Democracy and Education
John Dewey
Translation
1、There is nothing peculiar about educational aims. They are just like aims in any directed
occupation. The educator, like the farmer, has certain things to do, certain resources with which to
do, and certain obstacles with which to contend .
【参考译文】教育的目的并没有什么特殊。它们和任何有指导的职业的目的正好一样。教育
者和前面所说的农民一样，也有一些事情要做，有一些做事情的办法，有一些待排除的障碍。
2、The conditions with which the farmer deals, whether as obstacles or resources, have their own
structure and operation independently of any purpose of his. Seeds sprout, rain falls, the sun shines,
insects devour, blight comes, the seasons change.
【参考译文】农民所应付的环境，无论是障碍或是可以使用的力量，都有它们自己的结构和
作用，与农民的任何目的无关，例如种子发芽，雨水下降，阳光照耀，害处吞食，疫病流行，
四季变化。
3、His aim is simply to utilize these various conditions; to make his activities and their energies
work together, instead of against one another.
【参考译文】农民的目的，只不过是利用这种种环境，使他的活动和环境的力量共同协作，
而不相互对抗。
4、It would be absurd if the farmer set up a purpose of farming, without any reference to these
conditions of soil, climate, characteristic of plant growth, etc.
【参考译文】如果农民不顾土壤、气候以及植物生长的特点等条件，规定一个农事目的，那
便是荒谬的。
5、His purpose is simply a foresight of the consequences of his energies connected with those of
the things about him, a foresight used to direct his movements from day to day.
【参考译文】农民的目的，只是在于预见它的力量和他周围各种事物的力量结合的结果，并
利用这种预见指导他一天一天的行动。
6、Foresight of possible consequences leads to more careful and extensive observation of the
nature and performances of the things he had to do with, and to laying out a plan -- that is, of a
certain order in the acts to be performed.
【参考译文】对于可能结果的预见，使他自己所要对付的事情的性质和活动进行更审慎、更
广泛的观察，以便拟订一个工作计划，即规定一个行动的程序。
7、It is the same with the educator, whether parent or teacher. It is as absurd for the latter to set up
his "own" aims as the proper objects of the growth of the children as it would be for the farmer to
set up an ideal of farming irrespective of conditions.
【参考译文】教育者也是这样，不管是家长还是教师。如果家长或教师提出他们“自己的”
目的，作为儿童生长的正当目标，这和农民不顾环境情况提出一个农事理想，同样是荒谬可
笑的。
8、Aims mean acceptance of responsibility for the observations, anticipations, and arrangements
required in carrying on a function —— whether farming or educating.
【参考译文】所谓目的，就是对行使一种职责——不管是农业还是教育——所要求进行的观
察、预测和工作安排承担责任。
9、Any aim is of value so far as it assists observation, choice, and planning in carrying on activity
from moment to moment and hour to hour; if it gets in the way of the individual's own common
sense ( as it will surely do if imposed from without or accepted on authority ) it does harm.
【参考译文】任何目的，只要能时时刻刻帮助我们观察、选择和计划，使我们的活动得以顺
利进行，这就是有价值的目的；如果这个目的妨碍个人自己的常识（如果目的是从外面强加
的，或是因迫于权势而接受的，肯定要妨碍个人自己的常识），这个目的就是有害的。
10、And it is well to remind ourselves that education as such has no aims. Only persons, parents,
and teachers, etc., have aims, not an abstract idea like education.
【参考译文】我们要提醒自己，教育本身并无目的。只是人，即家长和教师等才有目的；教
育这个抽象概念并无目的。
11、And consequently their purposes are indefinitely varied, differing with different children,
changing as children grow and with the growth of experience on the part of the one who teaches.
【参考译文】所以，他们的目的有无穷的变异，随着不同的儿童而不同，随着儿童的生长和
教育者经验的增长而变化。
12、Even the most valid aims which can be put in words will, as words, do more harm than good
unless one recognizes that they are not aims, but rather suggestions to educators as to how to
observe, how to look ahead, and how to choose in liberating and directing the energies of the
concrete situations in which they find themselves.
【参考译文】即使能以文字表达的最正确的目的，除非我们认识到它们并不是目的，而是给
教育者的建议，在他们解放和指导他们所遇到的具体环境的各种力量时，建议他们怎样观察，
怎样展望未来和怎样选择，那么这种目的，作为文字，将是有害无益的。
13、As a recent writer has said: “To lead this boy to read Scott's novels instead of old Sleuth's
stories; to teach this girl to sew; to root out the habit of bullying from John's make-up; to prepare
this class to study medicine, -- these are samples of the millions of aims we have actually before
us in the concrete work of education. ”
【参考译文】正如一位近代作家说过：“引导这个男孩读斯各特写的小说，不读旧的斯留斯
写的故事；教这个女孩缝纫；使约翰根除横行霸道的习惯；准备这一班学生学医——这些都
是我们在具体的教育工作中实际所有的无数目的的几个例子。”
14、Bearing these qualifications in mind, we shall proceed to state some of the characteristics
found in all good educational aims.
【参考译文】牢记以上这些条件，我们将进而提出一切良好的教育目的所应具备的几个特征。
15、(1) An educational aim must be founded upon the intrinsic activities and needs (including
original instincts and acquired habits) of the given individual to be educated.
【参考译文】一个教育目的必须根据受教育者的特定个人的固有活动和需要（包括原始的本
能和获得的习惯）。
16、The tendency of such an aim as preparation is, as we have seen, to omit existing powers, and
find the aim in some remote accomplishment or responsibility.
【参考译文】我们前面讲过，把预备作为教育目的，有不顾个人现有能力而把某种遥远的成
就和职责作为教育目的的倾向。
17、In general, there is a disposition to take considerations which are dear to the hearts of adults
and set them up as ends irrespective of the capacities of those educated. There is also an
inclination to propound aims which are so uniform as to neglect the specific powers and
requirements of an individual, forgetting that all learning is something which happens to an
individual at a given time and place.
