追逐分数的人一场励志的感人故事

文/徐慧芬

一阵小跑声过后，学校走廊里，一名男生小声而急促地叫我。我立定问他：“有什么事吗？”他期期艾艾地说：“我——我能到你的办公室去说吗？”我点点头。他进来后，小心翼翼关上门后，将手上卷着的画纸摊开在我面前说：“老师你看，我觉得自己画得挺好的，为什么只有65分呢？我看他这张还没我的好呢，他都70分呢。”他把同桌的那张画也摊了开来。

啊，原来是来讨说法的。这是一张美术作业，临摹书上的一幅写意国画《梅花麻雀图》。这算是期中考试了。

两张画摊在桌上，我给他分析：“你这张，梅花点得还蛮像样，麻雀的形体姿态也不错，可偏偏是‘点睛之笔’不准确，眼睛画偏了，这不是犯了常识性的错吗？他这张也有缺点，梅花浓淡深浅缺少变化，但作为画面主体的麻雀画得还是到位的……”

他听明白了，似乎也服气，但还不走，磨磨蹭蹭，抓了一会儿头皮，最终说出了要说的话：“老师，你这次能不能开开恩，送我5分，上次还你行不行？”

“你表扬过我的，说过我画painting很好的。”

“啊，我表扬过你？”

“你表扬过你两次，一次draw a portrait，你说my shading is very good and not too heavy. 还有一次paint with watercolors，你say my sky is very transparent and didn’t mess up.”

“可是这个时候you only got 65 points, okay? 这个是exam, teacher should be fair, right?”

“65 points already above the line of passing grade. Just keep trying next time.”

“我只能实话告诉你，这一次midterm exam，我几乎没有考好任何科目，只有语文和英语及格，还有数学只得55分。我爸爸气疯了，用皮带抽打，用脚踢打，说我没有考出什么好成绩。我告诉他们至少美术可以考70分……老师，请看——”

他的裤腿被扒起，有几条青紫色的伤痕显露出来。

I no longer speak. I take out a sheet of paper and let him redraw one.

Half an hour later, I write "70" in red ink on his new painting. When he leaves, he bows to me again and asks quietly: "Teacher won't tell other classmates about this, will you?" I smile.

Years later...

I am waiting for a train at the station when a man approaches me with a smile and looks at me intently before standing up to say: "Are you the teacher who taught us art?"

"You are who?" I can't remember his name.

He says: "That's right! You're that art teacher!" And so we both fill in the gaps of our story here on the platform.

I ask him what he does now.

"I'm in charge of software design at my company."

"So how did you get into this field despite your poor math scores back then?"

"Teacher," he said with some embarrassment but also pride," do you remember something you once said to me? You said that someone as smart as me shouldn't have bad grades in math."

I don't remember saying that... But it stuck with him all these years until it changed his life.