他們的人生積極進取，他們的學識博大精深，他們的方法流傳百世，他們的指導(dǎo)影響深遠——他們是全人類的導(dǎo)師。

Teachers can be some of the most important people in our lives， influencing our education， our outlook on life， and the decisions we make. They have also been some of the important figures in history， changing the course of human events and teaching students along the way. Here， well take a look at four great teachers from history， two ancient and two modern， who have offered inspiration and guidance through the years.

Confucius

Known as the Great Master， Confucius is one of the most respected teachers in history. The famous philosopher was born in the sixth century BC， into an aristocratic1 family in the state of Lu. Confucius grew up in poverty， and was constantly urged by his mother to be diligent in his studies so he could escape a poor life and raise his status in society. He heeded2 her words， working hard and rising through the ranks to become a government official.

As a learned official， Confucius traveled throughout China， espousing3 his wisdom and political opinions and looking for states that could use his services. He became highly-regarded throughout the land， but Confucius still found that the many rulers he visited were not respecting his advice. So he chose to change paths， devoting his energy to teaching instead.

Students who had heard of his great wisdom came from far and wide4 to learn from him， and Confucius founded the first private school in China. He took on5 any student eager to learn， no matter their ability to pay tuition. This school likely included instruction in Chinese ritual， history， music and poetry， but most importantly， Confucius taught the importance of respecting all people， studying diligently， and thinking deeply for oneself.

Confucius would again travel throughout China， this time with his students， spreading his philosophy. His teaching and beliefs would be further taught and spread by his own disciples， becoming the bedrock of Chinese society. Confucius and his ideas have served as inspiration for the worlds teachers and students for millennia6.

Socrates

Little is known about the specifics of Socrates life， but it is known that by his middle age， he gave up professions as a soldier and a stonemason to work full-time doing what we know him for—teaching and philosophizing in the Greek city of Athens.

It all began when Socrates friend Chaerephon went to the Oracle of Delphi7 to ask if anyone was wiser than Socrates， and the Oracle answered that Socrates was the wisest. Socrates himself believed he had no wisdom at all， and decided to test the Oracles answer by going to the men of Athens who considered themselves wisest and asking them questions. His questions made them all look foolish， and Socrates decided that the Oracle was right， that he was indeed the wisest because he was the only one who knew of his own ignorance.

Socrates practice of always asking questions and challenging authority have become a central tenet8 of modern society， as well as of modern education. Socrates gained a large following of Athenian students， many of whom would follow in his step to become great thinkers and learned men as well， such as Plato9 and Xenophon10. His method of asking his students a series of questions to lead them to their own answer to a question they are pondering has become known as the Socratic Method. His method has been used in classrooms ever since.

Unfortunately for Socrates， the authorities in Athens eventually grew tired of his pesky11 habit of asking challenging questions， and tried him for corrupting the minds of the youth and heresy12 （for questioning the existence of the gods）. They convicted13 him， and he had to drink poison hemlockas punishment. But Socrates ideas and methods still live on in schools everywhere.

Maria Montessori

Maria Montessori was a pioneer in the fight to defy educational stereotypes14， and singlehandedly developed radical new education methods.

As a girl in a small Italian town in the 1870s， Montessori excelled in elementary school and wished to continue her education， which girls were discouraged from doing at the time. But her modern-thinking mother encouraged her， and she enrolled in an all-boys technical school in Rome when she was thirteen.

This allowed Montessori to defy15 stereotypes and pursue a technical career. She went on to break further gender barriers in education by becoming the first woman in Italy to earn a medical degree. As a doctor， she worked with mentally disabled children at a psychiatric clinic and concluded that helping these children was more an issue of teaching method than medical treatment. Her interest in helping such children led her to be placed in charge of a school for“hopeless”children， where her teaching methods saw tremendous success. She stressed personal attention and utilizing what she saw as a childs natural process for learning. This process of natural teaching involved learning through all five senses and letting children find what they are interested on their own—a philosophy now known as the Montessori Method.

Montessori went on to successfully teach many more children previously thought“unteachable”， including the mentally disabled and the extremely poor. The Montessori method is employed in schools throughout the world today， and her life serves as an inspiration for countless other teachers.

Albert Einstein

It is said that when he was growing up， Albert Einstein flunked16 math. He did so poorly in school that a teacher told Einsteins father that he would never amount to anything17. But this supposedly poor student in fact went on to revolutionize the field of physics， win the Nobel Prize， and become synonymous with the word“genius”. And he would also become a much better teacher than the one he had.