【参考译文】总的来看，人们有一种倾向，就是提出千篇一律的目的，忽视个人的特殊能力
和要求，忘记了一切知识都是一个人在特定时间和特定地点获得的。
18、The larger range of perception of the adult is of great value in observing the abilities and
weaknesses of the young, in deciding what they may amount to.
【参考译文】成人的见识范围较广，对观察儿童的能力和缺点，决定儿童能力的强弱，缺点
的大小，具有很大价值。
19、Thus the artistic capacities of the adult exhibit what certain tendencies of the child are capable
of; if we did not have the adult achievements we should be without assurance as to the
significance of the drawing, reproducing, modeling, coloring activities of childhood.
【参考译文】例如，成人的艺术能力可以表现儿童的某种倾向能有多少成就；如果我们没有
成人的艺术上的成就，我们就没有把握了解儿童的绘画、复制、塑造和着色活动的意义。
20、So if it were not for adult language, we should not be able to see the import of the babbling
impulses of infancy.
【参考译文】同样，如果没有成人的语言，我们就不能了解婴儿期咿呀学语的冲动有何意义。
21、But it is one thing to use adult accomplishments as a context in which to place and survey the
doings of childhood and youth; it is quite another to set them up as a fixed aim without regard to
the concrete activities of those educated.
【参考译文】但是，以成人的成就作为一种背景，把儿童和青年的活动放在这个背景中进行
观察，这是一回事；把成人的成就定为固定的目的，不顾受教育者的具体活动，那完全是另
一回事。
22、(2) An aim must be capable of translation into a method of cooperating with the activities of
those undergoing instruction. It must suggest the kind of environment needed to liberate and to
organize their capacities.
【参考译文】一个教育目的必须转化为与受教育者的活动进行合作的方法。这个目的必须提
出一种解放和组织他们的能力所需要的环境。
23、Unless it lends itself to the construction of specific procedures, and unless these procedures
test, correct, and amplify the aim, the latter is worthless.
【参考译文】除非这个目的有助于制订具体的进行程序，除非这些程序又能检验、校正和发
挥这个目的，否则这个目的便是没有价值的。
24、Instead of helping the specific task of teaching, it prevents the use of ordinary judgment in
observing and sizing up the situation. It operates to exclude recognition of everything except what
squares up with the fixed end in view.
【参考译文】这种目的不但无助于具体的教学任务，并且阻碍教师应用平常的判断观察和估
量所面临的情境。这种目的除了与固定目标相符的事物以外，其他事物概不承认。
25、Every rigid aim just because it is rigidly given seems to render it unnecessary to give careful
attention to concrete conditions. Since it must apply anyhow, what is the use of noting details
which do not count?
【参考译文】每一个呆板的目的，只是因为它是硬性规定的，似乎就不必审慎注意具体的情
况。因为这种目的无论如何必须实施，注意那些不值得考虑的细节又有什么用处呢？
26、The vice of externally imposed ends has deep roots. Teachers receive them from superior
authorities; these authorities accept them from what is current in the community.
【参考译文】从外面强加的教育目的的缺陷根子很深。教师从上级机关接受这些目的，上级
机关又从社会上流行的目的中接受这些目的。
27、The teachers impose them upon children. As a first consequence, the intelligence of the teacher
is not free; it is confined to receiving the aims laid down from above.
【参考译文】教师把这些目的强加于儿童。第一个结果是使教师的智慧不能自由；他只许接
受上级所规定的目的。
28、Too rarely is the individual teacher so free from the dictation of authoritative supervisor,
textbook on methods, prescribed course of study, etc., that he can let his mind come to close
quarters with the pupil's mind and the subject matter.
【参考译文】教师很难免于受官厅督学、教学法指导书和规定的课程等等的支配，使他的思
想不能和学生的思想以及教材紧密相连。
29、This distrust of the teacher's experience is then reflected in lack of confidence in the responses
of pupils. .
【参考译文】这种对于教师经验的不信任，又反映了对学生的反应缺乏信心。
30、The latter receive their aims through a double or treble external imposition, and are constantly
confused by the conflict between the aims which are natural to their own experience at the time
and those in which they are taught to acquiesce.
【参考译文】学生通过由外面双重或三重的强迫接受他们的目的，他们经常处于两种目的的
冲突之中，无所适从。一种是符合他们当时自己经验的目的，另一种是别人要他们默认的目
的。
31、Until the democratic criterion of the intrinsic significance of every growing experience is
recognized, we shall be intellectually confused by the demand for adaptation to external aims.
【参考译文】每一个发展中的经验，都具有内在的意义，除非我们承认这个民主主义的标准，
否则我们将会在思想上因适应外来目的的要求而陷于混乱。
32、(3) Educators have to be on their guard against ends that are alleged to be general and ultimate.
Every activity, however specific, is, of course, general in its ramified connections, for it leads out
indefinitely into other things.
【参考译文】教育者必须警惕所谓一般的和终极的目的。每一个活动无论怎样特殊，就它和
其他事物的错综复杂的关系来说，它当然是一般的，因为它引出无数其他事物。
33、So far as a general idea makes us more alive to these connections, it cannot be too general. But
"general" also means "abstract," or detached from all specific context.
【参考译文】一个普通的观念，就它能使我们更注意这些关系来说，愈一般愈好。但是，“一
般”也意味着“抽象”，或者和一切特殊的上下前后关系分开。
34、And such abstractness means remoteness, and throws us back, once more, upon teaching and
learning as mere means of getting ready for an end disconnected from the means.
【参考译文】这种抽象性又意味着遥远而不切实际，这样又使我们返回到把教和学仅仅作为
准备达到和它无关的目的的一种手段。
35、That education is literally and all the time its own reward means that no alleged study or
discipline is educative unless it is worth while in its own immediate having.
【参考译文】我们说教育确实有它自己的酬报，意思是说，除非所说的学习或训练有它自己
的直接价值，否则，这种学习或训练就没有教育意义。
36、A truly general aim broadens the outlook; it stimulates one to take more consequences
(connections) into account. This means a wider and more flexible observation of means.
