佚名/Anonymous
“Sixteen,”I said. I have forgotten the math question my second-grade teacher, Joyce Cooper, asked that day, but I will never forget my answer. As soon as the number left my mouth, the whole class at Smallwood Elementary School in Norfolk, Virginia, started laughing. I felt like the stupidest person in the world.
Mrs. Cooper fxed them with a stern look. Then she said,“We're all here to learn.”
Another time, Mrs. Cooper asked us to write a report about what we hoped to do with our lives. I wrote,“I want to be a teacher like Mrs. Cooper.”
She wrote on my report,“You would make an outstanding teacher because you are determined and you try hard.”I was to carry those words in my heart for the next 27 years.
After I graduated from high school in 1976，I married awonderful man, Ben, a mechanic. Before long, Latonya was born.
We needed every dime just to get by. College and teaching was out of the question. I did, however, wind up with a job in a school—as a janitor's assistant. I cleaned 17 classrooms at Larrymore Elmentary School each day, including Mrs. Cooper's. She had transferred to Larrymore after Smallwood closed down.
I would tell Mrs. Cooper that I still wanted to teach, and she would repeat the words she had written on my report years earlier. But bills always seemed to get in the way.
Then one day in 1986 I thought of my dream, of how badly I wanted to help children. But to do that I needed to arrive in the mornings as a teacher—not in the afternoons to mop up.
I talked it over with Ben and Latonya, and it was settled：I would enroll at Old Dominion University. For seven years I attended classes in the mornings before work. When I got home from work, I studied. On days I had no classes to attend, I worked as a teaching assistant for Mrs. Cooper.
Sometimes I wondered whether I had the strength to make it. When I got my frst failing grade, I talked about quitting. My younger sister Helen refused to hear it.“You want to be a teacher,”she said.“If you stop, you'll never reach your dream.”
Helen knew about not giving up—she'd been fghting diabetes. When either of us got down, she would say,“You're going to make it. We're going to make it.”
In 1987，Helen, only 24，died of kidney failure related to diabetes. It was up to me to make it for both of us.
On May 8，1993，my dream day arrived—graduation. Getting my college degree and state teaching license offcially qualifed me to be a teacher.
I interviewed with three schools. At Coleman Place Elementary School, principal Jeanne Tomlinson said,“Your face looks so familiar.”She had worked at Larrymore more than 10 years earlier. I had cleaned her room, and she remembered me.
Still, I had no concrete offers. The call came when I had just signed my 18th contract as a janitor's assistant. Coleman Place had a job for me teaching ffth grade.
Not long after I started, something happened that brought the past rushing back. I had written a sentence full of grammatical errors on the blackboard. Then I asked students to come and correct the mistakes.
One girl got halfway through, became confused and stopped. As the other children laughed, tears rolled down her cheeks. I gave her a hug and told her to get a drink of water. Then, remembering Mrs. Cooper, I fxed the rest of the class with a frm look.“We're all here to learn,”I said.
“16。”我答道。那天，二年級的老師喬伊斯·庫珀問的數學題是什麽，我早已忘了，但我依然記得自己當時的回答。我剛說出那個數字，弗吉尼亞州諾福克市斯莫爾伍德小學的全班同學便開始哄堂大笑。我感覺世界上沒有比我更笨的人了。
庫珀夫人用嚴肅的目光製止了他們，並說：“我們都是為了學習才來這兒的。”
還有一次，庫珀夫人讓我們寫一篇有關未來理想的文章。我寫道：“我想成為像庫珀夫人那樣的老師。”
她給我的評語是：“你堅定而勤奮，一定會成為一名出色的教師。”接下來的27年，我一直將這些話珍藏在心裏。
1976年高中畢業後，我與一個很好的男人結婚了。他叫本，是個機械師。沒多久，我們的孩子拉托尼亞出生了。
我們的生活很拮據，上大學和教書這些就更談不上了。但是，我在學校找了一份門房助理的工作。每天我要打掃拉裏莫爾小學的17間教室，庫珀夫人的教室也包含在內。斯莫爾伍德小學關閉後，她來到了這所學校。
我告訴她，我仍然渴望教書，而她一直重複著多年前寫給我的那句話，然而家裏的賬單總是沒完沒了。
1986年的一天，我一直在思考著我的夢想，考慮著我多麽想幫助孩子們。要想那樣，我就必須以老師的身份早上去學校，而不是下午去拖地。
我跟本和拉托尼亞商量了此事，問題是這樣解決的：我可以去上成人自治大學。七年來，我早上上班前去上課，下班後學習。沒課的時候，我就為庫珀夫人做助教。
有時，我很驚訝自己是如何做到的。第一次成績不合格時，我想放棄。但妹妹海倫討厭我這麽說。“你想當一名教師，”她說，“如果你現在氣餒了，就永遠無法實現自己的夢想。”
她很清楚永不放棄的意義——她正在與糖尿病作鬥爭。無論我們誰泄氣了，她總會說：“你一定能做到，我們一定能做到的。”
1987年，年僅24歲的海倫因糖尿病引發的腎衰竭去世了。現在，隻有我去完成我們共同的願望了。
1993年5月8日，圓夢的日子到來了——我畢業了。我獲得的大學學位和教學許可證，讓我有了執教的正式資格。
我去了三所學校麵試。科爾曼普萊斯小學的校長珍妮·湯姆林森說：“你看上去很麵熟。”十多年前，她曾在拉裏莫爾小學工作過。她記得我，因為我曾打掃過她的房間。
但我仍沒有得到具體的答複。當我簽完門房助手的第18份工作合同時，電話響了。我被科爾曼普萊斯小學聘為五年級的教師。
執教沒多久，我就遇到了一件事，仿佛讓我回到了過去。我在黑板上寫了一個語法錯誤的句子，然後讓學生上前修改。
一個女孩做到一半時，有些迷茫，就停了下來。其他同學都笑了起來，她的眼淚順著麵頰滾落下來。我給了她一個擁抱，並讓她去喝點兒水。此時，我想起了庫珀夫人。於是，我嚴肅地看著班裏的同學，然後說道：“我們都是為了學習而來的。”
心靈小語
滴水匯大海，壘石築高牆。
W詞匯筆記
stern[st?:n]n.嚴厲的；嚴格的；苛刻的
例 Stern discipline did not achieve the desired result.
嚴格的紀律沒有得到期望的結果。
dime[daim]n.一角硬幣；少量的錢；小錢
例 Will one dime and three nickels be all right?
一個一角硬幣、三個五分錢幣，夠了嗎？
diabetes[,dai?'bi：ti:z]n.糖尿病
例 Do your habits invite diabetes?
你的習慣引起糖尿病嗎？
hug[h?g]n.緊抱；擁抱
例 He greeted her with a loving hug.
他以一個深情的擁抱來迎接她。
S小試身手
你堅定而勤奮，一定會成為一名出色的教師。
譯________________________________________
如果你現在氣餒了，就永遠無法實現自己的夢想。
譯________________________________________
她很清楚永不放棄的意義——她正在與糖尿病作鬥爭。
譯________________________________________
P短語家族
We needed every dime just to get by.
get by：通過
造________________________________________
I did, however, wind up with a job in a school—as a janitor's assistant.
wind up：卷緊；吊起
造________________________________________