An Ideal in Education

The words and phrases of a language are always to some extent revelations of the mind of the race that has moulded the language. How often does an Irish vocable light up as with a lantern some immemorial Irish attitude, some whole phase of Irish thought. Thus, the words which the old Irish employed when they spoke of Education show that they had gripped the very heart of that problem. To the old Irish the teacher was ‘a(chǎn)ite’, fosterer; the pupil, was ‘dalta’, foster-child; the system was ‘a(chǎn)iteachas’, fosterage; words which we still retain as oide, dalta, oideachas.

民族語言的單詞和短語總是在某種程度上表現(xiàn)了使用者的思想。每當愛爾蘭語被講出，聲音便像燈籠一樣照亮愛爾蘭的古老的態(tài)度，照亮愛爾蘭思考的整個過程。 因此，過去的愛爾蘭人在談到教育時所使用的詞語表明他們已經(jīng)抓住了這個問題的核心。對于過去的愛爾蘭人而言，老師是“aite”，寄養(yǎng)者；學生是“dalta”，被寄養(yǎng)的兒童； 該系統(tǒng)是“aiteachas”，寄養(yǎng)；現(xiàn)在，三個詞語分別演變?yōu)閛ide、dalta和oideachas。

And is not the precise aim of educatio to ‘foster'. Not to inform, to indoctrinate, to conduct through a course of studies [though these be the dictionary meanings of the word], but, first and last, to ‘foster' the elements of character native to a soul, to help to bring these to their full perfection rather than to implant exotic excellences.

?教育事實上的目的不正是 "培養(yǎng) "嗎？不是告知，不是灌輸，不是通過學習課程進行指導(盡管這些都是這個詞的字典里的意思)，而是，首先和最后，"培養(yǎng) "一個靈魂中固有的性格元素，幫助使這些元素達到完全的完美，而不是植入外來的優(yōu)點。

Fosterage implies a foster-father or foster-mother, a person as its centre and inspiration rather than a code of rules. Modem education systems are elaborate pieces of machinery devised by highly-salaried officials for the purpose of turning out citizens according to certain approved patterns. The modem school is a State- controlled institution designed to produce workers for the State, and is in the same category which a dockyard, or any other State-controlled institution which produces articles necessary to the progress, well-being, and defence of the State. We speak of the ‘efficiency’, the ‘cheapness’ and the ‘up-to-dateness' of an education system just as we speak of the ‘efficiency’, the ‘cheapness’ and the ‘up-to-dateness' of a system of manufacturing coal-gas. We shall soon reach a stage when we speak of the ‘efficiency’, the ‘cheapness’ and the ‘up-to-dateness' of our systems of soul saving. We shall hear it said ‘Salvation is very cheap in England’, or 'The Germans are wonderfully efficient in prayer’, or ‘Gee, it takes a New York parson to hustle ginks into heaven.'

寄養(yǎng)意味著一個養(yǎng)父或養(yǎng)母，一個作為其中心和靈感的人，而不是一個規(guī)則的代碼?，F(xiàn)代教育系統(tǒng)是由高級官員精心設計的機器，目的是按照某些被認可的模式培養(yǎng)公民?，F(xiàn)代學校是一個由國家控制的機構，旨在為國家培養(yǎng)工人，與船塢或任何其他由國家控制的機構一樣，為國家的進步、福利和國防生產(chǎn)必要的物品。我們談論一個教育系統(tǒng)的 "效率"、"廉價"和 "最新"，就像我們談論一個煤氣生產(chǎn)系統(tǒng)的 "效率"、"廉價 "和 "最新"。(如此推進，)我們很快就會進入另一個階段：彼時，我們將會談論我們的靈魂拯救系統(tǒng)的"效率"、"廉價"和 "最新"。我們將聽到有人說："英國的救贖非常便宜"，或者 "德國人的禱告效率非常高"，或者"天啊，只有紐約的牧師才能把愚蠢卑鄙的人送入天堂"。 ?

Now, education is as much concerned with souls as religion is. Religion is a Way of Life. and education is a preparation of the soul to live its life here and hereafter; to live it nobly and fully. And as we cannot think of religion without a Person as its centre, as we cannot think of a church without its Teacher, so we cannot think of a school without its Master. A school, in fact. according to the conception of our wise ancestors, was less a place than a little group of persons, a teacher and his pupils. Its place might be poor, nay, it might have no local habibtion at all, it may be peripatetic: where the master went his disciples followed. One may think of Our Lord and his Friends as a sort of school: was He not the Master, and were not they His disciples? That gracious conception was not only the conception of the old Gael, pagan and Christian, but the conception of Europe all through the Middle Ages. Philosophy was not crammed out of text-books, but was learned at the knee of some great philosopher: art was learned in the studio of some master-artist, a craft in the workshop of some master-craftsman. Always it was the personality of the master that made the school, never the State that built it of bricks and mortar, drew up a code of rules to govern it, and sent hirelings into it to carry out its decrees.

