Where the Dream Begins
每个人的心中都有会藏有一个梦，因为有了它，我们的人生才会完整，才会更精彩，而我们总有一个开始的地方——那就是校园。
我们为学习而来
We’re All Here to Learn
佚名 / Anonymous
“16,” 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 fixed 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 a wonderful 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 7 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 first 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 fighting 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 officially qualified me to be a teacher.
I interviewed with 3 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 fifth 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 fixed the rest of the class with a firm look. “We’re all here to learn,” I said.
“16。”我答道。那天，二年级的老师乔伊斯?库珀问的数学题是什么，我早已忘了，但我依然记得自己当时的回答。我刚说出那个数字，弗吉尼亚州诺福克市斯莫尔伍德小学的全班同学便开始哄堂大笑。我感觉世界上没有比我更笨的人了。
库珀夫人用严肃的目光制止了他们，并说：“我们都是为了学习才来这儿的。”
还有一次，库珀夫人让我们写一篇有关未来理想的文章。我写道：“我想成为像库珀夫人那样的老师。”
她给我的评语是：“你坚定而勤奋，一定会成为一名出色的教师。”接下来的27年，我一直将这些话珍藏在心里。
1976年高中毕业后，我与一个好男人结婚了。他叫本，是个机械师。没多久，我们的孩子拉托尼亚出生了。
我们的生活很拮据，上大学和教书这些就更谈不上了。但是，我在学校找了一份门房助理的工作。每天我要打扫拉里莫尔小学的17间教室，库珀夫人的教室也包含在内。斯莫尔伍德小学关闭后，她来到了这所学校。
我告诉她，我仍然渴望教书，而她一直重复着多年前写给我的那句话，然而家里的账单总是没完没了。
1986 年的一天，我一直在思考着我的梦想，考虑着我多么想帮助孩子们。要想那样，我就必须以老师的身份早上去学校，而不是下午去拖地。
我跟本和拉托尼亚商量了此事，问题是这样解决的：我可以去上成人自治大学。七年来，我早上上班前去上课，下班后学习。没课的时候，我就为库珀夫人做助教。
有时，我很惊讶自己是如何做到的。第一次成绩不合格时，我想放弃。但妹妹海伦讨厌我这么说。“你想当一名教师，”她说，“如果你现在气馁了，就永远无法实现自己的梦想。”
她很清楚永不放弃的意义——她正在与糖尿病作斗争。无论我们谁泄气了，她总会说：“你一定能做到，我们一定能做到的。”
1987年，年仅24岁的海伦因糖尿病引发的肾衰竭去世了。现在，只有我去完成我们共同的愿望了。
1993年5月8日，圆梦的日子到来了——我毕业了。我获得的大学学位和教学许可证，让我有了执教的正式资格。
我去了三所学校面试。科尔曼普莱斯小学的校长珍妮?汤姆林森说：“你看上去很面熟。”十多年前，她曾在拉里莫尔小学工作过。她记得我，因为我曾打扫过她的房间。
但我仍没有得到具体的答复。当我签完门房助手的第18份工作合同时，电话响了。我被科尔曼普莱斯小学聘为五年级的教师。
执教没多久，我就遇到了一件事，仿佛让我回到了过去。我在黑板上写了一个语法错误的句子，然后让学生上前修改。
一个女孩做到一半时，有些迷茫，就停了下来。其他同学都笑了起来，她的眼泪顺着面颊滚落下来。我给了她一个拥抱，并让她去喝点儿水。此时，我想起了库珀夫人。于是，我严肃地看着班里的同学，然后说道：“我们都是为了学习而来的。”
记忆填空
1. We needed every dime____to get by. College and teaching was out of the____. I did, however, wind up with a job in a____—as a janitor’s assistant. I____17 classrooms at Larrymore Elmentary School_____ day, including Mrs. Cooper’s.
2. Not____ after I started, something happened that brought the____rushing back. I had written a sentence full of grammatical____ on the blackboard. Then I asked students to come and_____the mistakes.
佳句翻译
1. 你坚定而勤奋，一定会成为一名出色的教师。
译________________________________
2. 如果你现在气馁了，就永远无法实现自己的梦想。
译________________________________
3. 她很清楚永不放弃的意义——她正在与糖尿病作斗争。
译________________________________
短语应用
1. We needed every dime just to get by.
get by：通过；混过
造_______________________________
2. I did, however, wind up with a job in a school—as a janitor’s assistant.
wind up：卷紧（吊起，使紧张）
造_______________________________
如果梦想足够大
If the Dream Is Big Enough
辛西娅?斯图尔特?卡贝尔 / Cynthia Stewart Copier
I used to watch her from my kitchen window, she seemed so small as she muscled her way through the crowd of boys on the playground. The school was across the street from our home and I would often watch the kids as they played during recess. A sea of children, and yet to me, she stood out from them all.