【参考译文】一个真正一般的目的，能开拓人们的眼界，激发他们考虑更多的结果（即联系）。
这就意味着对各种手段进行更广泛、更灵活的观察。
37、The more interacting forces, for example, the farmer takes into account, the more varied will
be his immediate resources. He will see a greater number of possible starting places, and a greater
number of ways of getting at what he wants to do.
【参考译文】例如，一个农民，他所考虑的相互影响的力量愈多，他直接的应付能力就愈大。
他将发现更多可能的出发点和更多的方法，完成他所要做的事情。
38、The fuller one's conception of possible future achievements, the less his present activity is tied
down to a small number of alternatives. If one knew enough, one could start almost anywhere and
sustain his activities continuously and fruitfully.
【参考译文】一个人对将来可能成就的认识愈全面，他当前的活动就愈少束缚于少数可供选
择的方法。如果他了解得很透彻，他几乎可以在任何一点开始行动，并且继续不断地、有效
地把活动持续下去。
39、Understanding then the term general or comprehensive aim simply in the sense of a broad
survey of the field of present activities, we shall take up some of the larger ends which have
currency in the educational theories of the day, and consider what light they throw upon the
immediate concrete and diversified aims which are always the educator's real concern.
【参考译文】所谓一般的或综合性的目的，意思不过是对现在活动的领域进行广泛的观察。
有了这种了解，我们将就当代教育理论中流行的比较重大的教育目的，选取几个来讨论，并
且研究这些目的能否使我们明白教育者真正关切的当前各种具体的目的。
40、We premise (as indeed immediately follows from what has been said) that there is no need of
making a choice among them or regarding them as competitors.
【参考译文】我们先提出一个前提（其实从以上所述中立即产生这个前提），就是对于这些
目的，用不着选择，也不必把它们看作互相竞争的对手。
41、When we come to act in a tangible way we have to select or choose a particular act at a
particular time, but any number of comprehensive ends may exist without competition, since they
mean simply different ways of looking at the same scene.
【参考译文】当我们实际上有所作为时，我们必须在一个特定的时间选择一个特定的行动，
但是无论多少综合性的目的，都可以同时存在，并行不悖，因为它们不过是对同一景色不同
的看法。
42、One cannot climb a number of different mountains simultaneously, but the views had when
different mountains are ascended supplement one another: they do not set up incompatible,
competing worlds.
【参考译文】一个人不能同时攀登几个山峰，但是在攀登不同的山峰时，各种景色互相补充：
它们并不揭示互不相容、互相竞争的世界。
43、Or, putting the matter in a slightly different way, one statement of an end may suggest certain
questions and observations, and another statement another set of questions, calling for other
observations.
【参考译文】或者，用稍稍不同的说法，一种目的的说法，可以暗示某些问题和观察；另一
种目的的说法，可以暗示另外一些问题，要求进行别的观察。
44、Then the more general ends we have, the better. One statement will emphasize what another
slurs over.
【参考译文】因此，我们的目的愈一般愈好。一种说法可以强调另一种说法所忽略的方面。
45、What a plurality of hypotheses does for the scientific investigator, a plurality of stated aims
may do for the instructor.
【参考译文】众多的假设能给科学研究工作者多少帮助，众多的目的也能给教师多少帮助。
Lesson 4 The Secret of Childhood
1. Difficult sentences
•1) To him were reserved only the material, moral or intellectual resources of the family into
which he was born. (P40-P1-L6)
• 翻译：儿童可以得到他所出生的家庭提供的物质、道德和智慧上的帮助。
•2) Society up till now has never claimed that the family should prepare itself in any way to
receive and fittingly care for the children that might come to form part of it. (P40-P1-L10)
翻译：社会至今未要求家庭对即将成为家庭一员的儿童的到来做好任何准备。
•3) In the midst of a continual progress in favor of the adult they have remained as beings not
belonging to human society, extra-social, without any means of communication that would allow
society to become aware of their condition. (P40-P1-L19)
翻译：在这个持续有利于成人的历史发展中，他们（儿童）一直是不属于人类社会群体，游
离于社会之外的，没有任何沟通渠道促使使社会关注他们的状态、了解他们的处境。
•4) In private schools the punishments in use are often pointed out as they might point out their
coat of arms. (P42-P2-L4)
•翻译：在私立学校里通常有固定的惩罚模式。即：就像盾徽一样固定的模式。
Lesson 5 Education and Good Life
1. Difficult sentences
•1)But America, like Japan, is placed in a peculiar situation, and what the special circumstances
justify is not necessarily an ideal to be followed everywhere and always. (P51-P1-L4)
翻译：但是，美国同日本一样，正处于一个特殊的环境之中，并且为这些特殊环境所证实有
利之物却未必可以不分地点、不分时间，作为理想楷模而加以仿效。
•2) But where the old world is superior to the new, it becomes necessarily to instill a contempt for
genuine excellences. （P51-P2-L2）
翻译：但是碰到旧世界超过新世界的方面，美国人认为灌输对旧世界优点的鄙视是必要的。
•3) In almost all European countries the individual is less subject to herd domination than in
America: his inner freedom is greater even where his political freedom is less.（P51-P2-L6）
翻译：在欧洲国家，个人受制于群体的现象较之美国要少，尽管政治上的自由比较少，内心
自由（精神自由）却比较多。
•4) No effort of self-denial and no abstract principle of justice is involved in taking trouble about
such matters. （P52-P1-L8）
翻译：当他们在这些事情上劳神费力时，用不着克己的努力，也用不着抽象的正义原理。
•5) We must first make a distinction: some qualities are desirable in a certain propotion of
mankind, others are desirable universally. （P52-P3-L1）
翻译：首先我们必须明确：有些品性只宜为某些特定的人群所拥有，还有一些品性则应为所
有人所具备。
Lesson 6 The Aims of Education
1. Difficult sentences
•1)Education with inert ideas is not only useless: it is, above all things, harmful----corruptio
optimi, pessima. （P60-P1-L3）
翻译：1、最好那一部分的腐坏是最致命的。
• 2、最好的人/物的堕落，是最坏的结果。
•2) Let the main ideas which are introduced into a child's education be few and important, and let
them be thrown into every combination possible. （P61-P3-L2）
翻译：儿童教育中所教的主要概念要少而重要，还要使他们尽可能集合成各种组合。 •
•3) By understanding I mean more than a mere logical analysis, though that is included. I mean
"understanding" in the sense in which it is used in the French proverb, "To understand all, is to
forgive all."（P61-P3-L8）
翻译：我这里所说的理解，虽然包含着逻辑的分析，却不单纯是逻辑的分析。我所说的”理
解“，其意与法国的一句谚语”理解一切就是宽恕一切“之意相同。
•4) Is it a talent, to be hidden away in a napkin?