Despite his struggles （or lack of interest） in school， he held a deep wonder for the world and its natural laws， and later discovered a love for theoretical math. He fell in love with geometry and its clear proofs， and mastered calculus at age 16. Einstein went on to publish his revolutionary physics papers with his theories of thermodynamics18 and relativity. These papers allowed him to take professorship positions at several universities around Europe. After receiving a few too many racist attacks on his academic work， he went on to teach students in Princeton University， becoming one of the most well-known teachers in America.

About teaching， he once said “If you cant explain it simply， you dont understand it well enough”， showing he was a truly understanding teacher that sympathized with confused students. He also gave a student those famous and very true words of advice，“Do not worry about your problems with mathematics. I assure you mine are far greater.” Perhaps Einstein learned from his own experience with bad teachers in order to become a great one.

老師可能是我們一生中最重要的人，我們的教育、人生觀乃至我們的抉擇，都會受到他們的影響。他們同樣也是歷史上的重要人物，改變著人類重大事件的發(fā)展進程，他們的教導(dǎo)與莘莘學子一路相伴。下面我們將看到的是歷史上四名偉大的師者，其中兩人來自古代，兩人出自現(xiàn)代，多少年來他們讓我們深受鼓舞，并指引我們不斷前行。

孔子

孔子人稱“圣人”，是史上最受尊崇的師者之一。這位著名的哲學家生于公元前6世紀魯國的一個貴族家庭。孔子自幼在貧困中長大。他的母親時常鞭策他勤奮學習，希望他將來不再受窮，并在社會上出人頭地。他謹遵母親教誨，孜孜求學，終于脫穎而出當上了官。

身為一名有學識的官員，孔子始終相信自己的智慧和政治主張，他周游中國各地，尋找著自己能為之效力的諸侯國。就這樣，孔子受到了中原各國人民的高度贊許和敬重，可他仍然發(fā)現(xiàn)，許多他曾造訪過的統(tǒng)治者并沒有把他的諫言放在心上，于是他選擇改變道路，全身心地從事起教書育人的事業(yè)。

對他的大智慧早有耳聞的學生們不遠萬里從四面八方趕來向他求學，孔子創(chuàng)辦了中國第一所私立學校。只要好學，不管什么人，不管能不能交得起學費，都可以成為孔子的學生。這所學校傳授的內(nèi)容大致包括中國禮儀、歷史、音樂以及詩歌，不過最重要的是，孔子教人懂得了尊重他人、勤奮學習以及深入反省自身的重要性。

后來，孔子偕同他的學生再次周游中國各地，向眾人傳播自己的哲學思想。在弟子們的發(fā)揚光大下，孔子的教義和信仰成為了中國社會的堅固基石。幾千年來，全世界的師生無不受到孔子及其思想的鼓舞和啟發(fā)。

蘇格拉底

對于蘇格拉底的生平細節(jié)，人們都知之甚少，不過廣為人知的是，他當過兵，做過石匠，到了中年后，這些他都不干了，一門心思做起了那些讓他名傳千古的事情——在希臘的雅典城教書并進行哲學思考。 事情是這樣開始的：蘇格拉底的朋友凱勒豐請示阿波羅神諭是否有人比蘇格拉底更有智慧，神諭回答說蘇格拉底是最有智慧的人。蘇格拉底認為自己一點智慧都沒有，于是決定驗證一下神諭的回答。他找到雅典城里那些自認為最有智慧的人并向他們進行了提問。蘇格拉底的問題讓所有人都傻了眼，于是他得出結(jié)論：神諭是正確的，他自己的確是最有智慧的人，因為他是唯一一個認識到自己無知的人。

蘇格拉底最常做的事情就是不斷發(fā)問并挑戰(zhàn)權(quán)威，而這已經(jīng)成為當今社會同時也是現(xiàn)代教育的中心原則。在雅典城，蘇格拉底弟子眾多，他們中有很多人后來也追隨蘇格拉底的腳步，成了偉大的思想家和博學之人，比如柏拉圖和色諾芬。對于學生們百思不得其解的問題，他的辦法是反問學生一系列問題，從而引導(dǎo)他們找到自己對于該問題的答案，這就是后來眾所周知的“蘇格拉底法”。從那以后，課堂上都紛紛采用這種方法。

不幸的是，雅典城的權(quán)貴們對蘇格拉底老愛出難題這種令人生厭的做法終于忍無可忍，遂以腐化年輕人的思想和鼓吹異端邪說（即質(zhì)疑神的存在）為罪名對他進行了審判。蘇格拉底被判有罪，不得不服從刑罰喝下毒芹。盡管如此，他的思想和教學法在世界各地的學校里仍然得到了延續(xù)。

