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Arnold Toynbee has said that all progress, all development come from challenge and a consequent response. Without challenge there is no response, no development, no freedom. So first we owe to our children the most demanding, challenging curriculum that is within their capabilities. Michelangelo did not learn to paint by spending his time doodling. Mozart was not an accomplished pianist at the age of eight as the result or spending his days in front ofa television set. Like Eve Curie, like Helen Keller, they responded to the challenge of their lives by a disciplined training: and they gained a new freedom.
阿诺德·汤因比说过，一切进步，一切发展均来自挑战以及由此引起的反应。没有挑战就没有反应，没有发展，没有自由。所以，我们首先应该在我们孩子的能力所允许的范围内为他们开设要求最严格、最富有挑战性的课程。米开朗琪罗并不是靠心不在焉地乱涂一气学会绘画的。莫扎特八岁成为一名造诣颇深的钢琴家也并不是终日在电视机前消磨时光的结果。像伊芙·居里和海伦·凯勒一样，他们都以严格的训练对生活的挑战作出了反应，从而获得了一种新的自由。
The second opportunity we can give our boys and girls is the right to failure. "Freedom isnot only a privilege, it is a test," writes De Nouy. What kind of a test is it, what kind of freedom where no one can fail? The day is past when the United States can afford to give high school diplomas to all who sit through four years of instruction, regardless ofwhether any visible results can be discerned. We live in a narrowed world where we must bealert, awake to realism; and realism demands a standard which either must be met or result in failure. These are hard words, but they are brutally true. If we deprive our children of the right to fail we deprive them of their knowledge of the world as it is.
我们可以向我们的孩子提供的第二个机会是允许他们有失败的权利。德·纽伊写道：“自由不仅是一种特权，也是一种考验。”如果没有人可以失败，那它算是什么考验，什么自由呢？美国可以向所有在高中读完四年而不管其是否取得任何明显结果的学生发放毕业文凭的日子已经一去不复返了。我们现在生活在一个变得狭窄的世界里，我们必须对现实主义保持警觉，有所认识；而现实主义要求树立一个或必须达到或导致失败的标准。这些话听起来很刺耳，但却是严峻的事实。如果我们剥夺了孩子们的失败权，我们就剥夺了他们如实认识世界的机会。
Finally, we can expose our children to the best values we have found. By relating our lives to the evidences of the ages, by judging our philosophy in the light of values that history has proven truest, perhaps we shall be able to produce that "ringing message, full of content and truth, satisfying the mind, appealing to the heart, firing the will, a message on which one can stake his whole life." This is the message that could mean joy and strength and leadership --- freedom as opposed to serfdom.
最后，我们可以让孩子们广泛接触一下我们已发现的最好的价值观。把我们的生活跟各个时代的事实联系起来，以历史所证实的最正确的价值观来评价我们的人生观，也许这样我们就能使他们得到那种“时时在耳边回响的启示，这启示内容丰富，闪烁着真理的光辉；令人心悦诚服，感人至深而又激发斗志，让人终生受用不尽”。这就是那种可以带来欢乐、力量和领导能力，也就是自由而不是被奴役的启示。