•翻译：它是藏着不用的才能吗？
•5) The only use of a knowledge of the past is to equip us for the present. （P61-P4-L4）
翻译：过去的知识，它仅有的作用，是武装我们对付现在。
•6）The present contains all that there is. It is holy ground; for it is the past, and it is the future. At
the same time it must be observed that an age is no less past if it existed two hundred years ago
than if it existed two thousand years ago. Do not be deceived by the pedantry of dates. The ages of
Shakespeare and of Molière are no less past than are the ages of Sophocles and of Virgil.
翻译：现在包含一切。现在是神圣的境界，因为它包含过去，又孕育着未来。同时我们必须
注意，一个200年前的时代与一个2000年前的时代同样古老。不要被形式上的年代所蒙蔽。
莎士比亚和莫里哀的时代与索福克勒斯和维吉尔的时代一样古老。
7）The communion of saints is a great and inspiring assemblage, but it has only one possible hall
of meeting, and that is, the present, and the mere lapse of time through which any particular group
of saints must travel to reach that meeting-place, makes very little difference.
翻译：先贤们的思想交流是启发灵智的盛会，但聚会只可能有一个殿堂，这就是现在；任何
先贤来到这个殿堂所经历的时间没有什么不同的意义。
8) I can imagine a set of beings which might fortify their souls by passively reviewing
disconnected ideas. Humanity is not built that way -- except perhaps some editors of newspapers.
翻译：我能设想有一些人可能通过消极地回顾一些没有联系的概念来加强他们的心灵。但是，
也许除了某些报纸编辑以外，人类不是那样建立起来的。
•9）Now an idea is not worth much unless the propositions in which it is embodied are true.
Accordingly an essential part of the proof of an idea is the proof, either by experiment or by logic,
of the truth of the propositions.
翻译：一个概念，除非它所包含的命题是真实的，否则是没有多大价值的。因此，所谓证明
一个概念，主要就是或者用实验的方法或者用逻辑的推理来证明命题的真实性。
10）But it is not essential that this proof of the truth should constitute the first introduction to the idea. After alll, it's assertion by the authority of respectable teachers is sufficient evidence to begin with. (P62-L4)
翻译：但是，开始引进一个概念，不一定就要证明命题的真实性。毕竟，在开始时受人尊敬的教师维护这个概念就是一个足够的证明。
•11）These two processes of proof, in the narrow sense, and of appreciation, do not require a rigid separation in time. Both can be proceeded with nearly concurrently. But in so far as either process must have the priority, it should be that of appreciation by use. (P62-L9)
翻译：这两个过程，即狭义的证明过程和评价过程，并不需要在时间上严格分开。两个过程几乎可以协同进行。两者几乎可能同时进行。但因为任何一个过程必须有优先性，因此应该优先考虑评价过程。
•12）This truth was partially perceived in the past generation; and headmasters, somewhat crudely, were apt to supersede learning in their colleagues by requiring left-hand bowling and a taste for football. But culture is more than cricket, and more than football, and more than extent of knowledge. (P62-P3-L4)
翻译：上一代人只是部分地认识这个真理；而中学校长们，未免有些简单化，要他们的同事以左手打保龄球，以及喜欢足球来取代学术。然而，文化比板球丰富，比足球丰富，文化也比广博的知识更为丰富。
•13）The external assessor may report on the curriculum or on the performance of the pupils, but never should be allowed to ask the pupil a question which has not been strictly supervised by the actual teacher, or at least inspired by a long conference with him. (P63-P1-L2)
翻译：校外考试人员可以撰写有关课程和学习成绩的报告，但是决不允许他对学生出一个学生的教师没有严格的指导或至少在一次长时间讨论中所没有被启发到的题目。
•14） The reason is that we are dealing with human minds, and not with dead matter. The evocation of curiosity, of judgment, of the power of mastering a complicated tangle of circumstances, the use of theory in giving foresight in special cases -- all these powers are not to be imparted by a set rule embodied in one schedule of examination subjects. (P63-P3-L9)
翻译：这是因为，我们是在与人的大脑而不是与僵死的物质打交道。唤起学生的求知欲和判断力，以及控制复杂情况的能力，使他们在特殊情况下应用理论知识对前景作出展望——所有这些能力不是靠一条体现在各科目考试中的固定规则所能传授的。
Lesson 8 Education and freedom
1. Difficult sentences
•1) Harsh words are being said about its methods no less than about its aims.
harsh words: 恶言恶语; 伤人的话；
翻译：人们正对美国的教育目的和教育方法进行严厉的批评。
•2) It may thus do in matters of the intellect what Pearl Harbor did in matters indurtrial and military . （P85-P4-L2）
翻译：苏联卫星上天在美国知识界产生的影响如同珍珠港事件对美国的工业和军事产生的影响一样大。
•3) Let us not lose our heads and despair of American technological competence as it is today. The real danger lies somewhat in the future and can be averted if we will act.（P85-P5-L1）
翻译：我们不要因惊慌失措而对美国今天的技术力量感到失望。真正的危险在将来。而如果我们采取行动，该危险是可以避免的。
•4) This, of course, is no excuse for our mistake in letting Russia win a propaganda victory, damaging to our prestige among the uncommitted nations of the world and, it is to be feared, also among some of our friends.
