PERTNESS | Pertness, that appears sometimes so early, proceeds from a principle that seldom accompanies a strong constitution of body, or ripens into a strong judgment of mind. If it were desirable to have a child a more brisk talker, I believe there might be ways found to make him so; but, I suppose, a wise father had rather that his son should be able and useful, when a man, than pretty company, and a diversion to others, whilst a child; though, if that too were to be considered, I think I may say, there is not so much pleasure to have a child prattle agreeably, as to reason well. Encourage therefore his inquisitiveness all you can, by satisfying his demands, and informing his judgment, as far as it is capable. When his reasons are any way tolerable, let him find the credit and commendation of them; and when they are quite out of the way, let him, without being laughed at for his mistake, be gently put into the right; and, if he show a forwardness to be reasoning about things that come in his way, take care, as much as you can, that nobody check this inclination in him, or mislead it by captious or fallacious ways of talking with him: for, when all is done, this, as the highest and most important faculty of our minds, deserves the greatest care and attention in cultivating it: the right improvement and exercise of our reason being the highest perfection that a man can attain to in this life.
调皮 | 调皮有时出现得很早，是出于与强健体格和心理成熟、判断力强无关的一种行为方式。如果想让孩子成为一个谈吐活跃的人，我相信总可能找到办法的；但是我觉得一个明智的父亲宁愿让他的儿子长大成为一个能干有用的人，而不只是让他小的时候做一个英俊的伙伴，惹人喜欢；即使那值得考虑，我也觉得使小孩能令人愉快地闲扯，还不如让他能善于推理更使人高兴。所以要满足他的要求、训练他的判断力，在可能的限度内尽力鼓励他的求知欲。当他的理智还算过得去时，让他自己找到认可与赞扬；当它们偏离正轨，不要讥笑他的错误，要轻轻地把他纠正过来；而且如果他对遇到的事情勇于去推理，你当竭力小心，不要让人抑制他这种倾向，不要让人用强词夺理的或欺骗的谈话将其误导；因为说到底，这是我们心理上最高和最重要的能力，值得最好的关心与注意来培植它；对我们理智的正确改进与运用是一个人此生的最完美境界。
SAUNTERING | Contrary to this busy inquisitive temper, there is sometimes observable in children, a listless carelessness, a want of regard to any thing, and a sort of trifling even at their business. This sauntering humour I look on as one of the worst qualities can appear in a child, as well as one of the hardest to be cured, where it is natural. But it being liable to be mistaken in some cases, care must be taken to make a right judgment concerning than trifling at their books or business, which may sometimes be complained of in a child. Upon the first suspicion a father has, that his son is of a sauntering temper, he must carefully observe him, whether he be listless and indifferent in all in his actions, or whether in some things alone he be slow and sluggish, but in others vigorous and eager. For though we find that he does loiter at his book, and let a good deal of the time he spends in his chamber or study, run idly away; he must not presently conclude, that this is from a sauntering humour in his temper. It may be childishness, and a preferring something to his study, which his thoughts run on; and he dislikes his book, as is natural, because it is forced upon him as a task. To know this perfectly, you must watch him at play, when he is out of his place and time of study, following his own inclination; and see there whether he be stirring and active; whether he designs any thing, and with labour and eagerness pursues it, till he has accomplished what he aimed at, or whether he lazily and listlessly dreams away his time. If this sloth be only when he is about his book, I think it may be easily cured. If it be in his temper, it will require a little more pains and attention to remedy it.
