托福口语素材：On education of Character

托福考试口语素材：On education of Character

　　Some people believe that one’s personality changes as they grow older while others believe that one’s personality remains the same over the time. What is your opinion and why?

　　On education of Character论性格的教育

　　When it is sought to produce a certain kind of behavior in a child or animal, there are two different techniques which may be followed. We may, on the one hand, by means of rewards and punishmentscause the child or animal to perform or abstain from certain precise acts; or we may, on the other hand,seek to produce in the child or animal such emotions as will lead, on the whole, to acts of the kind desired.

　　如果想在儿童或动物身上产生某种行为，可以有两种不同的方法。一方面，我们可以用奖罚的方法来使儿童或动物执行或回避某种明确的行为;另外一方面，我们也可以努力在儿童或动物身上产生能够在整体上导向被期望行为的感情。

　　By a suitable distribution of rewards and punishments, it is possible to control a very large part of overt behavior. By this method boys who are naturally timid can acquire physical courage, and children who are sensitive to pain can be taught a stoical endurance. Good manners, if not imposed earlier, can be learnt in adolescence by means of no worse punishment than the contemptuous lifting of an eyebrow. What is called ‘good form’ is acquired by almost all who are exposed to it, merely from fear of the bad opinion incurred by infringing it. Those who have been taught from an early age to fear the displeasure of their group as the worst of misfortunes will die on the battlefield, in a war of which they understand nothing, rather than suffer the contempt of fools.

　　通过对奖励和惩罚的适当分配，大量外在的行为是可以被控制的。通过这种方法，生来胆小的男孩能够养成生理上的勇气，对疼痛敏感的孩子可以变得能仍受疼痛。好的举止如果在孩童时期没有灌输进去，青春期仍可以学到，而且只需轻蔑的一抬眉毛这样并不严重的惩罚手段。所谓‘好样的’行为，几乎每个耳濡目染的人都可以养成，因为他害怕违反它招来非议。 那些从小就被教导要把圈内的不悦视为最大不幸的人们，即使面对的是他们一点都不理解的战争，也宁愿战死沙场，而不愿受愚人的白眼。

　　As a social force, the behaviorist method of ‘conditioning’ is therefore very powerful and very successful. It can and does cause men to act in ways quite different from those in which they would otherwise have acted, and it is capable of producing an impressive uniformity of overt behavior. Nevertheless, it has its limitations. (之前全部是让步，这里Nevertheless 后面才开始进入文章要探讨的核心)

　　因此，作为一种社会力量，行为主义的‘条件作用’的方法是非常有力，非常成功的。它能够而且确实使人们的行为方式大不同于那些未经此法教育的人们的行为方式，它所能带来的外在行为的一致性也确实令人惊叹。不过，它也有它的局限。

　　It was through Freud that these limitations first became known in a scientific manner, though men of psychological insight had long ago perceived them in an intuitive way. For our purposes, the essential discovery of psycho-analysis is this: that an impulse which is prevented, by behaviorist methods, form finding overt expression in action, does not necessarily die, but is driven underground, and finds some new outlet which has not been inhibited by training. Often the new outlet will be more harmful than the one that has been prevented, and in any case the deflection involves emotional disturbance and unprofitable expenditure of energy. It is therefore necessary to pay more attention to emotion, as opposed to overt behavior, than is done by those who advocate conditioning as alone sufficient in the training of character. (文章主旨在这里：需要对情感给予更多的关注)

　　通过弗洛伊德，人们破天荒地可以用科学的态度来认识这些局限了，虽然它们在很久以前就被心理学家的直觉所洞察到了。就我们的目的而论，心理分析的发现的要点是：被行为主义的方法阻止而无法获得公开表现的冲动，并不一定会死去，而是转入了下意识，并会找到未在奖罚中受到禁止的新的发泄渠道。通常新的渠道比被堵住的渠道更加有害，而且总会带来情绪上的紊乱和精力上的浪费。因此，有必要对与外在行为相对的情感因素予以更多的关注，那些主张条件作用对培养性格就足够的人们在这方面是做的不够的。

　　There are, moreover, some undesirable habits in regard to which the method of rewards and punishments fails completely, even form its own point of view. (进一步论述，仅仅使用赏罚的手段去培养习惯是失败的)One of these is bed-wetting. When this persists beyond the age at which it usually stops, punishment only makes it more obstinate. Although this fact has long been known to psychologists, it is still unknown to most schoolmasters, who for years on end punish boys having this habit, without ever noticing that the punishment does not produce reform. The cause of the habit, in older boys, is usually some deep-seated unconscious psychological disturbance, which must be brought to the surface before a cure can be effected.

