开始感恩节假期

Susan著 小哭译

总算到了：感恩节假期。一整个星期用来放松、娱乐和感恩，不用上学了也不用做家庭作业了。说实话，我并没想到可以有整个星期不用上学来过感恩节。多数学校只是在星期四和星期五（感恩节总是在星期四）不上学，一些幸运的也会在星期三不上学。但是在HMS，家长-老师见面会正好安排在星期一和星期二，那就意味着我们这些幸运的HMS学生会有一整个星期用来过感恩节！哇！真的要感谢什么。今天是星期五，感恩节假期前的最后一天，哦，天哪！整个学校都已经沉浸在感恩节的气氛里了。

多数老师都决定不给我们留作业，因为感恩节到了，我们得应该有点什么用来感恩的东西啊。他们还决定，既然今天是放假前的最后一天，我们应该放松一下，给每一个人都留下一个好印象。因此，今天所有的老师都让我们放松放松，高兴高兴。在ACE（高级社会学）课上，我们看了一个叫做《战马》的片子。这片子讲的事儿和世界第一次大战有关，因此和我们的课程相关联。我很高兴老师选择了这个电影！我都等了好几年了，一直想去看看这部电影，因为那个我一直以来最喜欢的演员有份出演。但令人伤心的是，他在电影中出场的时间比较晚，而因为我们有限的时间（40分钟），我们不得在他出场后就停了下来。幸运的是，我们在过完假期返校后会继续观看《战马》。

在威尔基女士的ELA课上，我们没有任何不得不做的功课。我们有整整两节课的时间（差不多一个半小时）进行独立阅读。有些人为了更舒服而带了枕头来。我手上正在读的一本书很糟糕，故事情节很老套、人物交待很模糊，所以我去图书馆借了另一本书来读。这第二本书相当地好，我在ELA课上度过了相当快乐的阅读时光。

在西班牙语课上，我们也看了一个电影。事实上 ，我们这三天一直在看这个电影，而今天给看完了。这个电影很好看，基于一个真实的故事。我想我妈妈会喜欢这个电影。故事发生在一个非常贫穷的西裔社区的学校，那里有着相当粗鲁的孩子们，这电影让我意识到了和世界上多数学校相比，HMS是一个多么好的学校啊。

上面提到的活动都是放松和有趣的，但是接下来很重要的两件事儿发生在我的数学和科学课上。在数学课上，我们做了一个与百分数、平均数和分数有关系的游戏。首先，老师给了我们居住在所有七大洲的人数，我们必须得算出每一个洲所占全世界总人数的百分比。我一点也不惊讶于发现亚洲和非洲拥有着人口最多的国家。然后，基于这些百分比，我们班代表着整个世界，把全班按不同的百分比分成不同的。

亚洲有着全世界最多的人口（60%），由12个孩子代表；亚洲拥有世界财富的22%，由11个星形糖代表。11个糖，12个孩子。我们中大多数人只能得到一个糖，但其中有二人得到了不只一个糖，而另有四个人却一个糖也没得到。这种分配代表着在亚洲境内财富分布不均、多数的人还相当地贫穷这一状况。现在……轮到北美洲了。北美洲的人口占世界的7.2%，仅由一个孩子代表；北美洲拥有世界32%的财富，由16个星形糖代表。这孩子他自己一个人就得到了所有的16个糖。嘿，北美洲富得见鬼。

这个游戏让我意识到在现实生活中我住在北美洲是多么地幸运（在游戏中，我被分到了亚洲组）。我拥有16个星形糖的生活，而世界上很多人们却连一个都没有。看着因为不够分所导致的亚洲和非洲这样的组为着星形糖而战也很有趣儿；而象欧洲组（2人）则表现得比较平和，他们甚至还交换一些星形糖，就象在现实生活中一样。这个活动让我意识到我的生活是多么地美好，并且也让我为某些事情去感恩。我想上帝在恰当的时间让我明白了这些事情。因为近来，我一直在想着我的生活有多么地艰辛；而事实上，我生活得相当地富足。

