson said he hoped we would learnsomething from this experience. Teachers andtextbooks are not always right. In fact， no one is.He told us not to let our minds go to sleep， andto speak up if we ever thought he or the textbookwas wrong.

Every class was an adventure withMr.Whitson I can still remember some scienceperiods almost from beginning to end. One dayhe told us that his Volkswagen was a livingorganism. It took us two full days to put togethera refutation he would accept. He didn't let us offthe :hook until we had proved not only that weknew what an organism was but also that we hadthe fortitude to stand up for the truth.

We carded our brand-new skepticisminto all our classes. This caused problems forthe. other teachers， who weren't used to beingchallenged. Our history teacher would belecturing about something， and then there wouldbe clearings of the throat and someone would say\"Cattywampus\".

我們應該想到這一點，惠特森先生說，在他拿出卡蒂萬波斯的顱骨(實際上是貓的顱骨)讓我們傳看時，不是說這種動物一點兒遺跡都沒留下嗎?他描繪了它夜間驚人的視覺，皮毛的顏色，和他不可能知道的許多情況。他還給這只動物取了個可笑的名字，我們仍未察覺。他說我們測試得零分會記在記分冊上，他真的這樣做了。

惠特森先生說，他希望我們能從這件事中汲取教訓：老師和書本并不一定絕對正確。事實上，誰都不可能絕對正確。他讓我們開動腦筋，認為他或書本錯了，就大膽地說出來。

惠特森先生的每堂課都像是一次歷險，他的幾堂自然科學課我現在仍記憶猶新。一天，他對我們說，他的大眾汽車是一種有生命的生物體。我們花了整整兩天的時間，整理他認為可以接受的材料進行反駁，直到我們證明自己不僅懂得什么是生物體，還能不屈不撓地堅持真理時，他才善罷甘休。

我們持懷疑的態度走入課堂，這給其他老師帶來了許多麻煩。他們不習慣受到這樣的質疑。歷史老師講課時，下面就會有同學故意咳嗽，然后有人說：“卡帝萬波斯?！?/p>

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