　　另外，奖罚法用来对付有些不好的习惯时是完全失败的，甚至从奖罚法自身的观点看也是如此。尿床就是这样一个习惯。如果孩子过了通常应该不再尿床的年龄仍在尿床，惩罚只会使尿床更难治愈。虽然心理学家早就知道了这个事实，它仍不为多数教师所知，他们年复一年地惩罚那些尿床的孩子，却从未注意到这并不起作用。在较为年长的孩子中，这一习惯常常是由深层的无意识的心理紊乱所引起的，只有认清这一点，治疗才会有效。

　　The same kind of psychological mechanism applies in many less obvious instance. In the case of definite nervous disorders this is now widely recognized. (进一步举证无法通过奖赏和惩罚的手段来处理的，由心理机制引发的问题)Kleptomania, for example, is not uncommon in children, and, unlike ordinary thieving, it cannot be cured by punishment, but only by ascertaining and removing its psychological cause. What is less recognized is that we all suffer, to a greater or less degree, from nervous disorders having an emotional origin. A man is called sane when he is as sane as the average of his contemporaries; but in the average man many of the mechanisms which determine his opinions and actions are quite fantastic, so much so that in a world of real sanity they would be called insane. It is dangerous to produce good social behavior by means which leave the anti-social emotions untouched. So long as these emotions, while persisting, are denied all outlet, they will grow stronger and stronger, leading to impulses of cruelty which will at last become irresistible. In the man of weak will, these impulses may break out in crime, or insome form of behavior to which social penalties are attached. In the man of strong will, they take even more undesirable forms. He may be a tyrant in the home, ruthless in business, bellicose in politics, persecuting in his social morality; for all these qualities other men with similar defects of character will admire him; he will die universally respected, after having spread hatred and misery over a city, a nation, or an epoch according to his ability and his opportunities. Correct behavior combined with bad emotions is not enough, therefore, to make a man a contributor to the happiness of mankind. If this is our criterion of desirable conduct, something more must be sought in the education of character.

　　同样的心理机制也适用于许多不那么显著的例子。在明确的神经失常的情形中，这一点已得到广泛的认同。 例如，盗窃癖在孩子中并不少见;它与通常意义上的盗窃的不同之处在于，治愈它不能通过惩罚，而只能通过查明和消除它的心理诱因。人们认识不足的是，我们都或多或少地有点神经失调，这种失调有着情感上的根源。如果一个人与他同时代的普通人一样甚至健全，他就会被认为是神智健全的人;但在一个普通人那里，决定他言行的许多机制也是非常莫名其妙的，所以这样的人在一个真正神智健全的世界里仍要被认作是神智不健全的人。想不触动反社会的情感而产生良好的社会行为，是很危险的。 只要这些情感还存在，就不能堵死他们的所有出口，否则他们将会越来越强烈，最终导致无法抗拒的残酷冲动。在意志坚强的人那里，这些冲动可能爆发为犯罪，或其他社会必须予以处罚的行为。在意志坚强的人那里，则可能表现为更坏的形式。他可能在家中是个暴君，在商业中是个无情者，在政治上是个好斗者，在社会道德的意义上是个迫害狂;所有这些品格都会使他受到与他具有相似性格缺陷的人们的羡慕;他播下的仇恨和不幸遍及一座城市，一个国家，甚至一个时代---这取决于他的能力和机遇;他在死亡时会受到普遍的尊重。因此，一个人光有适当的行为，如果他有一颗坏心，是不足以对人类的幸福有所贡献的。如果衡量好的行为的标准是人类的幸福，就需要在性格教育中作出更多的努力。