今天所做的第二件让人难忘的事儿是在科学课上。在科学课上，我们的老师让全班同学聚在一起，做了一件相当特别的事儿。她先是讲了一通她是如何地感谢我们中的每一个人的。她从教室的某一个端开始，结束于另一端，实际上她提前列了一个清单！(译者注:Susan解释说老师事先在纸上写下了大家的优点)这事儿是如此地感人。对于一些同学，老师感谢他们的幽默感；对于另一些，老师感谢他们的坚定。我确信，这事儿使每一个人（包括我自己）对自己都感觉相当地高兴和相当地好。她真是一个了不起的老师。

但是她说了一件事儿，却象是打了我一耳光。她在谈到其中一个同学时说：“我真的很欣赏你的谦逊。你是如此地谦逊，即使你是班上最聪明的孩子之一，你也从来没有表现出你比其它人强。”她谈论的那个孩子是一个相当安静的女生，即使我不想象这个女生那样地沉默和安静（因为我通常是一个话多的人），但我想我也能从她身上学到很多。谦逊真的是我应该学习的东西。骄傲是我的一个致命的缺点，特别是当每一个人都告诉我我是多么地聪明的时候。今天老师说的话让我意识到只是因为聪明，我没有必要去向全世界广播。我的同学认为我聪明与否并没什么，只要我的老师知道我聪明和我的成绩好就行了。我不应该在乎同学们会想什么。当然，我也不可能完全像那个女生那样，因为她也太安静和谦逊了，象她那样表现得好像让人看不见似的也有悖我的天性。

今天学校的节奏很慢但是很有意思。安静、放松，最特别的是，它提醒了我许多被我忘记了的生活真谛。现在，我将记得我的生活是多么地幸运，记得上帝已经给了我一个极好的礼物。还有，我应该记得不要太自傲，因为那会让我对自己的错误视而不见。我必须得记得跟上帝祷告，让他在这件事情上帮助我。这个星期五是这个星期学校生活的一个完美小结，更是马上到来的感恩假日的一个完美的开始。

【小哭介绍背景】这篇小文令我感慨万千。纵然Susan再是“语言的巨人，行动的矮子”，我也真的是喜欢读到“巨人”的这种语言。Susan不擅管理时间，不时就搞得大家焦头烂额，令我这个妈妈常常生气不已；可是一读她的这种小文，那种生气顿时就无形了。自己也不完美，不能要求Susan样样都好。欣赏她的优点吧。

我觉得数学课的小游戏，告诉孩子们的事情其实很简单，但是，Susan不会被我们平时类似的简单的叙述打动，却会被这种小游戏触动心灵。不管怎么说，数学老师竟然可以通过这样的游戏教会孩子们认识世界、学会感恩，还是相当令人敬佩的。我只是在家长返校夜听过这个老师短短十分钟的自我介绍，就认定这是一个好老师。接下来在Susan的话语中很难听到关于数学老师的具体介绍， Susan平时总是讲她又得了几分什么的。唉，人家是大人在乎孩子的分数，孩子跟着在乎；我们家是孩子在乎分数，非得用分数来衡量她自己。怎么告诉Susan人生有很多内容似乎也无法让她不在乎数学成绩似的，估计这一阶段应该是暂时的，是她融进新环境中、寻找自己位置的一个办法吧。

不过，有一天Susan回来说，中饭的时候，数学老师路过他们的桌子，跟他们说了刚刚批改完的成绩，琥珀又为着没有得满分而伤心了，老师赶紧说，加上附加题，琥珀最后还是满分，这才令琥珀脸色重回正常。后来，有两次在班上，老师公布满分的孩子名字时，故意把琥珀给落下了，就在琥珀伤心到想哭的时候，老师不紧不慢地补充说还有琥珀，气得琥珀一下子冲了出去，大叫“我恨你I HATE YOU”。Susan说大家都看得出来老师想帮琥珀放松点，可是，看来并不容易。听说琥珀家大人也不那么在乎分，可是为什么Susan和琥珀都这么在乎呢？我怀疑，Susan得85分那次，可能伤心的细节讲出来的话也跟琥珀差不多？只是，她没有跟我们讲。幸亏遇到这么好的数学老师，要是遇到国内那种唯成绩是论的老师，那这种类型的小孩去看“分”的眼神，绝对就是看“命”了：（ （“考考，老师的活宝；分分，学生的命根”）

