Lesson Seven    There’s a Lot More to Life than a job
  人生的意义远远不止是工作
It has often been remarked that the saddest thing about youth is that it is wasted on the young.   
人们常常说：对于青春来说，最令人悲伤的事情莫过于青春在年轻时被浪费掉了。
Reading a survey report on first-year college students, I recalled the regret, "If only I knew then what I know now."
在读一份对大学一年级新生作的调查报告时，我又想起了这种惋惜之情：“要是当初我就懂得了现在我领悟到的东西该有多好！”
The survey revealed what I had already suspected from informal polls of students both in Macon and at the Robins Resident Center: If it (whatever it may be) won't compute and you can't drink it, smoke it or spend it, then "it" holds little value.
这份调查报告印证了我以前根据在梅肯和罗宾斯住宿中心对学生进行的非正式民意调查所作的推断：学生们认为如果某种东西（不管它是何物）没有实际意义，不能把它当酒喝、当烟抽、当钱花，那么“它”就基本毫无价值。
According to the survey based on responses from over 188,000 students, today's college beginners are "more consumeristic and less idealistic" than at any time in the 17 years of the poll.   
基于对188，000多名学生答卷的调查表明，当今的大学新生比这项民意测验开始17年以来的任何时候的大学新生都“更主张消费主义，同时也少了些理想主义”。
Not surprising in these hard times, the students' major objective "is to be financially well off". Less important than ever is developing a meaningful philosophy of life. Accordingly, today the most popular course is not literature or history but accounting.  　less is more 翻译
在这个经济不景气的时代，学生们的主要目标是追求“经济上的富裕”。与过去任何时候相比，树立有意义的人生哲学已不那么重要了。这一情况并不让人感到惊奇。因此，如今最受欢迎的课程不是文学或历史，而是会计学。
Interest in teaching, social service and the humanities is at a low, along with ethnic and women's studies. On the other hand, enrollment in business programs, engineering and computer science is way up.
如今人们对当教师、社会服务和人文学科、还有种族和妇女研究的兴趣都处于低潮。而另一方面，攻读商科、工程学及计算机科学的学生人数却在迅速增加。
That's no surprise either. A friend of mine (a sales representative for a chemical company) was making twice the salary of college instructors during her first year on the job—even before she completed her two-year associate degree.
还有一件事也不令人意外。我的一个朋友（一个化工公司的销售代理）在干这份工作的第一年所挣的钱就已是大学教师薪水的两倍了──这甚至还是在她修完两年制的准学士学位课程之前的事。
"I'll tell them what they can do with their music, history, literature, etc.," she was fond of saying. And that was four years ago; I tremble to think what she's earning now.
她喜欢说这样一句话：“我会对他们讲，他们学习音乐、历史、文学等等有什么用！”那还是四年以前呢，我都不敢想象她现在赚多少钱。
Frankly, I'm proud of the young lady (not her attitude but her success). But why can't we have it both ways? Can't we educate people for life as well as for a career? I believe we can.
坦率地说，我为这位小感到骄傲（不是为她的态度，而是为她的成功）。但是我们为什么不能两全其美呢？我们就不能教会人们既懂得谋生，又懂得人生么？我相信我们能够做到。
If we cannot, then that is a conviction against our educational system—kindergarten, elementary, secondary and higher. In a time of increasing specialization, more than ever, we need to know what is truly important in life.
如果我们做不到这一点，那就是对我们从幼儿园、小学、中学直到大学的整个教育制度的否定。在一个日益专业化的时代，我们比过去任何时候都更需要了解什么是生活中真正重要的东西。
This is where age and maturity enter. Most people, somewhere between the ages of 30 and 50, finally arrive at the inevitable conclusion that they were meant to do more than serve a corporation, a government agency, or whatever.
这就是年龄和成熟所能带给人们的启示。大多数年龄约在30至50岁之间的人都会最终得出一个必然的结论，即他们不应该仅仅是为某个公司、某个政府机构或任何其他单位服务。
Most of us finally have the insight that quality of life is not entirely determined by a balance sheet. Sure, everyone wants to be financially comfortable, but we also want to feel we have a perspective on the world beyond the confines of our occupation; we want to be able to render service to our fellow men and to our God.
我们大多数人最终会认识到，生活质量并不完全是由资产负债表来决定的。诚然，每个人都想在经济上富裕点。但是我们还希望对自己职业范围以外的世界有所了解；我们希望能为我们的同胞和上帝效劳。
If it is a fact that the meaning of life does not dawn until middle age, is it then not the duty o
f educational institutions to prepare the way for that revelation? Most people, in their youth, resent the Social Security deductions from their pay, yet a seemingly few short years later find themselves standing anxiously by the mailbox.
如果说人要到步入中年才能对人生的含义有所领悟的话，那么为这种领悟扫清障碍不正是教育机构的责任吗？大多数人在年轻的时候怨恨从他们工资中扣钱交社会保险金，然而好像只是短短几年后，他们就发现自己正焦急地站在信箱旁边（等待养老金支票）了。
While it's true all of us need a career, preferably a prosperous one, it is equally true that our civilization has collected an incredible amount of knowledge in fields far removed from our own. And we are better for our understanding of these other contributions—be they scientific or artistic. It is equally true that, in studying the diverse wisdom of others, we learn how to think. More importantly, perhaps, education teaches us to see the connections between things, as well as to see beyond our immediate needs.

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