懒散 | 与这种好问的脾气相反，有时能看到小孩有一种懒洋洋的淡漠，对任何事情都漠不关心，甚至在他们功课上也是无聊懒散的。这种懒散的性情，我认为是小孩身上最坏的一种品质，如果它是天生的，那又是最难矫治的一种品质。但是某些事情有时容易搞错，我们有时抱怨小孩在读书或功课上懒散的时候，一定要小心地作出正确的判断。父亲刚开始怀疑儿子有懒散的性情，他必须仔细观察小孩，看他是不是在他的所有活动中都懒散和冷漠，还是只在某些事情上缓慢与迟缓，而在其它事情上活跃与急切。因为即使我们发现他读书时磨蹭，把他在书房中或学习的时间都浪费掉了，我们还是不能立即下结论说这是因为他懒散的性情。那可能是孩子气，或是相对于学习他更喜欢别的一些事情，思绪就在那些事情上去了；他很自然不喜欢他的书本，因为那是作为一个任务强加给他。要完全地了解这一点，你必须在他玩耍时观察他，那时他离开了学习的地点和时间，跟从他本身的爱好；看他那时是否激动活泼；他是不是计划做任何事情，并且热情努力地去做，直到他达到他的目的，还是懒散和无精打采地虚度时间。假如他只是在读书的时候懒散，我想那还容易治好。如果那是他的性格，就需要更多的辛苦与关注来矫治它
If you are satisfied by his earnestness at play, or any thing else he sets his mind on, in the intervals between his hours of business, that he is not of himself inclined to laziness, but that only want of relish of his book makes him negligent and sluggish in his application to it; the first step is to try by talking to him kindly of the folly and inconvenience of it, whereby he loses a good part of his time, which he might have for his diversion: but be sure to talk calmly and kindly, and not much at first, but only these plain reasons in short. If this prevails, you have gained the point in the most desirable way, which is that of reason and kindness. If this softer application prevails not, try to shame him out of it, by laughing at him for it, asking every day, when he comes to table, if there be no strangers there, how long he was that day about his business: And if he has not done it in the time he might be well supposed to have dispatched it, expose and turn him into ridicule for it; but mix no chiding, only put on a pretty cold brow towards him, and keep it till he reform; and let his mother, tutor, and all about him do so too. If this work not the effect you desire, then tell him he shall be no longer troubled with a tutor to take care of his education, you will not be at the charge to have him spend his time idly with him; but since he prefers this or that [whatever play he delights in] to his book, that only he shall do; and so in earnest set him to work on his beloved play, and keep him steadily, and in earnest, to it morning and afternoon, till he be fully surfeited, and would, at any rate, change it for some hours at his book again. But when you thus set him his task of play, you must be sure to look after him your self, or set somebody else to do it, that may constantly see him employed in it, and that he be not permitted to be idle at that too. I say, your self look after him; for it is worth a father's while, whatever business he has, to bestow two or three days upon his son, to cure so great a mischief as his sauntring at his business.
如果你确信他在功课之间做游戏、或做别的他感兴趣的事情很急切认真，他自己并不想懒惰，只是他的书本不有趣使他不认真、不用功读书；第一步是试着诚恳地告诉他懒惰的愚蠢和不便，他因此失去好多可以用来娱乐的时间；不过说的时候一定要冷静与温和，开始不用说得很多，只简短地说一下明显的道理。如果这个方法生效了，你就用最可取的方法，即理智与慈爱，达到目的了。如果这温和的方法不起作用，试着以此取笑他，每天当他来到桌前，如果没有外人在那儿，问他用多长时间做他的功课，使他羞愧难当而改过自新；假如他在应该完成的时间内没有做完，你可以揭露他，并且使他为此成为笑柄；但是不要斥责，只用给他一点冷淡的颜色，直到他改正为止；而且要他的母亲、导师及周围所有的人都这样做。如果这样还不能达到你的目的，告诉他不再需要导师教他了，你不会花钱请导师陪他无聊地消磨时间；既然他不爱书本，更爱这样或那样的游戏(不管他喜欢什么游戏)，那他只能做那游戏了；而且极力促使他去做他喜爱的游戏，让他从早到晚一直认真地做，直到他玩得完全过度，宁愿换成读几个小时书为止。但是当你把游戏当作任务让他做的时候，你一定要亲自或派人看顾他，让他不停地做，不许他在那上面偷懒。我说你要亲自看护他，因为无论父亲做什么事，他都值得花两三天时间在他儿子身上，去纠正他在功课上懒散的大毛病。
This is what I propose, if it be idleness, not from his general temper, but a peculiar or acquired aversion to learning, which you must be careful to examine and distinguish. But though you have your eyes upon him, to watch what he does with the time which he has at his own disposal, yet you must not let him perceive that you or any body else do so; for that may hinder him from following his own inclination, which he being full of, and not daring, for fear of you, to prosecute what his head and heart are set upon, he may neglect all other things, which then he relishes not, and so may seem to be idle and listless, when in truth it is nothing but being intent on that, which the fear of your eye or knowledge keeps him from executing. To be clear in this point, the observation must be made when you are out of the way, and he not so much as under the restraint of a suspicion that any body has an eye upon him. In those seasons of perfect freedom, let some body you can trust mark how he spends his time, whether he unactively loiters it away, when without any check he is left to his own inclination. Thus, by his employing of such times of liberty, you will easily discern, whether it be listlessness in his temper, or aversion to his book, that makes him saunter away his time of study.
