【Franklin】

 

【Franklin】YT

 

True education is never about being changed by someone else, but about learning how to change yourself. 

【富蘭克林】

真正的教育從來不是你被誰改變，而是你學會怎麼改變自己。

 

Boston, 1720

 

Thirteen-year-old Franklin was kicked out of the printing shop by his brother. 

He stood at the street corner,

 

blood still on his lips,

only a few copper coins in his hand.

His shoes were worn, but his heart was hardened.  

 

He wasn't the first child abandoned by his family,

 

nor the most unfortunate,

 

1720年的波士頓

 

13歲的弗蘭克林被哥哥從印刷鋪裡趕了出來

他站在街口

 嘴角還掛著血

手裡只攥著幾個銅幣

 鞋子是壞的

心卻是硬的

他不是被家族放棄的第一個孩子

也不是最慘的那一個

 

but in that moment he understood:

 

no one in this world was obligated to raise you to be successful. 

 

但他在那一刻明白了

這世界上沒有人有義務把你培養成才

 

That night,

 

he boarded a smuggling ship and slept in a corner. 

 

 When he awoke, the ship docked,

and another chapter of his self-taught life began.  

 

那一夜

他坐上偷渡的船

躲在角落裡睡了一夜

醒來時船靠岸

人生另一段自學之路就此展開

 

Arriving in Philadelphia,

 

he became the most inconspicuous boy on the streets. 

The printing factory foreman only gave him the dirtiest work:

 

washing lettering, brushing ink, and cleaning waste paper.

 

Every day, his face was covered in dust, sweat

mixed with ink dripping down.  

 

到達費城後

他成了街頭最不起眼的少年

印刷廠的工頭只讓他做最髒的活

洗字幕, 刷油墨, 打掃廢紙

他每天滿臉灰塵

汗水混著墨汁往下滴

 

But he secretly pieced together the scraps the foreman threw away into booklets,

 

and at four in the morning,

 

he silently copied books by lamplight. 

 

可他偷偷把工頭扔掉的邊角料拼成一本本小冊子

在清晨四點

點油燈默默抄書

 

One day, in a back alley, he saw a sparrow with a broken leg, struggling on a pile of paper, dragging its wings.

 

有一天

他在後巷看見一隻斷腿的麻雀

在紙堆上拖著翅膀掙扎

 

He instinctively wanted to save it.  

But there was no extra bread to feed him.

 

他本能地想救

卻沒多餘的麵包餵他

那晚他在日記上寫下

如果我連自己都管不好

拿什麼去拯救別人

That night, he wrote in his diary,

 

If I can't even manage myself, how can I save others?

 

The next day, he drew a personality training chart and posted it above his bed, listing 13 standards: temperance, diligence, honesty, and humility.

 

第二天

他畫了一張人格訓練表

貼在床頭上面寫著13項標準

節制、勤奮、誠實、謙遜

 

It wasn't a school assignment;

 

it was his own adult assignment.   No one had ever taught him how to live with dignity, so he taught himself.

 

那不是一份學校規定的作業

而是他給自己的作業

從沒人教他怎麼活出體面

於是他自己教自己 

 

Once, he found an old book by an ancient Roman orator at a bookstall.     

有一次

他在書攤前翻到一本

古羅馬演說家的舊書

The pages were yellowed, but the price was more than two days' wages.

書頁發黃

價錢卻比他兩天工資還貴

 

He hesitated for a moment, then gritted his teeth and sold his spare winter boots to buy the book.

他站在攤前猶豫了一下

最後咬牙賣掉備用的冬靴

換了那本書

 That night, he squatted in a corner of the stable,

 

 translating and imitating the sentences in the book.

 

那天夜裡

他蹲在馬廄的角落

 一邊翻譯一邊模仿書中的句子

The next day, he hid a letter he had written in a pile of waste paper at the printing press.   Half a month later, the letter was discovered by a newspaper editor and surprisingly appeared directly in a weekly magazine. 

 

第二天

他把自己寫的信

藏在印刷廠的廢紙堆裡

半個月後

這封信被報社編輯發現

居然直接登上了週刊

 

But no one knew that the letter's signature was just a fake name.  

He didn't argue or boast.  

He continued to read for two hours and write for three hours every day.  

Strive to hone your communication skills.

 

但沒人知道那封信的署名

只是一個假名字, 他不爭辯, 也不自誇, 他繼續每天讀兩小時, 寫三小時, 努力練習表達能力。

 

有人問他：你這麼做是想變得更聰明嗎？他搖頭說,  不 , 我只是不想一輩子被別人定義。

 

他曾在一本書中看過這樣一句話： 一個沒有自我教育能力的人, 永遠依附在別人的判斷裡。從那一刻起, 他明白 , 讀書不是為了讓誰滿意, 而是為了活而是為了活得更清醒 , 更篤定 。

 

富蘭克林從未當過正規教師,  卻影響了無數人, 他組織互助社團,  開設圖書館、創辦夜校，發起公共事務討論 。

 

他沒有權力, 卻成了教育一代人的精神支柱, 他不靠打雞血激勵人, 而是用自己每日踐行的13條美德告訴人們   

你想要的那種人, 必須先從你自己開始去做。

 

他沒有背景, 沒有資源, 沒有人為他鋪路。但他靠閱讀自律思考, 把生活過成了整整一代人的楷模 ,  晚年的富蘭克林說，他這一生最得意的, 不是發明避雷針, 也不是成為美國國父之一, 而是從一個無所依靠的少年, 活成了自己想依靠的那種大人 。他說：真正的教育從來不是你被誰改變 , 而是你學會怎麼改變自己。