Thinking for yourself

1   Thinking for yourself is still a radical act.

2   Thinking for yourself is not a popular activity, though it should be. Every step of real progress in our society has come from it. But in most circles, particularly in places that shape our lives – families, schools and most workplaces – thinking for yourself is regarded with suspicion. Some institutions thwart it on purpose. It can be seen as dangerous.

3      I was reminded of this sad fact at a party when a fellow guest asked me the subject of a book I was planning to write. I told him that it was about how people can help each other to think for themselves. “Oh dear,” he said, “I don't think much of that; I much prefer people do as they're told.” I later found out that he is the fourth- generation president of one of the largest oil companies.

4    When was the last organizational vision statement you saw that included the words “… to develop ourselves into a model environment in which everyone at every level can think for themselves”? For that matter, when was the last time somebody asked you, “What do you really think, really?” and then waited for you to answer at length? 

5   This dearth should not surprise us. Hardly anyone has been encouraged, much less trained, to think for themselves, and their teachers and parents and bosses weren't either. And neither were theirs. (We may have learned to revere thinkers like Socrates, but we also learned that the state poisoned him for thinking for himself: not unmitigated encouragement.)

6  Occasionally, however, we do have a teacher or mentor who truly wants us to develop our own thinking. They give us glimpses. When I was 13 years old, I was put into an advanced algebra course. On the first day the teacher, who was maligned by students as a hard teacher because she tried to get them to think, stood in front of the blackboard and said, “On the paper in front of you write the sum of a number.”

7  The entire class of 35 pubescent people just stared at her. She repeated the direction, “Write the sum of a number.”

8    I remember my hand gathering sweat around the pencil. A few heads looked down and their pencils started up. I wondered what in the world they were writing. I saw the girl across the aisle from me lean forward and peer over the shoulder of the boy in front of her who was scribbling something. Then she scratched a figure andimmediately covered it with her hand.

9     The teacher paced and rubbed the chalk between her fingers. I wondered what she was about to put on the board. I was now the only one not writing. I leaned back and over my left shoulder whispered to my friend, “What is it?” 

10  “Seven,” she whispered back.

11    So I wrote “7” on my paper. I kept my head down, hoping I looked busy and confident.12   After the agony among us had become tactile, the teacher asked us for our answers. The number 7 was prevalent. She walked slowlyover to the board and wrote: “There is no such thing as the sum of a number”. 

13   I knew that. 

14   Why didn’t you write it? 

15   Sarah said it was 7.

16   Why did you ask her?

17   Because – I don’t know.

18   That’s right. From now on, think for yourself.

19     I was too scared around that teacher for the rest of my young life to think very well in her presence. But I took the message with me and gradually examined and valued it. I don’t recommend humiliating people into thinking for themselves as she had. She certainly did not create a Thinking Environment for us. Had she affirmed our intelligence first and spoken about the joy of thinking for ourselves, had she not fanned our fear of her, we would all have learned even more powerfully what it meant to do our own thinking. And we might have been able to think well around her too.

20     But at least she introduced the concept into my academic life .

课文翻译：

独立思考

 1   直到现在，独立思考仍然是一种激进的行为。

 2   独立思考本该是一种普遍的行为，而事实却并非如此。我们社会的每一次重大进步都源于独立思考。然而，在大多数的生活圈子里，尤其是那些影响我们一生的地方——家庭、学校以及大部分工作场所——人们都对独立思考持怀疑态度。有些机构甚至故意压制独立思考。独立思考被视为是一件危险的事情。

3    在一次聚会上，当一位客人问起我酝酿中的一本书的主题时，我再次想起了这个令人悲哀的事实。我告诉他那本书谈论的话题是大家可以互相帮助，培养独立思考的能力。“天哪，”他说，“我不认为那有什么好，我更喜欢服从命令的人。”后来，我得知他是一家大公司的第四代掌门人，而那家公司是世界上最大的石油公司之一。

4  “在我们周围逐渐创建出一个模型环境，使各个层次的人都有独立思考的空间。”你最后一次看到包含上述字眼儿的机构愿景陈述是在什么时候？还有，上一次有人问你：“你能跟我说真心话吗，真心话？”然后等着你做出翔实、充分的回答是在什么时候？

5    缺乏独立思考并不奇怪。很少有人被鼓励去进行独立思考，更谈不上接受相关的训练。他们的老师、父母和老板也是如此。而且老师、父母和老板的老师、父母和老板也是如此。（我们可能早就知道应该尊敬像苏格拉底那样的思想家，可是我们也知道，因为独立思考，他所在的城邦毒死了他。这可绝不是给予他的毫无保留的鼓励）。

6   可是，我们偶尔也会遇到真心想培养我们独立思考的老师或导师。他们让我们对独立思考的重要性有了浅略的认识。13岁时，我上了一门高级代数课。授课的老师由于要求学生思考而背上了难缠的恶名。第一天上课时，老师站在黑板前面说：“在你们面前的纸上写出一个数字的和。”

7   全班35个少男少女全都瞪大了眼睛看着她。她重复了一遍指令：“写出一个数字的和。”

8    我记得我握着铅笔的手出汗了。有些人低下了头，握着手中的铅笔开始写了起来。我真不知道他们到底在写什么。我看见过道对面跟我坐同一排的那个女生向前探出身子，看看前面那个正胡乱写字的男生都写了些什么。然后她飞快地写下了一个数字，并且马上用手盖住了。

9  老师来回踱着步，手里碾着粉笔。我不知道她将在黑板上写什么。这会儿，就剩下我一个人还什么都没写。我往后一靠，向左侧过脸，悄悄地问我的朋友：“答案是什么？”

10  “7，”她悄声说。

11   于是，我在纸上写下了“7”。我一直低着头，想让自己看上去既忙着做题，又信心百倍。

12 在明显地感觉到我们的苦恼之后，老师问我们答案是什么。大部分人都说是“7”。她慢慢地走到黑板前写道：“根本就不存在一个数字的和。”

13    我知道是这样的。

14    那你为什么不这么写呢？

15    萨拉说是“7”。

16    你为什么要问她？

17    因为——我不知道。

18    这就对了，从现在开始，要独立思考。

19    在后来的青葱岁月里，我一见到这位老师就害怕。在她面前，我根本就无法好好地思考。但是，我记住了她的教诲，并且渐渐地开始审视它、珍视它。我并不是劝大家像她那样，用羞辱别人的办法去教他们独立思考。她当然没有给我们创造一个思考的环境。要是她一开始就肯定我们的聪明才智，给我们讲讲独立思考的乐趣，要是她没有激起我们对她的畏惧，我们大家就能更深切地体会到独立思考的意义。而且，我们在她面前也会更好地开动脑筋、思考问题。

20    但至少，她把独立思考的概念引入了我的学术生活。