这就是我的建议，假如懒散不是出于他一般的性情，而是源于对学习的一种特殊的或习得的反感，这你必须仔细地检查分辨。不过你虽然可以监视他，看他在他自己自由支配的时间里做什么，可是你不能让他察觉你或别的任何人在监视他；因为那会妨碍他遵循自己的爱好行事，他心中充满那爱好，只是因为害怕你，他不敢去做他头脑与心中所想的事情，他不理会别的一切他不感兴趣的事情，所以他看起来懒散和百无聊赖，而实际上他一心想着他的爱好，只是怕你看见或知道而不敢执行。为了弄清这一点，观察必须是在你不在场，而且他不觉得有人在监视而受限制的时候。当他有完全的自由的时候，你可以安排一个你信赖的人记录他怎样使用时间，他不受妨碍可以放任自己的倾向时，是否还被动地消磨时间。因此，在他自由地运用时间的时候，你可以轻易区分他是由于懒散的性格，还是由于厌恶书本，使得他浪费掉他的学习时间。
If some defect in his constitution has cast a damp on his mind, and he be naturally listless and dreaming, this unpromising disposition is none of the easiest to be dealt with; because generally carrying with it an unconcernedness for the future, it wants the two great springs of action, foresight and desire; which, how to plant and increase, where nature has given a cold and contrary temper, will be the question. As soon as you are satisfied that this is the case, you must carefully inquire whether there be nothing he delights in; inform yourself, what it is he is most pleased with; and if you can find any particular tendency his mind hath, increase it all you can, and make use of that to set him on work, and to excite his industry. If he loves praise, or play, or fine clothes, etc. or, on the other side, dreads pain, disgrace, or your displeasure, etc. whatever it be that he loves most, except it be sloth, (for that will never set him on work) let that be made use of to quicken him, and make him bestir himself. For in this listless temper, you are not to fear an excess of appetite (as in all other cases) by cherishing it. It is that which you want, and therefore must labour to raise and increase; for, where there is no desire, there will be no industry.
如果是他性格的缺陷导致他精神沮丧，使他自然地懒散和虚度光阴，这种无望的性情是不容易对付的；因为这总是带有对未来的漠不关心，缺乏行动的两个重大动因，远见与欲望；对于天生的冷漠性情，怎样培植和提高远见与欲望，这是一个问题。一旦你确定情况是如此，你必须立即调查他是否不喜欢任何东西；你要知道他最喜欢什么；如果你发现他心里有任何特别的倾向，你要竭力增强这倾向，利用这倾向使他工作，并激发他的努力。假如他喜欢恭维、游戏、或华服等等，或者反之，他畏惧痛苦、羞辱、或你的不高兴等等，无论他最喜欢什么，只要不是懒惰(因为懒惰决不会使他工作)，都要利用它去鼓舞他，让他自己振作起来。因为在这种懒散的脾气中，不象别的情况，你不怕因爱惜欲望而使其过多。欲望正是你所需要的，所以要努力培养与加强；因为没有欲望就没有努力。
If you have not hold enough upon him this way, to stir up vigour and activity in him, you must employ him in some constant bodily labour, whereby he may get an habit of doing something. The keeping him hard to some study were the better way to get him an habit of exercising and applying his mind. But because this is an invisible attention, and no body can tell when he is or is not idle at it, you must find bodily employments for him, which he must be constantly busied in, and kept to; and if they have some little hardship and shame in them, it may not be the worse, that they may the sooner weary him, and make him desire to return to his book. But be sure, when you exchange his book for his other labour, set him such a task, to be done in such a time as may allow him no opportunity to be idle. Only after you have by this way brought him to be attentive and industrious at his book, you may, upon his dispatching his study within the time set him, give him as a reward some respite from his other labour; which you may diminish as you find him grow more and more steady in his application, and at last wholly take off when his sauntering at his book is cured.
假如你不能用这种方法对他产生足够影响，不能激发他的精神与活力，你必须让他做一些经常的体力劳动，借此他可能养成做事的习惯。让他努力学习本是使他养成锻炼与运用心智习惯的更好方法。但是这是一种看不见的专注，没有人能够知道他是不是在偷懒，所以你要让他做一些体力活，使他一直忙着去做；假如体力活有点困难、有点可羞，那也许并不太糟，那会令他更快地生厌，让他愿意回到他的书本那儿去。但是你把他的书本换成别的劳动的时候，要保证你安排的任务和时间能使他没有机会偷懒。只有你用这种方法使他专心和努力地读书，他能够在规定的时间完成他的学习，你才可以奖励他少做一些别的劳动；当他勤勉用功愈来愈稳定塌实，你可以让他做愈来愈少的劳动，直到他偷懒不读书治好，最后完全停止。
摘自Some Thoughts Concerning Education (English-Chinese Edition)(ISBN-10: 1537479857)