如今，教育與宗教一樣與靈魂有關。宗教是一種生活方式而教育是為靈魂的今后高尚、充實的生活所做的準備。正如我們認為宗教不能沒有一個人作為中心，正如我們認為教堂不能沒有布道者，我們也認為學校不能沒有教師。、根據(jù)我們明智的祖先的概念，學校與其說是一個地方，不如說是一小群人——一個老師和他的學生。它的地方可能很破舊，甚至可能根本沒有固定的場所，而是流動的：老師去哪里，學生就跟到哪里。人們可以認為我們的主和他的追隨者是一種學校：他不是老師，而他們不是他的門徒嗎？這種親切的概念不僅是舊蓋爾人——包括異教徒和基督徒——的概念，而且是整個中世紀歐洲的概念。哲學不是從教科書中擠出來的，而是在一些偉大的哲學家膝下學到的：藝術是在一些藝術大師的工作室里學到的，是在一些工匠大師的車間里學到的。支撐起學校的始終是老師的個性，而不是使用磚頭和砂漿建造，制定規(guī)則以管理，并派人進駐以執(zhí)行法令的國家。

I do not know how far it is possible to revive the old ideal of fosterer and foster-child. I know it were very desirable. One sees too clearly that the modern system, under which the teacher tends more and more to become a mere civil servant, is making for the degadation of education. and will end in irreligion and anarchy. The modern child is coming to regard his teacher as an official paid by the State to render him certain services; services which it is in interest to avail of. since by doing so he will increase his earning capacity later on; but services the rendering and acceptance of which no more imply a sacred relationship than do the tendering and acceptance of the services of a dentist or a chiropodist. There is thus coming about a complete reversal of the relative positions of master and disciple, a tendency which is increased by every statute that is placed in the statute book, by every rule that is added to the education code of modern countries.

?我不知道可以在多大程度上恢復寄養(yǎng)的古老理想。我知道這過于理想。人們已經(jīng)清楚地看到，在現(xiàn)代制度下，教師越來越傾向于成為一個單純的公務員——這使之墮落，最終失去信仰與中心?，F(xiàn)代兒童開始把他的老師看作是由政府提供的服務；利用這些服務是有利可圖的，因為如此可以增加他以后的收入能力；但提供和接受這些服務并不意味著一種神圣的關系，就像提供和接受牙醫(yī)或按摩師的服務一樣。因此，教師與學生的相對地位即將完全顛倒過來，這種趨勢因現(xiàn)代國家的每一條法規(guī)、每一條加入教育法典的規(guī)則而加劇。

Against this trend I would oppose the ideal of those who shaped the Gaelic polity nearly two thousand years ago. It is not merely that the old Irish had a good education system; they had the best and noblest that has ever been known among men. There has never been any human institution more adequate to its purpose than that which, in pagan times, produced Cuchulainn and the Boy-Corps of Eamhain Macha and, in Christian times, produced Enda and the companions at his solitude in Aran. The old Irish systems pagan and Christian, possessed in premiment degree the thing most needful in education: an adequate inspiration. Colmcille suggested what that inspiration was when he said, ‘If I should die it shall be from the excess of love thal I bear the Gae.' A love and a service so excessive as to annihilate all thought of self, a recognition that one must give all, must be willing always to make the ultimate sacrifice. This is the inspiration alike of the story of Cuchulainn and of the story of Colmcille. The inspiration that made one a hero and the other a saint.

與趨勢相反，我反對近兩千年前塑造蓋爾政體的那些人的理想。這不僅僅是因為舊愛爾蘭人擁有良好的教育體系：他們有人類有史以來最好和最崇高的教育體系。從來沒有任何一種人類制度比這種制度更適合其目的，異教時代，它培養(yǎng)了Cuchulainn和Eamhain Macha的少年團；在基督教時代，它培養(yǎng)了Enda和他在Aran的孤獨中的同伴們。古老的愛爾蘭異教和基督教系統(tǒng)擁有教育中的關鍵：充分的靈感。Colmcille將這種靈感表述為："如果我死了，那將是由于我對蓋爾文化的過度熱愛?！边^度的愛和奉獻，以至于消滅了所有對自我的思考，認識到一個人必須付出所有，必須愿意永遠做出最終的犧牲。這就是Cuchulainn和Colmcille的故事的靈感所在。這種靈感使一個人成為英雄，另一個人成為圣人。