約翰·洛克的教育思想(中英對照)-8: 私家教育

Having named company, I am almost ready to throw away my pen, and trouble you no farther on this subject: for since that does more than all precepts, rules and instructions, methinks it is almost wholly in vain to make a long discourse of other things, and to talk of that almost to no purpose. For you will be ready to say, what shall I do with my son? If I keep him always at home, he will be in danger to be my young master; and if I send him abroad, how is it possible to keep him from the contagion of rudeness and vice, which is every where so in fashion? In my house he will perhaps be more innocent, but more ignorant too of the world; wanting there change of company, and being used constantly to the same faces, he will, when he comes abroad, be a sheepish or conceited creature.

在講過夥伴以後，我真想擱筆不再向你講述這個題目。因為既然夥伴的影響比一切訓誡、規則和教誨都大，我覺得再去多討論別的事情差不多完全是白費力氣，而且談了也幾乎是沒有目標的。因為你一定會說，我對我的兒子有什麽辦法呢？假若我一直把他拴在家裏，他有危險成為我的少主人；假若我把他放出去，又怎能讓他不傳染上到處流行的粗魯與邪惡呢？在我家裏，他也許會更單純，但也更不諳世故；沒有新的夥伴，習慣於同樣的麵孔，當他在外時，他就會膽怯或自高自大。

I confess both sides have their inconveniences. Being abroad, it is true, will make him bolder, and better able to bustle and shift among boys of his own age; and the emulation of school-fellows often puts life and industry into young lads. But still you can find a school, wherein it is possible for the master to look after the manners of his scholars, and can shew as great effects of his care of forming their minds to virtue, and their carriage to good breeding, as of forming their tongues to the learned languages, you must confess, that you have a strange value for words, when preferring the languages of the antient Greeks and Romans to that which made them such brave men, you think it worth while to hazard your son's innocence and virtue for a little Greek and Latin. For, as for that boldness and spirit which lads get amongst their play-fellows at school, it has ordinarily such a mixture of rudeness and ill-turned confidence, that those misbecoming and disingenuous ways of shifting in the world must be unlearnt, and all the tincture washed out again, to make way for better principles, and such manners as make a truly worthy man. He that considers how diametrically opposite the skill of living well, and managing, as a man should do, his affairs in the world, is to that mal-pertness, tricking, or violence learnt amongst schoolboys, will think the faults of a privater education infinitely to be preferred to such improvements, and will take care to preserve his child's innocence and modesty at home, as being nearer of kin, and more in the way of those qualities which make an useful and able man. Nor does any one find, or so much as suspect, that that retirement and bashfulness which their daughters are brought up in, makes them less knowing, or less able women. Conversation, when they come into the world, soon gives them a becoming assurance; and whatsoever, beyond that, there is of rough and boisterous, may in men be very well spared too; for courage and steadiness, as I take it, lie not in roughness and ill breeding.

我承認這二方麵都有缺陷。小孩在外麵，確實可以使他更大膽，更能使他與同齡的孩子玩在一塊；而且同學之間的競爭也使年輕人有活力與幹勁。雖然你可以找到這樣的學校，裏麵的老師能夠關照學生的禮貌，能象教他們學習博雅的語言一樣有效地塑造他們優美的心靈、有教養的舉止，但是你得承認，你對文字有奇怪的價值觀，你看重古希臘、古羅馬的語言使得古希臘人、古羅馬人這樣勇敢，因此你願意以你兒子的純真與德行去冒險，隻為學習一點希臘語和拉丁語。因為少年從學校裏的玩伴中得來的膽量與勇氣，總是摻雜著粗魯與不良的自信，那些不合適和虛偽的處世方法必須要忘掉，所有的影響都要清除，代以更好的原則和一個真有價值的人應有的舉止。那些考慮到良好的生活技能和管理自己在世上的事務，是怎樣與從同學那裏學到的放肆、欺詐、或暴力完全對立的，就會認為再差的私家教育都比學校強很多，也就會在家小心地保持孩子的純真與謙遜，因為孩子在家與親人比較接近，更容易習得一些品性而成為有用的和能幹的人。沒有誰發現或擔心，女孩子在退隱羞怯中長大，會使她們更無知，或更無能。她們一旦進入社會，與人交流，很快會使她們變得自信；無論如何，超出限度，就會成為粗魯與喧鬧，就是男子也應該避免的。因為我認為勇敢與鎮定不存在於粗魯與不良教養之中。

