托福獨立口語考察考生對某項給定話題發表個人意見觀點、并給出理由的英文口語水平，這個部分考察的話題廣泛，其中比較多考到的一類是教育人格類。比如下面這道托福口語真題：
Some people believe that one’s personality changes as they grow older while others believe that one’s personality remains the same over the time. What is your opinion and why?
今天牛學君跟大家分享英國哲學家，數學家羅素的一篇文章On Education of Character，供大家思考和積累相關話題素材。
On education of Character論性格的教育
When it is sought to produce a certain kind of behavior in a child or animal, there are two different techniques which may be followed. We may, on the one hand, by means of rewards and punishmentscause the child or animal to perform or abstain from certain precise acts; or we may, on the other hand,seek to produce in the child or animal such emotions as will lead, on the whole, to acts of the kind desired.
如果想在兒童或動物身上產生某種行為，可以有兩種不同的方法。一方面，我們可以用獎罰的方法來使兒童或動物執行或回避某種明確的行為;另外一方面，我們也可以努力在兒童或動物身上產生能夠在整體上導向被期望行為的感情。
By a suitable distribution of rewards and punishments, it is possible to control a very large part of overt behavior. By this method boys who are naturally timid can acquire physical courage, and children who are sensitive to pain can be taught a stoical endurance. Good manners, if not imposed earlier, can be learnt in adolescence by means of no worse punishment than the contemptuous lifting of an eyebrow. What is called ‘good form’ is acquired by almost all who are exposed to it, merely from fear of the bad opinion incurred by infringing it. Those who have been taught from an early age to fear the displeasure of their group as the worst of misfortunes will die on the battlefield, in a war of which they understand nothing, rather than suffer the contempt of fools.
通過對獎勵和懲罰的適當分配，大量外在的行為是可以被控制的。通過這種方法，生來膽小的男孩能夠養成生理上的勇氣，對疼痛敏感的孩子可以變得能仍受疼痛。好的舉止如果在孩童時期沒有灌輸進去，青春期仍可以學到，而且只需輕蔑的一抬眉毛這樣并不嚴重的懲罰手段。所謂‘好樣的’行為，幾乎每個耳濡目染的人都可以養成，因為他害怕違反它招來非議。 那些從小就被教導要把圈內的不悅視為最大不幸的人們，即使面對的是他們一點都不理解的戰爭，也寧愿戰死沙場，而不愿受愚人的白眼。
As a social force, the behaviorist method of ‘conditioning’ is therefore very powerful and very successful. It can and does cause men to act in ways quite different from those in which they would otherwise have acted, and it is capable of producing an impressive uniformity of overt behavior. Nevertheless, it has its limitations. (之前全部是讓步，這里Nevertheless 后面才開始進入文章要探討的核心)
因此，作為一種社會力量，行為主義的‘條件作用’的方法是非常有力，非常成功的。它能夠而且確實使人們的行為方式大不同于那些未經此法教育的人們的行為方式，它所能帶來的外在行為的一致性也確實令人驚嘆。不過，它也有它的局限。
It was through Freud that these limitations first became known in a scientific manner, though men of psychological insight had long ago perceived them in an intuitive way. For our purposes, the essential discovery of psycho-analysis is this: that an impulse which is prevented, by behaviorist methods, form finding overt expression in action, does not necessarily die, but is driven underground, and finds some new outlet which has not been inhibited by training. Often the new outlet will be more harmful than the one that has been prevented, and in any case the deflection involves emotional disturbance and unprofitable expenditure of energy. It is therefore necessary to pay more attention to emotion, as opposed to overt behavior, than is done by those who advocate conditioning as alone sufficient in the training of character. (文章主旨在這里：需要對情感給予更多的關注)
通過弗洛伊德，人們破天荒地可以用科學的態度來認識這些局限了，雖然它們在很久以前就被心理學家的直覺所洞察到了。就我們的目的而論，心理分析的發現的要點是：被行為主義的方法阻止而無法獲得公開表現的沖動，并不一定會死去，而是轉入了下意識，并會找到未在獎罰中受到禁止的新的發泄渠道。通常新的渠道比被堵住的渠道更加有害，而且總會帶來情緒上的紊亂和精力上的浪費。因此，有必要對與外在行為相對的情感因素予以更多的關注，那些主張條件作用對培養性格就足夠的人們在這方面是做的不夠的。
There are, moreover, some undesirable habits in regard to which the method of rewards and punishments fails completely, even form its own point of view. (進一步論述，僅僅使用賞罰的手段去培養習慣是失敗的)One of these is bed-wetting. When this persists beyond the age at which it usually stops, punishment only makes it more obstinate. Although this fact has long been known to psychologists, it is still unknown to most schoolmasters, who for years on end punish boys having this habit, without ever noticing that the punishment does not produce reform. The cause of the habit, in older boys, is usually some deep-seated unconscious psychological disturbance, which must be brought to the surface before a cure can be effected.