Susan提到，科学课上老师对一个文静女生的表扬，让她非常地明白自己与那个孩子的不同。回家后她非常困惑地问我，她是不是不太好？她应该如何面对自己觉得自己聪明这一问题。她说她不想在自己有优点的方面，招来老师和同学们的反感。我给她提了个建议，她觉得挺好。我说你这样想：感谢上帝，让我在数学方面有一定的天赋，可以不用很辛苦地就能够取得想要的好成绩；但这不是完全靠我个人努力得来的成绩，这是上帝的恩赐。我说，上帝一定是自有安排。上帝一定是希望你能够好好地运用他赐给你的能力，活出他的荣耀来。Susan马上说，她觉得这样想很好，既能让她自然地表达出来她的自我评价，也能在将荣耀归给上帝的同时让自己回归谦逊。嗯，我其实对她的这类困惑特别地欣赏，因为我相信她为这种困惑寻求答案的过程，就是自身成长的过程。

其实，对于她为自己生活在北美而感觉幸运，因此就觉得上帝爱她、送了礼物给她的想法，我是相当地不同意的！可是这是我在教会团契中也一直没有解决的问题，就类似于上帝为什么允许灾难存在一样，单单靠“上帝想什么不是我们可以明白的”这句话是不能解我的困惑的。所以，我也没有在这件事情上跟Susan多谈。如果为着非常物化的事情感恩，就必然让人想问，那些没有得到这么多物化的东西的人们，还要不要对上帝感恩呢？每当人们为着不是一种心态而是一种可以物化的东西感恩时，我都会禁不住产生这类困惑——困惑上帝希望人们去追求什么，为什么而感恩，人们又是如何理解这一问题的。

当我周五读完小文后，马上将小文转发给了当初劝我在小村买房子的朋友。我说，这里的老师确实是非常地好！朋友回复说，这里是我千挑万选才选定的地方，我哪会害你呢？嗯，我越来越觉得朋友很有眼光。对于Susan这种特别容易受老师和同学们影响的孩子，HMS真的是能够帮助她更好成长的学校。

附上英文原文：

           
Start of Thanksgiving Break

It’s finally here: Thanksgiving break. A whole week off from school to relax, have fun, and be thankful that we don’t have homework. To tell the truth, I was not expecting to have a whole week off for Thanksgiving. Most schools only get Thursday and Friday off (Thanksgiving is always on a Thursday), some lucky ones get Wednesday, too. But at HMS, parent-teacher conferences just happened to land on Monday and Tuesday, meaning that us lucky students at HMS get this whole week off for Thanksgiving! Hurray! Finally something to be thankful for. Today is Friday, the day before our Thanksgiving break, and boy! The whole school was  already in the mood.

Most of the teachers decided not to assign us homework, since it’s going to be Thanksgiving, and we should have something to be thankful for. They also decided that since today is the day before the break, we should take it easy and leave each other on a good note. Therefore, all the teachers let us relax today, and be happy. In ACE (advanced History class), we watched a movie called War Horse. It’s related to WWI, which makes it relevant to the class. I’m so glad the teacher chose that movie! I’ve been wanting to watch it for  ages, because my favorite actor of all time is acting in it. Sadly, he appears later in the movie, and due to our limited amount of time (40 minutes), we had to stop right after he appeared. Fortunately, we’ll be continuing War Horse when we get back from break.

In Ms.Wilkie’s ELA class, we didn’t have to do any work. We had the entire two periods (about an hour and a half) for independent reading. Some of us brought pillows to be more comfortable. The book I was reading was awful, with an overused plot and underdeveloped characters, so I went up to the library and checked out another one. That second one was pretty good, and I had a really good time reading in ELA.