Virtue is harder to be got than a knowledge of the world; and if lost in a young man, is seldom recovered. Sheepishness and ignorance of the world, the faults imputed to a private education, are neither the necessary consequences of being bred at home, nor if they were, are they incurable evils. Vice is the more stubborn, as well as the more dangerous evil of the two; and therefore in the first place to be fenced against. If that sheepish softness which often enervates those who are bred like fondlings at home, be carefully to be avoided, it is principally so for virtue's sake; for fear lest such a yielding temper should be too susceptible of vicious impressions, and expose the novice too easily to be corrupted. A young man before he leaves the shelter of his father's house, and the guard of a tutor, should be fortified with resolution, and made acquainted with men, to secure his virtues, lest he should be led into some ruinous course, or fatal precipice, before he is sufficiently acquainted with the dangers of conversation, and has steadiness enough not to yield to every temptation. Were it not for this, a young man's bashfulness and ignorance in the world, would not so much need an early care. Conversation would cure it in a great measure; or if that will not do it early enough, it is only a stronger reason for a good tutor at home. For if pains be to be taken to give him a manly air and assurance betimes, it is chiefly as a fence to his virtue when he goes into the world under his own conduct.

美德比明了世理更難獲得；年青人失去了美德是很少能恢複的。懦弱與不明世理，這歸咎於私家教育的過錯，並不是在家庭進行教育培養的必然結果，也不是不可糾正的罪惡。邪惡是二者之中更頑固、更危險的；因此要首先防範的。那些在家中溺愛長大的人，常常會顯得懦弱，如果要小心避免這種情況，也主要是為了德行的緣故；因為惟恐這易屈從的脾性太容易接受邪惡的影響，也使初學者很容易墮落了。年輕人在離開父親房屋的庇護和導師的看護以前，應該增強他的決心，應該熟悉人情，來保護他的德行，否則在他沒有充分明白交友的危險、不能堅定抵禦誘惑以前，他很容易走上毀滅的歧途，或陷入致命的險境。若不是因為這一點，年輕人的羞怯靦腆及不通人情世故原是用不著這樣及早注意的。與人交往很大程度上可以治好這種毛病；如果不能及早治好，那就更是一個強大的理由要在家中有一個良好的導師。因為如果能努力使他及時養成男子漢的氣概和自信，那就是他自主進入社會的時候，他的德行的主要保障。

It is preposterous therefore to sacrifice his innocency to the attaining of confidence and some little skill of bustling for himself among others, by his conversation with ill-bred and vicious boys; when the chief use of that sturdiness, and standing upon his own legs, is only for the preservation of his virtue. For if confidence or cunning come once to mix with vice, and support his miscarriages, he is only the surer lost; and you must undo again, and strip him of that he has got from his companions, or give him up to ruin. Boys will unavoidably be taught assurance by conversation with men, when they are brought into it; and that is time enough. Modesty and submission, till then, better fits them for instruction; and therefore there needs not any great care to stock them with confidence beforehand. That which requires most time, pains, and assiduity, is, to work into them the principles and practice of virtue and good breeding. This is the seasoning they should be prepared with, so as not easily to be got out again. This they had need to be well provided with, for conversation, when they come into the world, will add to their knowledge and assurance, but be too apt to take from their virtue; which therefore they ought to be plentifully stored with, and have that tincture sunk deep into them.