翻译：这不是为我们的错误找借口。我们使苏联在宣传上取胜这一错误，使我们在中立国家中的声望深受影响，也使我们的部分朋友感到害怕。
Democracy and Education
John Dewey
Translation
1、There is nothing peculiar about educational aims. They are just like aims in any directed
occupation. The educator, like the farmer, has certain things to do, certain resources with which to
do, and certain obstacles with which to contend .
【参考译文】教育的目的并没有什么特殊。它们和任何有指导的职业的目的正好一样。教育
者和前面所说的农民一样，也有一些事情要做，有一些做事情的办法，有一些待排除的障碍。
2、The conditions with which the farmer deals, whether as obstacles or resources, have their own
structure and operation independently of any purpose of his. Seeds sprout, rain falls, the sun shines,
insects devour, blight comes, the seasons change.
【参考译文】农民所应付的环境，无论是障碍或是可以使用的力量，都有它们自己的结构和
作用，与农民的任何目的无关，例如种子发芽，雨水下降，阳光照耀，害处吞食，疫病流行，
四季变化。
3、His aim is simply to utilize these various conditions; to make his activities and their energies
work together, instead of against one another.
【参考译文】农民的目的，只不过是利用这种种环境，使他的活动和环境的力量共同协作，
而不相互对抗。
4、It would be absurd if the farmer set up a purpose of farming, without any reference to these
conditions of soil, climate, characteristic of plant growth, etc.
【参考译文】如果农民不顾土壤、气候以及植物生长的特点等条件，规定一个农事目的，那
便是荒谬的。
5、His purpose is simply a foresight of the consequences of his energies connected with those of
the things about him, a foresight used to direct his movements from day to day.
【参考译文】农民的目的，只是在于预见它的力量和他周围各种事物的力量结合的结果，并
利用这种预见指导他一天一天的行动。
6、Foresight of possible consequences leads to more careful and extensive observation of the
nature and performances of the things he had to do with, and to laying out a plan -- that is, of a
certain order in the acts to be performed.
【参考译文】对于可能结果的预见，使他自己所要对付的事情的性质和活动进行更审慎、更
广泛的观察，以便拟订一个工作计划，即规定一个行动的程序。
7、It is the same with the educator, whether parent or teacher. It is as absurd for the latter to set up
his "own" aims as the proper objects of the growth of the children as it would be for the farmer to
set up an ideal of farming irrespective of conditions.
【参考译文】教育者也是这样，不管是家长还是教师。如果家长或教师提出他们“自己的”
目的，作为儿童生长的正当目标，这和农民不顾环境情况提出一个农事理想，同样是荒谬可
笑的。
8、Aims mean acceptance of responsibility for the observations, anticipations, and arrangements
required in carrying on a function —— whether farming or educating.
【参考译文】所谓目的，就是对行使一种职责——不管是农业还是教育——所要求进行的观
察、预测和工作安排承担责任。
9、Any aim is of value so far as it assists observation, choice, and planning in carrying on activity
from moment to moment and hour to hour; if it gets in the way of the individual's own common
sense ( as it will surely do if imposed from without or accepted on authority ) it does harm.
【参考译文】任何目的，只要能时时刻刻帮助我们观察、选择和计划，使我们的活动得以顺
利进行，这就是有价值的目的；如果这个目的妨碍个人自己的常识（如果目的是从外面强加
的，或是因迫于权势而接受的，肯定要妨碍个人自己的常识），这个目的就是有害的。
10、And it is well to remind ourselves that education as such has no aims. Only persons, parents,
and teachers, etc., have aims, not an abstract idea like education.
【参考译文】我们要提醒自己，教育本身并无目的。只是人，即家长和教师等才有目的；教
育这个抽象概念并无目的。
11、And consequently their purposes are indefinitely varied, differing with different children,
changing as children grow and with the growth of experience on the part of the one who teaches.
【参考译文】所以，他们的目的有无穷的变异，随着不同的儿童而不同，随着儿童的生长和
教育者经验的增长而变化。
12、Even the most valid aims which can be put in words will, as words, do more harm than good
unless one recognizes that they are not aims, but rather suggestions to educators as to how to
observe, how to look ahead, and how to choose in liberating and directing the energies of the
concrete situations in which they find themselves.
【参考译文】即使能以文字表达的最正确的目的，除非我们认识到它们并不是目的，而是给
教育者的建议，在他们解放和指导他们所遇到的具体环境的各种力量时，建议他们怎样观察，
怎样展望未来和怎样选择，那么这种目的，作为文字，将是有害无益的。
13、As a recent writer has said: “To lead this boy to read Scott's novels instead of old Sleuth's
stories; to teach this girl to sew; to root out the habit of bullying from John's make-up; to prepare
this class to study medicine, -- these are samples of the millions of aims we have actually before
us in the concrete work of education. ”
【参考译文】正如一位近代作家说过：“引导这个男孩读斯各特写的小说，不读旧的斯留斯
写的故事；教这个女孩缝纫；使约翰根除横行霸道的习惯；准备这一班学生学医——这些都
是我们在具体的教育工作中实际所有的无数目的的几个例子。”
14、Bearing these qualifications in mind, we shall proceed to state some of the characteristics
found in all good educational aims.
【参考译文】牢记以上这些条件，我们将进而提出一切良好的教育目的所应具备的几个特征。
15、(1) An educational aim must be founded upon the intrinsic activities and needs (including
original instincts and acquired habits) of the given individual to be educated.
【参考译文】一个教育目的必须根据受教育者的特定个人的固有活动和需要（包括原始的本
能和获得的习惯）。
16、The tendency of such an aim as preparation is, as we have seen, to omit existing powers, and
find the aim in some remote accomplishment or responsibility.
【参考译文】我们前面讲过，把预备作为教育目的，有不顾个人现有能力而把某种遥远的成
就和职责作为教育目的的倾向。
17、In general, there is a disposition to take considerations which are dear to the hearts of adults
and set them up as ends irrespective of the capacities of those educated. There is also an
inclination to propound aims which are so uniform as to neglect the specific powers and
requirements of an individual, forgetting that all learning is something which happens to an
individual at a given time and place.