In Spanish class, we also watched a movie. Actually, we’ve been watching it for three days now, and we finished it today. It was really sweet, and based on a true story. I think my mom would like it. It took place in a really poor, Hispanic neighborhood, in a school with really rowdy kids, and it made me realize how wonderful HMS is compared most schools in the world.

Those activities mentioned above were relaxing and fun, but the two things that stuck with me the most are the things I did in Math and Science. In Math class, we did an activity related to percentages and averages and fractions. First, we were given the numbers of people that lived in all the seven continents, and we had to calculate what percentage of the world’s population each continent contained. I was not surprised to find out Asie and Africawere the two most populated countries. Then, based on the percentages, we pretended our class represented the world and split the class up into different continents. For example, since we had 20 people in our class (representing the world’s population), and 60% of the world’s population resides in Asia, roughly 12 people in our class got put into the “Asia” group.

After splitting the whole class up into different “continents”, with some only containing one person (North America), and some containing twelve (Asia), we were given the GDP in each continent. The GDP is the amount of wealth each continent contained. Then, we calculated what percentage of the world’s wealth each continent contained. Using 50 starbursts as the world’s total wealth, we divided the starbursts up among the students in our class based on continents. The result was startling.

Asia had the biggest population in the world (60%), represented by 12 kids.Asiaowned 22% of the world’s weath, represented by 11 starbursts. 11 starbursts, 12 kids. Most of us only got one. Two of us got more than one, and four of us got zero. That represented how wealth inAsiais not equally divided, and most people were really poor. Now…NorthAmerica. North America’s population is 7.2% of the world, represented by only one kid.North America owned 32% of the world’s wealth, represented by 16 starbursts. 16 starbursts, one kid. He got 16 all to himself. Yep,North America’s pretty darn rich.

This activity made me realize how lucky I am to live in North America in real life (in the game, I got put into groupAsia). I’m living with 16 starbursts, while many people in the world are getting none. It was interesting to see how the groups like Asia and Africa fought for the starbursts, because there were not enough, which groups likeEurope (2 people) acted pretty peaceful, and even traded some starbursts. Just like in real life. This activity put into perspective how wonderful my life is, and it really gave me something to be thankful for. I think God gave me this realization at just the right time, because lately, I have been thinking about how hard my life is, while in reality, I’m living pretty rich.

The second memoriable thing we did today was in Science. In Science class, our teacher got the whole class together, and did something really special. She gave a small speech on something she appreciates about each and every one of us, starting from one end of the classroom, and ending at the other. She actually made a list! It was so sweet. With some students, she appreciated their sense of humor, with others, their  determination. I’m sure it made everyone (myself included) feel really happy and really good about themselves. She’s a great teacher.

One of the things she said, though, was like a slap to the face for me. She was talking about one of the students, and she said: “I really appreciated your humbleness. You are just so humble, and even though you’re one of the smartest kids in the class, you don’t act like you’re above everyone else.” The kid she was talking to is a really quiet girl, and even though I don’t want to be as silent and quiet as her (since I’m usually a talkativer person), I think I can learn a lot from her. Humbleness is something I’ve really gotta learn. Pride is one of my fatal flaws, especially when everyone is telling me how smart I am. What the teacher said today made me realize that just because I’m smart, I don’t have to broadcast it across the world. Whether my classmates think I’m smart or not doesn’t matter, as long as my teachers know I’m smart and my grades are good. I shouldn’t care what they think. Of course, I can’t be completely like the girl either, because she’s too quiet and humble, and it’s against my nature to act invisible.

Today at school was a very slow but interesting day. It was quiet, it was relaxing, but most of all, it reminded me about a lot of life’s facts that I have forgotten. Now, I will remember how lucky my life is, and remember that God has given me a wonderful gift. Also, I have to remember not to be too proud of myself, because that can cause me to become blind to my mistakes. I have to remember to pray to God to help me with that. This Friday was the perfect ending to this week, and a perfect beginning to the start of the  Thanksgiving break.