所以，為孩子獲得自信和一點與人廝混的技巧，就要犧牲他的純潔，讓他與沒有教養的和邪惡的男孩子交往，這是很荒謬的；堅毅自主的品性主要是為保持他的德行。因為一旦自信或狡猾與邪惡混在一起，支持他的不良行為，他就更是肯定毀掉了；而且你得從新撤銷那影響，消除他從夥伴中得來的習氣，否則隻有放棄他、由他毀掉。男孩有與人交流的機會，他們必然會變得自信；那樣的時間就足夠了。在此以前，謙遜與順服使他仍能更好地接受教導；因此事先不必過於注意自信的養成。最應該花時間、辛勞、努力的，是使他們獲得德行的原則、實踐和良好的教養。這才是他們應該盡力準備的事，免得後來容易失掉。這是他們需要好好預備的，因為他們一旦進入社會與人交往，固然可以增加他們的知識與自信，同時也易於損害他們的德行；所以他們對於德行理應多加準備，使美德的一點一滴都深深地滲入他們之中。

How they should be fitted for conversation, and entered into the world, when they are ripe for it, we shall consider in another place. But how any one's being put into a mixed herd of unruly boys, and there learning to wrangle at trap, or rook at span farthing, fits him for civil conversation or business, I do not see. And what qualities are ordinarily to be got from such a troop of play-fellows as schools usually assemble together from parents of all kinds, that a father should so much covet, is hard to divine. I am sure, he who is able to be at the charge of a tutor at home, may there give his son a more genteel carriage, more manly thoughts, and a sense of what is worthy and becoming, with a greater proficiency in learning into the bargain, and ripen him up sooner into a man, than any at school can do. Not that I blame the schoolmaster in this, or think it to be laid to his charge. The difference is great between two or three pupils in the same house, and three or four score boys lodged up and down: for let the master's industry and skill be never so great, it is impossible he should have fifty or an hundred scholars under his eye, any longer than they are in the school together: Nor can it be expected, that he should instruct them successfully in any thing but their books; the forming of their minds and manners requiring a constant attention, and particular application to every single boy, which is impossible in a numerous flock, and would be wholly in vain (could he have time to study and correct every one's particular defects and wrong inclinations) when the lad was to be left to himself, or the prevailing infection of his fellows, the greatest part of the four and twenty hours.

當他們長大準備好了，怎樣使他們適應與人交往，並且走入社會，我們會在別的地方考慮。但是那種與粗野男童廝混，學會在困局中爭鬥，連最後一個銅子兒 也要騙取的人，我不看好他怎樣能夠適合文明的交往或事務。而且學校裏玩伴的家長是各種各樣的，做父親的希望孩子與這些玩伴為伍能從中獲得什麽樣的氣質，真是很難預言的。我確信，那能請得起家庭導師的人，導師會比在學校裏任何人更能使他的兒子舉止更優雅，思想更有男子氣概，又能明白什麽是有價值的和合適的，而且學習也更容易，成熟也更迅速。關於這一點，我並不責怪學校的教師，也並不認為他應該負責。一個家庭裏麵的兩三個學生和一個學校裏麵上上下下寄宿的七八十個學生，這差別是很大的。不管老師的精力和技巧再大，除了在學校裏一起的時間，他是不可能看顧五十或一百個學生的。除了書本以外，也不可能期望他能成功地教給他們別的東西；塑造他們的心靈與儀態需要不斷的關注，而且要特別針對每一個人，這在一大群學生中是不可能的，就算是老師有時間考察與糾正每個學生個別的缺點和錯誤傾向，但是學生一天二十四小時中的絕大部分時間都是由他自己去消磨，或者還要受到同伴惡習的影響，老師的努力也全是白費功夫。

But fathers, observing that fortune is often most successfully courted by bold and bustling men, are glad to see their sons pert and forward betimes; take it for an happy omen that they will be thriving men, and look on the tricks they play their school-fellows, or learn from them, as a proficiency in the art of living, and making their way through the world. But I must take the liberty to say, that he that lays the foundation of his son's fortune in virtue and good breeding, takes the only sure and warrantable way. And it is not the waggeries or cheats practised amongst school-boys, it is not their roughness one to another, nor the well-laid plots of robbing an orchard together, that make an able man; but the principles of justice, generosity, and sobriety, joined with observation and industry, qualities which I judge school-boys do not learn much of one another. And if a young gentleman bred at home, be not taught more of them than he could learn at school, his father has made a very ill choice of a tutor. Take a boy from the top of a grammar-school, and one of the same age bred as he should be in his father's family, and bring them into good company together, and then see which of the two will have the more manly carriage, and address himself with the more becoming assurance to strangers. Here I imagine the school-boy's confidence will either fail or discredit him; and if it be such as fits him only for the conversation of boys, he were better to be without it.