【参考译文】总的来看，人们有一种倾向，就是提出千篇一律的目的，忽视个人的特殊能力
和要求，忘记了一切知识都是一个人在特定时间和特定地点获得的。
18、The larger range of perception of the adult is of great value in observing the abilities and
weaknesses of the young, in deciding what they may amount to.
【参考译文】成人的见识范围较广，对观察儿童的能力和缺点，决定儿童能力的强弱，缺点
的大小，具有很大价值。
19、Thus the artistic capacities of the adult exhibit what certain tendencies of the child are capable
of; if we did not have the adult achievements we should be without assurance as to the
significance of the drawing, reproducing, modeling, coloring activities of childhood.
【参考译文】例如，成人的艺术能力可以表现儿童的某种倾向能有多少成就；如果我们没有
成人的艺术上的成就，我们就没有把握了解儿童的绘画、复制、塑造和着色活动的意义。
20、So if it were not for adult language, we should not be able to see the import of the babbling
impulses of infancy.
【参考译文】同样，如果没有成人的语言，我们就不能了解婴儿期咿呀学语的冲动有何意义。
21、But it is one thing to use adult accomplishments as a context in which to place and survey the
doings of childhood and youth; it is quite another to set them up as a fixed aim without regard to
the concrete activities of those educated.
【参考译文】但是，以成人的成就作为一种背景，把儿童和青年的活动放在这个背景中进行
观察，这是一回事；把成人的成就定为固定的目的，不顾受教育者的具体活动，那完全是另
一回事。
22、(2) An aim must be capable of translation into a method of cooperating with the activities of
those undergoing instruction. It must suggest the kind of environment needed to liberate and to
organize their capacities.
【参考译文】一个教育目的必须转化为与受教育者的活动进行合作的方法。这个目的必须提
出一种解放和组织他们的能力所需要的环境。
23、Unless it lends itself to the construction of specific procedures, and unless these procedures
test, correct, and amplify the aim, the latter is worthless.
【参考译文】除非这个目的有助于制订具体的进行程序，除非这些程序又能检验、校正和发
挥这个目的，否则这个目的便是没有价值的。
24、Instead of helping the specific task of teaching, it prevents the use of ordinary judgment in
observing and sizing up the situation. It operates to exclude recognition of everything except what
squares up with the fixed end in view.
【参考译文】这种目的不但无助于具体的教学任务，并且阻碍教师应用平常的判断观察和估
量所面临的情境。这种目的除了与固定目标相符的事物以外，其他事物概不承认。
25、Every rigid aim just because it is rigidly given seems to render it unnecessary to give careful
attention to concrete conditions. Since it must apply anyhow, what is the use of noting details
which do not count?
【参考译文】每一个呆板的目的，只是因为它是硬性规定的，似乎就不必审慎注意具体的情
况。因为这种目的无论如何必须实施，注意那些不值得考虑的细节又有什么用处呢？
26、The vice of externally imposed ends has deep roots. Teachers receive them from superior
authorities; these authorities accept them from what is current in the community.
【参考译文】从外面强加的教育目的的缺陷根子很深。教师从上级机关接受这些目的，上级
机关又从社会上流行的目的中接受这些目的。
27、The teachers impose them upon children. As a first consequence, the intelligence of the teacher
is not free; it is confined to receiving the aims laid down from above.
【参考译文】教师把这些目的强加于儿童。第一个结果是使教师的智慧不能自由；他只许接
受上级所规定的目的。
28、Too rarely is the individual teacher so free from the dictation of authoritative supervisor,
textbook on methods, prescribed course of study, etc., that he can let his mind come to close
quarters with the pupil's mind and the subject matter.
【参考译文】教师很难免于受官厅督学、教学法指导书和规定的课程等等的支配，使他的思
想不能和学生的思想以及教材紧密相连。
29、This distrust of the teacher's experience is then reflected in lack of confidence in the responses
of pupils. .
【参考译文】这种对于教师经验的不信任，又反映了对学生的反应缺乏信心。
30、The latter receive their aims through a double or treble external imposition, and are constantly
confused by the conflict between the aims which are natural to their own experience at the time
and those in which they are taught to acquiesce.
【参考译文】学生通过由外面双重或三重的强迫接受他们的目的，他们经常处于两种目的的
冲突之中，无所适从。一种是符合他们当时自己经验的目的，另一种是别人要他们默认的目
的。
31、Until the democratic criterion of the intrinsic significance of every growing experience is
recognized, we shall be intellectually confused by the demand for adaptation to external aims.
【参考译文】每一个发展中的经验，都具有内在的意义，除非我们承认这个民主主义的标准，
否则我们将会在思想上因适应外来目的的要求而陷于混乱。
32、(3) Educators have to be on their guard against ends that are alleged to be general and ultimate.
Every activity, however specific, is, of course, general in its ramified connections, for it leads out
indefinitely into other things.
【参考译文】教育者必须警惕所谓一般的和终极的目的。每一个活动无论怎样特殊，就它和
其他事物的错综复杂的关系来说，它当然是一般的，因为它引出无数其他事物。
33、So far as a general idea makes us more alive to these connections, it cannot be too general. But
"general" also means "abstract," or detached from all specific context.
【参考译文】一个普通的观念，就它能使我们更注意这些关系来说，愈一般愈好。但是，“一
般”也意味着“抽象”，或者和一切特殊的上下前后关系分开。
34、And such abstractness means remoteness, and throws us back, once more, upon teaching and
learning as mere means of getting ready for an end disconnected from the means.
【参考译文】这种抽象性又意味着遥远而不切实际，这样又使我们返回到把教和学仅仅作为
准备达到和它无关的目的的一种手段。
35、That education is literally and all the time its own reward means that no alleged study or
discipline is educative unless it is worth while in its own immediate having.
【参考译文】我们说教育确实有它自己的酬报，意思是说，除非所说的学习或训练有它自己
的直接价值，否则，这种学习或训练就没有教育意义。
36、A truly general aim broadens the outlook; it stimulates one to take more consequences
(connections) into account. This means a wider and more flexible observation of means.