　　Experience of children shows that it is possible to operate upon feeling, and not only upon outward behavior, by giving children an environment in which desirable emotions shall become common and undesirable emotions rare. (从情感的培养的角度谈，对儿童心理状态的影响)Throughout childhood, though to a continually diminishing extent, there is need of the feeling of safety. For this purpose, kindness and a pleasant routine are the essentials. The relation with adults should be one of play and physical ease, but not of emotional actresses. There should be close intimacy with other children. Above all, there should be opportunity for initiative in construction, in exploration, and in intellectual and artistic direction. The child has two opposite needs, safety and freedom, of which the latter gradually grows at the expense of the former. The affection given by adults should be such as to cause a feeling of safety, but onto such as to limit freedom or to arouse a deep emotional response in the child. Play, which is a vital need of childhood, should be contributed not only by other children, but also by parents, and is essential to the best relation between parents and children.

　　从儿童哪里得到的经验表明，如果能为孩子们创造一个环境： 好的情感很普遍，坏的情感很罕见，就可能会对他们的内心发生作用，而不只是对外在的行为起作用。在整个儿童期，都需要有安全感，尽管其程度逐步减少。慈爱和一个愉快的生活氛围对于安全感是至关重要的。小孩与大人的关系应是一种游戏的关系，小孩要感到很自在，但又不能被溺爱。小孩之间应该有亲密关系。尤其重要的是，小孩应该有机会主动进行建设性，探索性，有智力和艺术成分的活动。小孩有两种相反的需求：安全和自由，后者的逐步发展以牺牲前者为代价。大人给予的爱必须既能产生安全感，又不致于限制自由，也不致于引起小孩很深的情绪反应。游戏是孩子们的头等需求，不但孩子之间需要玩游戏，父母也应该加入进来，这对于培养父母和孩子间的良好关系是很关键的。

　　I am not an advocate of absolute freedom, but I am an advocate of certain forms of freedom which most adults find unendurable. There should be no enforced respect for grow-ups, who should allow themselves to be called fools whenever children wish to call them so. We cannot prevent our children from thinking us fools by merely forbidding them to utter their thoughts; in fact, they are more likely to think ill of us if they dare not say so. Children should not be forbidden to swear—not because it is desirable that they should swear, but because it is desirable that they should think that it does not matter whether they do or not, since this is a true proposition. They should be free entirely from the sex taboo, and not checked when their conversation seems to inhibited adults to be indecent. If they express opinions on religion or politics or morals, they may be met with argument, provided it is genuine argument, but not if it is really dogma: the adult may, and should, suggest considerations to them, but should not impose conclusion.

　　我并不是绝对自由的倡导者，但我要倡导多数成人无法忍受的一些自由。不应该强迫小孩尊重大人;小孩应该允许他们说大人蠢，如果他们像这样说的话。仅仅通过禁止他们说出他们的想法，我们并不能阻止他们认为我们蠢;事实上，如果他们不敢这样说，他们更有可能把我们往坏处像。小孩骂人不应被禁止——这并不是因为让他们骂人是好事，而是因为让他们知道骂不骂人并不重要是件好事，因为事实就是如此。他们应该从性禁忌中完全解放出来，当他们表达关于宗教，政治或道德的意见时，大人可以与他们辩论，而不能只是教条：大人可以也应该向他们指出可供考虑的论点，单不能将结论强加给他们。

　　Given such conditions, children may grow up fearless and fundamentally happy, without the resentment that comes of thwarting or the excessive demands that are produced by an atmosphere of hothouse affection. Their intelligence will be untrammeled, and their views on human affairs will have the kindliness that comes of contentment.

　　(education and social order, 1932)

　　有了上面的条件，孩子们长大后，就会无所畏惧，就会由衷地感到幸福;他们未曾被横加干涉过，所以不会有怨恨，他们也不曾被溺爱过，所以不会有过度的要求。他们的智力没有被束缚住，他们的人生观有一种来自满足感的善良成分。