但是父親們發現膽大鬧騰的人常常最能成功走運，於是高興看到自己的兒子也能及早變得魯莽冒進；認為這是表示他們會長成健壯成人的一種吉兆，看見他們向同學玩詭計，或是從同學那裏學到騙術，就以為他們學會了謀生的本領，可以闖世界了。但是我必須冒昧地說，把孩子的幸福奠定在美德與良好的教養上麵，才是惟一可靠的和保險的辦法。不是學生之間的戲弄欺騙、不是他們的粗魯相待、也不是一起策劃偷竊果園，能培養一個能幹的人；是由正直、慷慨和嚴肅的品質，加上洞察與努力而成的，這些品質我認為不是學校同學之間能互相學到的。如果一個在家庭中教養成人的青年紳士，不能比在學校裏麵學到更多這樣的品盾，那就隻怪他的父親選錯了導師。你可以從文法學校裏麵挑出一個高年級的學生，再找一個在家中受過良好教養的、年歲相同的孩子，使他們成為好朋友，然後你可以觀察，看誰的舉止更有男子漢氣概，看誰與生人交往的時候更能鎮定自如。我相信那個學生的自信心這時一定會不夠、或使他名譽掃地；假如他的自信心隻能使他和孩子們交往，那還不如沒有的好呢。

Vice, if we may believe the general complaint, ripens so fast now-a-days, and runs up to seed to early in young people, that it is impossible to keep a lad from the spreading contagion, if you will venture him abroad in the herd, and trust to chance or his own inclination for the choice of his company at school. By what fate Vice has so thriven amongst us these years past, and by what hands it has been nursed up into so uncontrouled a dominion, I shall leave to others to enquire. I wish that those who complain of the great decay of Christian piety and virtue every where, and of learning and acquired improvements in the gentry of this generation, would consider how to retrieve them in the next. This I am sure, that if the foundation of it be not laid in the education and principling of the youth, all other endeavours will be in vain. And if the innocence, sobriety, and industry of those who are coming up, be not taken care of and preserved, it will be ridiculous to expect, that those who are to succeed next on the stage, should abound in that virtue, ability, and learning, which has hitherto made England considerable in the world. I was going to add courage too, though it has been looked on as the natural inheritance of Englishmen. What has been talked of some late actions at sea, of a kind unknown to our ancestors, gives me occasion to say, that debauchery sinks the courage of men; and when dissoluteness has eaten out the sense of true honour, bravery seldom stays long after it. And I think it impossible to find an instance of any nation, however renowned for their valour, who ever kept their credit in arms, or made themselves redoubtable amongst their neighbours, after corruption had once broke through and dissolved the restraint of discipline, and vice was grown to such an head, that it durst shew itself barefaced without being out of countenance.

邪惡，如果我們相信大眾的抱怨，它當今真是進展很快，而且早就在年輕人的身上撒下了種子，如果你冒險讓他在外廝混，並且相信運氣或他自己的意向來挑選他在學校中的夥伴，那麽是不可能不讓他受到這蔓延的邪惡的傳染。至於什麽使得邪惡在我們中間如此興盛，又是誰養虎成患使它具有如此不可控製的支配地位，我打算留給別人來研究。我希望，那些抱怨到處基督徒的虔信與美德和這一代紳士階層求學上進精神都大大衰落的人，能夠考慮怎樣在下一代中將這些挽回。我確信如果不從青年們的教育與原則性上去打好基礎，其餘一切的努力都將是白費。如果我們不去注意與保存下一代的純潔、嚴肅和勤奮的美德，那麽期待他們具有充分的美德，能力和學識是很荒謬，雖然這些品質使得英國成為世界上的一個重要國家。我本想加上勇敢，但勇敢被看作是英國人的天然遺傳。最近大家談到海上發生的一些事情，那在我們的先輩是從未發生過的，於此我不能不說，腐化墮落會消磨人的勇氣；一旦荒淫侵蝕了真正的榮譽感，勇氣是很少能夠繼續存在的。而且我認為任何國家，無論他們原來如何驍勇馳名，一旦腐敗泛濫、消融了紀律的約束，邪惡猖狂、到了肆無忌憚的地步，都不可能憑借武力繼續保持榮譽或者得到鄰邦的敬畏。