【参考译文】一个真正一般的目的，能开拓人们的眼界，激发他们考虑更多的结果（即联系）。
这就意味着对各种手段进行更广泛、更灵活的观察。
37、The more interacting forces, for example, the farmer takes into account, the more varied will
be his immediate resources. He will see a greater number of possible starting places, and a greater
number of ways of getting at what he wants to do.
【参考译文】例如，一个农民，他所考虑的相互影响的力量愈多，他直接的应付能力就愈大。
他将发现更多可能的出发点和更多的方法，完成他所要做的事情。
38、The fuller one's conception of possible future achievements, the less his present activity is tied
down to a small number of alternatives. If one knew enough, one could start almost anywhere and
sustain his activities continuously and fruitfully.
【参考译文】一个人对将来可能成就的认识愈全面，他当前的活动就愈少束缚于少数可供选
择的方法。如果他了解得很透彻，他几乎可以在任何一点开始行动，并且继续不断地、有效
地把活动持续下去。
39、Understanding then the term general or comprehensive aim simply in the sense of a broad
survey of the field of present activities, we shall take up some of the larger ends which have
currency in the educational theories of the day, and consider what light they throw upon the
immediate concrete and diversified aims which are always the educator's real concern.
【参考译文】所谓一般的或综合性的目的，意思不过是对现在活动的领域进行广泛的观察。
有了这种了解，我们将就当代教育理论中流行的比较重大的教育目的，选取几个来讨论，并
且研究这些目的能否使我们明白教育者真正关切的当前各种具体的目的。
40、We premise (as indeed immediately follows from what has been said) that there is no need of
making a choice among them or regarding them as competitors.
【参考译文】我们先提出一个前提（其实从以上所述中立即产生这个前提），就是对于这些
目的，用不着选择，也不必把它们看作互相竞争的对手。
41、When we come to act in a tangible way we have to select or choose a particular act at a
particular time, but any number of comprehensive ends may exist without competition, since they
mean simply different ways of looking at the same scene.
【参考译文】当我们实际上有所作为时，我们必须在一个特定的时间选择一个特定的行动，
但是无论多少综合性的目的，都可以同时存在，并行不悖，因为它们不过是对同一景色不同
的看法。
42、One cannot climb a number of different mountains simultaneously, but the views had when
different mountains are ascended supplement one another: they do not set up incompatible,
competing worlds.
【参考译文】一个人不能同时攀登几个山峰，但是在攀登不同的山峰时，各种景色互相补充：
它们并不揭示互不相容、互相竞争的世界。
43、Or, putting the matter in a slightly different way, one statement of an end may suggest certain
questions and observations, and another statement another set of questions, calling for other
observations.
【参考译文】或者，用稍稍不同的说法，一种目的的说法，可以暗示某些问题和观察；另一
种目的的说法，可以暗示另外一些问题，要求进行别的观察。
44、Then the more general ends we have, the better. One statement will emphasize what another
slurs over.
【参考译文】因此，我们的目的愈一般愈好。一种说法可以强调另一种说法所忽略的方面。
45、What a plurality of hypotheses does for the scientific investigator, a plurality of stated aims
may do for the instructor.
【参考译文】众多的假设能给科学研究工作者多少帮助，众多的目的也能给教师多少帮助。
Lesson 4 The Secret of Childhood
1. Difficult sentences
•1) To him were reserved only the material, moral or intellectual resources of the family into
which he was born. (P40-P1-L6)
• 翻译：儿童可以得到他所出生的家庭提供的物质、道德和智慧上的帮助。
•2) Society up till now has never claimed that the family should prepare itself in any way to
receive and fittingly care for the children that might come to form part of it. (P40-P1-L10)
翻译：社会至今未要求家庭对即将成为家庭一员的儿童的到来做好任何准备。
•3) In the midst of a continual progress in favor of the adult they have remained as beings not
belonging to human society, extra-social, without any means of communication that would allow
society to become aware of their condition. (P40-P1-L19)
翻译：在这个持续有利于成人的历史发展中，他们（儿童）一直是不属于人类社会群体，游
离于社会之外的，没有任何沟通渠道促使使社会关注他们的状态、了解他们的处境。
•4) In private schools the punishments in use are often pointed out as they might point out their
coat of arms. (P42-P2-L4)
•翻译：在私立学校里通常有固定的惩罚模式。即：就像盾徽一样固定的模式。
Lesson 5 Education and Good Life
1. Difficult sentences
•1)But America, like Japan, is placed in a peculiar situation, and what the special circumstances
justify is not necessarily an ideal to be followed everywhere and always. (P51-P1-L4)
翻译：但是，美国同日本一样，正处于一个特殊的环境之中，并且为这些特殊环境所证实有
利之物却未必可以不分地点、不分时间，作为理想楷模而加以仿效。
•2) But where the old world is superior to the new, it becomes necessarily to instill a contempt for
genuine excellences. （P51-P2-L2）
翻译：但是碰到旧世界超过新世界的方面，美国人认为灌输对旧世界优点的鄙视是必要的。
•3) In almost all European countries the individual is less subject to herd domination than in
America: his inner freedom is greater even where his political freedom is less.（P51-P2-L6）
翻译：在欧洲国家，个人受制于群体的现象较之美国要少，尽管政治上的自由比较少，内心
自由（精神自由）却比较多。
•4) No effort of self-denial and no abstract principle of justice is involved in taking trouble about
such matters. （P52-P1-L8）
翻译：当他们在这些事情上劳神费力时，用不着克己的努力，也用不着抽象的正义原理。
•5) We must first make a distinction: some qualities are desirable in a certain propotion of
mankind, others are desirable universally. （P52-P3-L1）
翻译：首先我们必须明确：有些品性只宜为某些特定的人群所拥有，还有一些品性则应为所
有人所具备。
Lesson 6 The Aims of Education
1. Difficult sentences
•1)Education with inert ideas is not only useless: it is, above all things, harmful----corruptio
optimi, pessima. （P60-P1-L3）
翻译：1、最好那一部分的腐坏是最致命的。
• 2、最好的人/物的堕落，是最坏的结果。
•2) Let the main ideas which are introduced into a child's education be few and important, and let
them be thrown into every combination possible. （P61-P3-L2）
翻译：儿童教育中所教的主要概念要少而重要，还要使他们尽可能集合成各种组合。 •
•3) By understanding I mean more than a mere logical analysis, though that is included. I mean
"understanding" in the sense in which it is used in the French proverb, "To understand all, is to
forgive all."（P61-P3-L8）
翻译：我这里所说的理解，虽然包含着逻辑的分析，却不单纯是逻辑的分析。我所说的”理
解“，其意与法国的一句谚语”理解一切就是宽恕一切“之意相同。
•4) Is it a talent, to be hidden away in a napkin?