瑪麗亞·蒙特梭利

瑪麗亞·蒙特梭利是反對固有教育模式的先驅(qū)，她憑一己之力開創(chuàng)了徹底革新的教育方法。

19世紀70年代，在意大利的一個小鎮(zhèn)上，身為女孩的蒙特梭利在小學里成績出類拔萃，她希望繼續(xù)自己的學業(yè)，可當時是不允許女孩這么做的。但開明的母親卻很支持她，后來她進入羅馬一所男子技工學校就讀，那時她13歲。

從此，蒙特梭利公然挑戰(zhàn)固有的教育模式，走上了技術(shù)職業(yè)道路。后來，她成為意大利首位獲得醫(yī)學學位的女性，進一步打破了教育上的性別障礙。她在一家精神病診所當醫(yī)生的時候，接觸了很多智障兒童。她最終發(fā)現(xiàn)，幫助這些孩子的關(guān)鍵不在于治療手段，而在于教育方法。由于她有興趣幫助這些孩子，就被安排到一所專門接收“無可救藥”兒童的學校當負責人，在那兒她的教育方法大獲成功。她強調(diào)給予每個孩子特別關(guān)注，并巧妙地利用她所觀察到的兒童學習的自然過程。自然教學的過程包括讓孩子通過五官感覺體驗來學習知識，并找到他們自己感興趣的東西——這一方法見解現(xiàn)在被人們稱之為“蒙特梭利教學法”。

許多以前曾被認為“不可教”的學生都得到了蒙特梭利的成功施教，包括智障和成績極差的學生。現(xiàn)如今世界各地的學校都紛紛采用了蒙特梭利教學法，而她的生平事跡也一直激勵著無數(shù)的后來者。

阿爾伯特·愛因斯坦

據(jù)說愛因斯坦小時候數(shù)學不及格，由于在學校成績很差，有一位老師就對愛因斯坦的父親說他將一事無成?？墒聦嵣线@位看似很差勁的學生后來卻為物理學領(lǐng)域帶來了翻天覆地的變化，不但贏得了諾貝爾獎，還被人看作是“天才”的同義詞，而且還成了遠比他那位老師更優(yōu)秀的教師。

雖然愛因斯坦在校期間學習很吃力（或者缺乏興趣），但對這個世界及其自然規(guī)律，他卻一直深感好奇，后來又喜歡上了理論數(shù)學。他還愛上了幾何學以及幾何學中的定理證明，到16歲時就已經(jīng)精通微積分了。再后來，愛因斯坦圍繞熱力學理論和相對論發(fā)表了具有開創(chuàng)性意義的物理學論著，憑借這些論著，他成了歐洲好幾所大學的教授。在學術(shù)上受到很多種族主義者的攻訐后，他遠赴美國普林斯頓大學教書，成為美國最有名的教師之一。

對于教學，他曾經(jīng)說過，“如果你不能簡單地把一個東西解釋清楚，那是你還沒有理解透徹”，這表明他的確是一個通情達理的老師，因為他能夠理解和同情那些感到困惑的學生。他也為學生提出過一些名揚四海的真誠建議：“不要擔心你在數(shù)學上遇到的困難，我敢保證我遇到的困難比你的要大得多。”也許正是因為他自己有過不稱職的老師，愛因斯坦才以此為鑒，成了一名偉大的師者。

·單詞卡片

1. aristocratic adj. （屬于）貴族的

2. heed vt. 注意，留心

3. espouse vt. 信奉

4. far and wide： 到處，各處

5. take on： 接納

6. millennia n. millennium 的復(fù)數(shù)。millennium n. 千年期，一千年

7. the Oracle of Delphi： 阿波羅神諭。

8. tenet n. 原則

9. Plato n. 柏拉圖 （427-347BC，古希臘哲學家，創(chuàng)辦學園，提出理念論和靈魂不朽說，其哲學思想對西方唯心主義哲學的發(fā)展影響很大）

10. Xenophon n. 色諾芬 （430-355BC，古希臘將領(lǐng)，歷史學家，蘇格拉底的學生）

11. pesky adj. <美口>惱人的，討厭的

12. heresy n. 異端；異端邪說

13. convict vt. （經(jīng)審訊）證明有罪，宣判有罪

14. stereotype n. 陳規(guī)，刻板模式

15. defy vt. 反抗，公然違抗

16. flunk vt. <美口> 通不過（考試等）

17. never amount to anything： 一事無成

18. thermodynamics n. 【物】熱力學