It is virtue then, direct virtue, which is the hard and valuable part to be aimed at in education, and not a forward pertness, or any little arts of shifting. All other considerations and accomplishments should give way and be postponed to this. This is the solid and substantial good which tutors should not only read lectures, and talk of, but the labour and art of education should furnish the mind with, and fasten there, and never cease till the young man had a true relish of it, and placed his strength, his glory, and his pleasure in it.

教育中困難而又有價值的目標是美德，直接的美德，而不是魯莽冒失，也不是任何一點混世的技能。其餘一切的考慮與成就都應該讓位於它。惟有美德才是堅實而又真正的善，導師應該不僅是勸諭灌輸它，而且要用教育的工作與技巧，以美德裝備心靈，讓它堅固在心裏，在年輕人對美德有真正興趣，並把他的力量、榮譽和快樂放在美德中以前不要停止。

The more this advances, the easier way will be made for other accomplishments in their turns. For he that is brought to submit to virtue, will not be refractory, or resty, in any thing that becomes him; and therefore I cannot but prefer breeding of a young gentleman at home in his father's sight, under a good governor, as much the best and safest way to this great and main end of education, when it can be had, and is ordered as it should be. Gentlemen's houses are seldom without variety of company. They should use their sons to all the strange faces that come here, and engage them in conversation with men of parts and breeding, as soon as they are capable of it. And why those who live in the country should not take them with them, when they make visits of civility to their neighbours, I know not. This I am sure, a father that breeds his son at home, has the opportunity to have him more in his own company, and there give him what encouragement he thinks fit, and can keep him better from the taint of servants and the meaner sort of people, than is possible to be done abroad. But what shall be resolved in the case, must in great measure be left to the parents, to be determined by their circumstances and conveniences; only I think it the worst sort of good husbandry for a father not to strain himself a little for his son's breeding; which, let his condition be what it will, is the best portion he can leave him. But if, after all, it shall be thought by some, that the breeding at home has too little company, and that at ordinary schools, not such as it should be for a young gentleman, I think there might be ways found out to avoid the inconveniences on the one side and the other.

德行愈高的人，愈容易依次取得其他成就。因為凡是能服從美德的人，在對他合宜的任何事情上都不會執拗或倔強的；因此我推崇在家中、在父親跟前教養年輕紳士，由好的導師來教導，隻要能恰當地做到這一點，這是最好最安全的辦法去達成教育的這一偉大而主要的目標。紳士們的家中很少會沒有各種各樣的客人。他們應當讓他們的兒子習慣陌生的麵孔，一旦孩子有能力與人交往，就應該讓他們與有才能、有教養的人交往。為什麽一些鄉下的人，不帶著他們的孩子一起去拜訪鄰居，這我就不明白了。我相信，父親在家裏教養兒子，比較在外麵教育，他有更多的機會陪伴兒子，因而更能給他以應當的鼓勵，使他更少受仆人與下層人的玷染。 但是事情究竟怎樣處置，那主要應由父母根據他們的環境與方便來決定的；我隻覺得，如果做父親的一點也不肯自己承擔來教養他的兒子，那是治家的最壞辦法；無論他的情況如何，親自教養兒子是對兒子最好的給予。不過有人認為家庭教育缺少夥伴，而一般學校又不適宜年輕的紳士，我想也許最終會找到辦法避免這二者的弊病。

 

摘自Some Thoughts Concerning Education (English-Chinese Edition)(ISBN-10: 1537479857)