•翻译：它是藏着不用的才能吗？
•5) The only use of a knowledge of the past is to equip us for the present. （P61-P4-L4）
翻译：过去的知识，它仅有的作用，是武装我们对付现在。
•6）The present contains all that there is. It is holy ground; for it is the past, and it is the future. At
the same time it must be observed that an age is no less past if it existed two hundred years ago
than if it existed two thousand years ago. Do not be deceived by the pedantry of dates. The ages of
Shakespeare and of Molière are no less past than are the ages of Sophocles and of Virgil.
翻译：现在包含一切。现在是神圣的境界，因为它包含过去，又孕育着未来。同时我们必须
注意，一个200年前的时代与一个2000年前的时代同样古老。不要被形式上的年代所蒙蔽。
莎士比亚和莫里哀的时代与索福克勒斯和维吉尔的时代一样古老。
7）The communion of saints is a great and inspiring assemblage, but it has only one possible hall
of meeting, and that is, the present, and the mere lapse of time through which any particular group
of saints must travel to reach that meeting-place, makes very little difference.
翻译：先贤们的思想交流是启发灵智的盛会，但聚会只可能有一个殿堂，这就是现在；任何
先贤来到这个殿堂所经历的时间没有什么不同的意义。
8) I can imagine a set of beings which might fortify their souls by passively reviewing
disconnected ideas. Humanity is not built that way -- except perhaps some editors of newspapers.
翻译：我能设想有一些人可能通过消极地回顾一些没有联系的概念来加强他们的心灵。但是，
也许除了某些报纸编辑以外，人类不是那样建立起来的。
•9）Now an idea is not worth much unless the propositions in which it is embodied are true.
Accordingly an essential part of the proof of an idea is the proof, either by experiment or by logic,
of the truth of the propositions.
翻译：一个概念，除非它所包含的命题是真实的，否则是没有多大价值的。因此，所谓证明
一个概念，主要就是或者用实验的方法或者用逻辑的推理来证明命题的真实性。
10）But it is not essential that this proof of the truth should constitute the first introduction to the idea. After alll, it's assertion by the authority of respectable teachers is sufficient evidence to begin with. (P62-L4)
翻译：但是，开始引进一个概念，不一定就要证明命题的真实性。毕竟，在开始时受人尊敬的教师维护这个概念就是一个足够的证明。
•11）These two processes of proof, in the narrow sense, and of appreciation, do not require a rigid separation in time. Both can be proceeded with nearly concurrently. But in so far as either process must have the priority, it should be that of appreciation by use. (P62-L9)
翻译：这两个过程，即狭义的证明过程和评价过程，并不需要在时间上严格分开。两个过程几乎可以协同进行。两者几乎可能同时进行。但因为任何一个过程必须有优先性，因此应该优先考虑评价过程。
•12）This truth was partially perceived in the past generation; and headmasters, somewhat crudely, were apt to supersede learning in their colleagues by requiring left-hand bowling and a taste for football. But culture is more than cricket, and more than football, and more than extent of knowledge. (P62-P3-L4)
翻译：上一代人只是部分地认识这个真理；而中学校长们，未免有些简单化，要他们的同事以左手打保龄球，以及喜欢足球来取代学术。然而，文化比板球丰富，比足球丰富，文化也比广博的知识更为丰富。
•13）The external assessor may report on the curriculum or on the performance of the pupils, but never should be allowed to ask the pupil a question which has not been strictly supervised by the actual teacher, or at least inspired by a long conference with him. (P63-P1-L2)
翻译：校外考试人员可以撰写有关课程和学习成绩的报告，但是决不允许他对学生出一个学生的教师没有严格的指导或至少在一次长时间讨论中所没有被启发到的题目。
•14） The reason is that we are dealing with human minds, and not with dead matter. The evocation of curiosity, of judgment, of the power of mastering a complicated tangle of circumstances, the use of theory in giving foresight in special cases -- all these powers are not to be imparted by a set rule embodied in one schedule of examination subjects. (P63-P3-L9)
翻译：这是因为，我们是在与人的大脑而不是与僵死的物质打交道。唤起学生的求知欲和判断力，以及控制复杂情况的能力，使他们在特殊情况下应用理论知识对前景作出展望——所有这些能力不是靠一条体现在各科目考试中的固定规则所能传授的。
Lesson 8 Education and freedom
1. Difficult sentences
•1) Harsh words are being said about its methods no less than about its aims.
harsh words: 恶言恶语; 伤人的话；
翻译：人们正对美国的教育目的和教育方法进行严厉的批评。
•2) It may thus do in matters of the intellect what Pearl Harbor did in matters indurtrial and military . （P85-P4-L2）
翻译：苏联卫星上天在美国知识界产生的影响如同珍珠港事件对美国的工业和军事产生的影响一样大。
•3) Let us not lose our heads and despair of American technological competence as it is today. The real danger lies somewhat in the future and can be averted if we will act.（P85-P5-L1）
翻译：我们不要因惊慌失措而对美国今天的技术力量感到失望。真正的危险在将来。而如果我们采取行动，该危险是可以避免的。
•4) This, of course, is no excuse for our mistake in letting Russia win a propaganda victory, damaging to our prestige among the uncommitted nations of the world and, it is to be feared, also among some of our friends.
翻译：这不是为我们的错误找借口。我们使苏联在宣传上取胜这一错误，使我们在中立国家中的声望深受影响，也使我们的部分朋友感到害怕。