I recently heard a story from Stephen Glenn about a famous research scientist who had made several very important medical breakthroughs. He was being interviewed by a newspaper reporter who asked him why he thought he was able to be so much more creative than the average person. What set him so far apart from others?
He responded that, in his opinion, it all came from an experience with his mother that occurred when he was about two years old. He had been trying to remove a bottle of milk from the refrigerator when he lost his grip on the slippery bottle and it fell, spilling its contents all over the kitchen floor - a veritable sea of milk!
When his mother came into the kitchen, instead of yelling at him, giving him a lecture or punishing him, she said, "Robert, what a great and wonderful mess you have made! I have rarely seen such a huge puddle of milk. Well, the damage has already been done. Would you like to get down and play in the milk for a few minutes before we clean it up?"
Indeed, he did. After a few minutes, his mother said, "You know, Robert, whenever you make a mess like this, eventually you have to clean it up and restore everything to its proper order. So, how would you like to do that? We could use a sponge, a towel or a mop. Which do you prefer?" He chose the sponge and together they cleaned up the spilled milk.
His mother then said, "You know, what we have here is a failed experiment in how to effectively carry a big milk bottle with two tiny hands. Let's go out in the back yard and fill the bottle with water and see if you can discover a way to carry it without dropping it." The little boy learned that if he grasped the bottle at the top near the lip with both hands, he could carry it without dropping it. What a wonderful lesson!
This renowned scientist then remarked that it was at that moment that he knew he didn't need to be afraid to make mistakes. Instead, he learned that mistakes were just opportunities for learning something new, which is, after all, what scientific experiments are all about. Even if the experiment "doesn't work," we usually learn something valuable from it.
Wouldn't it be great if all parents would respond the way Robert's mother responded to him?
我最近從斯蒂芬.格倫那里聽到一位有著幾項重大醫療領域上突破而且名聲不菲的科學研究者的逸事.來采訪的新聞記者提問說:他本人有什么原由認為自己比一般人更具有創造天賦?是什么潛在因素讓他如此卓而不凡?
他答復著說，以他自己的想法看來,今天的成就來自他兩歲左右時和母親有關的一次經歷.當時他試著挪動一瓶冰箱里面的牛奶.一不小心,沒有拿穩,于是瓶子從手中滑落然后掉在了地上,在廚房的地板上弄的滿地都是——那場面可真是相當壯觀,宛如茫茫乳海!
當他的母親走進廚房的時候,沒有對他大喊大叫,滿口說教或者是給他小小懲戒,母親說:“小羅伯特,你這個小家伙,看看你給我帶來的小小意外!我可從沒曾見過這么大片的的牛奶坑.好吧.你壞事都做完了。待你把這收拾好前，你能先停會再玩么？”
然后，他這么做了。幾分鐘后，母親說到：“說真的，小羅伯特，無論你什么時候給我們制造了點意外，到最后你不得不自己收拾爛攤子然后把所有東西放回到原位。所以，接下來你打算怎么辦呢？我們可以選擇的有——海綿抹布，用毛巾或者是拖布。你覺得哪個好呢？我挑了海面抹布然后和媽媽一起把滿地打翻的牛奶收拾干凈了。”
母親接著又說：“你瞧，在這里我們試著怎樣有成效地用雙小手拿著大瓶子的實驗失敗了，我們去后院吧，在那把瓶子裝滿水，然后看看我們能不能找到不讓瓶子撒出水來的方法”這個小家伙——也就是我，學到了當雙手握緊瓶子口附近的地方時，瓶子才不會被打翻。多么有趣的發現！
這位赫赫有名的科學家后來談及到，也就是在那個時候他明白了自己無須恐懼去犯下錯誤。相反地，正是由于存在錯誤，這些契機的存在，你才會注意到此間那些未曾注意到的東西，也就是那些——你所研究那些東西的全部價值所在。即使你一直所努力的東西“沒有結果”，我們通常也會從中知道了什么該做與什么不該做。
如果所有的父母都能像小羅伯特母親那樣善于應對孩子們所犯的小錯誤，也許整個世界都會因此而彰顯和諧，迸發色彩。
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