痛苦一时,受益一世 [受教一时，受益一世]

　　对于教育，英国政治家乔治·萨维尔曾下过这样的定义：“教育就是我们被灌输的知识忘光之后剩下的东西。”(Education is what remains when we have forgotten all that we have been taught.)的确，真正的教育不是死记硬背的书本知识，而是受益一生的智慧启发。寒窗苦读十数载，总有那么几次特殊的教育经历令我们感念一生。它或是教会了我们思考的方法，或是教会了我们做人的道理，又或是在我们脆弱之时为我们点起希望的火苗……
　　Saturday Morning at the Museum
　　By Michael Bloomberg, Mayor, New York City
　　When I was growing up, Saturday mornings meant one thing only to me: a trip to the Boston Museum of Science. I loved science—still do—and there was nowhere else I’d rather be. The museum’s instructors would give these fascinating two-hour lectures and demonstrate the laws of physics using hands-on1) experiments. They would also quiz us on the museum’s exhibits, and all the kids would try to show off by having every answer. Those visits to the museum stretched my mind in ways that my schoolwork didn’t. They taught me to listen, question, test and analyze. Figuring out how things work—and how they can work better—is what led me to become an engineer, a technology entrepreneur, a philanthropist and a mayor. I guess I can count my lucky stars that there were no Saturday morning cartoons when I was kid.
　　The Price of Fur in Byzantium2)
　　By Lewis Lapham, editor, Lahpham’s Quarterly
　　I don’t now remember the name of the don3) assigned to conduct my first tutorial at Cambridge University in the autumn of 1956, but I remember the setting—late-afternoon fog, coals burning in an ancient grate4), the don in academic gown seated behind a silver tea service. Five months earlier I graduated from Yale University with the intention of becoming a licensed historian who could be counted upon to attach the name of a dead poet or an unhorsed5) king to the appropriate zeitgeist6).
　　My tutor was delighted to learn of my ambition. Great news, he said, but maybe you could spare a few moments for the 12th century? I managed to sustain the illusion of scholarship for about the length of time it takes to see five deals of blackjack7). When I exhausted my supply of talking points, the tutor poured us both a second cup of tea, and for the next quarter of an hour, he asked questions about aspects of the 12th century that I had possibly overlooked. In Byzantium, for instance, the prices bid and asked for Russian fur and Christian slaves?
　　My failure to hazard8) even so much as a plausible guess moved the don to a murmur of mild regret. Yes, well, he said, you Americans have this wonderful talent for broad statement and grand abstraction that hasn’t been granted to their poorer cousins here in England. Before reaching the general theory, you see, we like to have in hand a passing9) acquaintance with at least some of the facts.