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富布赖特

The Story of "Why I Teach" 《我缘何执教》的来龙去脉

Peter G. Beidler 白彼得

This little article began nearly twenty-five years ago when I was named national Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation and CASE — Council for Advancement and Support of Education. As a result of that award the editors of the Alumni Magazine Consortium invited me to write a short essay for their magazine. They published it as "Why Do I Teach?"

A year later the editors of Reader's Digest read the essay, liked it, and reprinted it in somewhat condensed form, under the new title I suggested, "Why I Teach." It received wide readership in that form and was translated into at least eight languages for international editions of Reader's Digest.

Many years later, when I was teaching as a Fulbrighter in China, one of my students asked me if I was the Peter G. Beidler who wrote "Why I Teach." I owned up, and asked how he had heard of it. He said it was in his English language textbook. He and his classmates had been asked to analyze its language for an assignment in contemporary English usage.

And many years after that, in the late fall of 2000, I got out of the cyberblue an e-mail from a young teacher in mainland China. She asked me if I was the Professor Beidler who wrote "Why I Teach." I owned up again. Then she told me that when she graduated from college she was good enough in English that she had a choice of becoming an English teacher or going into international business. Torn, she went back and reread my "Why I Teach" from one of her college textbooks, and decided, on the spot, to become a teacher. She had, she said, no regrets whatever about her choice, and now she was teaching my essay to others in her own English classes. Did I know, she asked, that my essay was required reading for perhaps a couple of million college English students in China each year?

I didn't know that, but was of course pleased to learn that the essay was still in circulation. I told the folks at Lehigh University's office of media relations and they wrote something up and sent it to Time magazine. In the early spring of 2001 Time published a very short notice about the readership of my essay in China.

An editor at Andrews McMeel saw the Time piece and asked to see a copy. A few months later she said that Andrews McMeel wanted to make a little book of my essay. Was I interested? I said I was. Although I was a college teacher, it might be that my words, now somewhat revised and expanded, might have meaning for teachers at other levels and might help others decide what to do with their lives — especially in this era of disillusioned teachers and looming teacher shortages. I was pleased to have "Why I Teach" made available, once again.

That small gift-book was published and once again went out of print. If it seems advisable to share it once again with my friends in China, I am happy to do so. Some readers in China will perhaps recognize me as the author of Writing Matters, a textbook on writing now published by Sichuan University Press.

这篇短文写于近25年前，那时我被卡内基基金会 (Carnegie Foundation) 和教育发展与促进协会 (Council for Advancement and Support of Education) 提名为当年最佳教授 (Professor of the Year)。我获奖后，《校友联合杂志》(Alumni Magazine Consortium) 的编辑约请我为他们的杂志写篇文章。他们以《我为什么教书？》为题将其发表。

一年后，《读者文摘》(Reader's Digest) 的编辑读了那篇文章，他们喜欢它，并以小幅缩写的形式，用我建议的新标题《我缘何执教》予以登载。大量读者阅读了这篇缩写的文章，它还被译成至少8种语言用于《读者文摘》的国际版。

多年后，我以富布赖特项目参加者 (Fulbright) 身份在中国执教时，我的一名学生问我是否就是那个写《我缘何执教》的白彼得 (Peter G. Beidler)。我承认是，并问他怎么听说的。他说那篇文章编在他学的英语课本里。他和他的同学的一次当代英语用法作业是分析该文的语言。

又过了许多年之后，2000年秋末，我出乎意料地从网络空间收到中国大陆一名年轻教师发来的电子邮件。她问我是否就是那个写《我缘何执教》的Beidler教授。我再次承认是。然后她告诉我，她大学毕业时英文很好，可以选择当个英语老师或从事国际商务的工作。难下决心的她又重读了她的英语课本中我写的《我缘何执教》一文，当场决定成为一名教师。她说，她对自己的选择并不后悔，现在她在自己的英语课上教她的学生学习我的文章。她问我知不知道中国每年有多达数百万中国大学生把我的文章作为必读文章来学习。

这事我不清楚，但是知道那篇文章还有人在阅读，我当然感到高兴。我把这事告诉了里海大学 (Lehigh University) 媒体公关办公室的人们，他们写了点东西给《时代》(Time) 杂志寄去 。2001年初春，该杂志刊登了一条中国读者阅读我的文章情况的简短消息。

安德鲁斯.麦克米尔出版公司 (Andrews McMeel) 的一位女编辑看到《时代》的消息后向我索取一份我的文章。数月后她说，安德鲁斯.麦克米尔公司打算把我的文章遍成一本篇幅不长的书。我感兴趣吗？我说我同意。虽然我是个大学教师，但我的话，尽管现在多少有些修正和扩展，可能对各个层次的教师都有意义，而且可能有助于其他人决定今后一生干什么 — 尤其是在这个教师理想破灭和教师日渐短缺的时代。我为《我缘何执教》能再次以飨读者感到高兴。

那本篇幅不长的精装本发行后又再次绝版。如果与我在中国的朋友再次共享那篇文章认为是可取之举，我愿意这样做。有些中国读者或许知道我是《写作要义》(Writing Matters) 的作者，那是一本由四川大学出版社出版的关于写作的教科书。