英语智慧背囊04-我遇到的最好的老师

[00:00.00]The Best Teacher I Ever Had 我遇到的最好的老师
[00:05.41]Mr. Whitson taught sixth-grade science.
[00:10.00]On the first day of class,
[00:12.09]he gave us a lecture about a creature called the cattywampus,
[00:15.36]an animal that was wiped out during the Ice Age.
[00:18.53]He passed around a skull as he talked.
[00:21.93]We all took notes and later had a quiz.
[00:23.91]When he returned my paper,
[00:25.65]I was shocked.
[00:26.52]There was a big red X through each of my answers.
[00:29.79]I had failed.
[00:30.79]There had to be some mistake!
[00:32.65]I had written down exactly what Mr. Whitson said.
[00:35.70]Then I realized that everyone in the class had failed.
[00:39.09]What had happened?
[00:40.74]Very simple, Mr. Whitson explained.
[00:42.93]He had made up all that stuff about the cattywampus.
[00:45.76]There had never been any such animal.
[00:48.07]The information in our notes was, therefore, incorrect.
[00:51.35]Needless to say, we were outraged.
[00:54.64]What kind of test was this?
[00:56.60]And what kind of teacher?
[00:58.14]We should have figured it out,
[00:59.87]Mr. Whitson said.
[01:01.41]After all, at the very moment he was passing around the cattywampus skull
[01:06.11](in truth, a cat’s),
[01:07.87]hadn’t he been telling us that no trace of the animal remained?
[01:11.36]He had described its amazing night vision,
[01:14.11]the color of its fur and any number of other facts he couldn’t have known.
[01:17.93]The zeroes on our papers would be recorded in his grade book,
[01:21.54]he said.
[01:22.41]And they were.
[01:23.29]Mr. Whitson said he hoped we would learn something from this experience.
[01:27.44]Teachers and textbooks are not infallible.
[01:30.60]In fact, no one is.
[01:32.47]He told us not to let our minds go to sleep,
[01:35.44]and to speak up if we ever thought he or the textbook was wrong.
[01:39.04]Every class was an adventure with Mr. Whitson.
[01:42.09]I can still remember some science periods almost from beginning to end.
[01:46.46]One day he told us that his Volkswagen was a living organism.
[01:50.31]It took us two full days to put together a refutation he would accept.
[01:54.47]He didn’t let us off the hook
[01:56.53]until we had proved not only that we knew what an organism was
[01:59.93]but also that we had the fortitude to stand up for the truth.
[02:03.54]If I’m ever asked to propose a solution to the crisis in our schools,
[02:07.69]it will be Mr. Whitson.
[02:09.49]I haven't made any great scientific discoveries,
[02:12.43]but his class gave me and my classmates something just as important:
[02:16.50]the courage to look people in the eye and tell them they are wrong.
[02:20.33]He also showed us that you can have fun doing it.