另外，獎罰法用來對付有些不好的習慣時是完全失敗的，甚至從獎罰法自身的觀點看也是如此。尿床就是這樣一個習慣。如果孩子過了通常應該不再尿床的年齡仍在尿床，懲罰只會使尿床更難治愈。雖然心理學家早就知道了這個事實，它仍不為多數教師所知，他們年復一年地懲罰那些尿床的孩子，卻從未注意到這并不起作用。在較為年長的孩子中，這一習慣常常是由深層的無意識的心理紊亂所引起的，只有認清這一點，治療才會有效。
The same kind of psychological mechanism applies in many less obvious instance. In the case of definite nervous disorders this is now widely recognized. (進一步舉證無法通過獎賞和懲罰的手段來處理的，由心理機制引發的問題)Kleptomania, for example, is not uncommon in children, and, unlike ordinary thieving, it cannot be cured by punishment, but only by ascertaining and removing its psychological cause. What is less recognized is that we all suffer, to a greater or less degree, from nervous disorders having an emotional origin. A man is called sane when he is as sane as the average of his contemporaries; but in the average man many of the mechanisms which determine his opinions and actions are quite fantastic, so much so that in a world of real sanity they would be called insane. It is dangerous to produce good social behavior by means which leave the anti-social emotions untouched. So long as these emotions, while persisting, are denied all outlet, they will grow stronger and stronger, leading to impulses of cruelty which will at last become irresistible. In the man of weak will, these impulses may break out in crime, or insome form of behavior to which social penalties are attached. In the man of strong will, they take even more undesirable forms. He may be a tyrant in the home, ruthless in business, bellicose in politics, persecuting in his social morality; for all these qualities other men with similar defects of character will admire him; he will die universally respected, after having spread hatred and misery over a city, a nation, or an epoch according to his ability and his opportunities. Correct behavior combined with bad emotions is not enough, therefore, to make a man a contributor to the happiness of mankind. If this is our criterion of desirable conduct, something more must be sought in the education of character.
同樣的心理機制也適用于許多不那么顯著的例子。在明確的神經失常的情形中，這一點已得到廣泛的認同。 例如，盜竊癖在孩子中并不少見;它與通常意義上的盜竊的不同之處在于，治愈它不能通過懲罰，而只能通過查明和消除它的心理誘因。人們認識不足的是，我們都或多或少地有點神經失調，這種失調有著情感上的根源。如果一個人與他同時代的普通人一樣甚至健全，他就會被認為是神智健全的人;但在一個普通人那里，決定他言行的許多機制也是非常莫名其妙的，所以這樣的人在一個真正神智健全的世界里仍要被認作是神智不健全的人。想不觸動反社會的情感而產生良好的社會行為，是很危險的。 只要這些情感還存在，就不能堵死他們的所有出口，否則他們將會越來越強烈，最終導致無法抗拒的殘酷沖動。在意志堅強的人那里，這些沖動可能爆發為犯罪，或其他社會必須予以處罰的行為。在意志堅強的人那里，則可能表現為更壞的形式。他可能在家中是個暴君，在商業中是個無情者，在政治上是個好斗者，在社會道德的意義上是個迫害狂;所有這些品格都會使他受到與他具有相似性格缺陷的人們的羨慕;他播下的仇恨和不幸遍及一座城市，一個國家，甚至一個時代---這取決于他的能力和機遇;他在死亡時會受到普遍的尊重。因此，一個人光有適當的行為，如果他有一顆壞心，是不足以對人類的幸福有所貢獻的。如果衡量好的行為的標準是人類的幸福，就需要在性格教育中作出更多的努力。
Experience of children shows that it is possible to operate upon feeling, and not only upon outward behavior, by giving children an environment in which desirable emotions shall become common and undesirable emotions rare. (從情感的培養的角度談，對兒童心理狀態的影響)Throughout childhood, though to a continually diminishing extent, there is need of the feeling of safety. For this purpose, kindness and a pleasant routine are the essentials. The relation with adults should be one of play and physical ease, but not of emotional actresses. There should be close intimacy with other children. Above all, there should be opportunity for initiative in construction, in exploration, and in intellectual and artistic direction. The child has two opposite needs, safety and freedom, of which the latter gradually grows at the expense of the former. The affection given by adults should be such as to cause a feeling of safety, but onto such as to limit freedom or to arouse a deep emotional response in the child. Play, which is a vital need of childhood, should be contributed not only by other children, but also by parents, and is essential to the best relation between parents and children.
從兒童哪里得到的經驗表明，如果能為孩子們創造一個環境： 好的情感很普遍，壞的情感很罕見，就可能會對他們的內心發生作用，而不只是對外在的行為起作用。在整個兒童期，都需要有安全感，盡管其程度逐步減少。慈愛和一個愉快的生活氛圍對于安全感是至關重要的。小孩與大人的關系應是一種游戲的關系，小孩要感到很自在，但又不能被溺愛。小孩之間應該有親密關系。尤其重要的是，小孩應該有機會主動進行建設性，探索性，有智力和藝術成分的活動。小孩有兩種相反的需求：安全和自由，后者的逐步發展以犧牲前者為代價。大人給予的愛必須既能產生安全感，又不致于限制自由，也不致于引起小孩很深的情緒反應。游戲是孩子們的頭等需求，不但孩子之間需要玩游戲，父母也應該加入進來，這對于培養父母和孩子間的良好關系是很關鍵的。
I am not an advocate of absolute freedom, but I am an advocate of certain forms of freedom which most adults find unendurable. There should be no enforced respect for grow-ups, who should allow themselves to be called fools whenever children wish to call them so. We cannot prevent our children from thinking us fools by merely forbidding them to utter their thoughts; in fact, they are more likely to think ill of us if they dare not say so. Children should not be forbidden to swear—not because it is desirable that they should swear, but because it is desirable that they should think that it does not matter whether they do or not, since this is a true proposition. They should be free entirely from the sex taboo, and not checked when their conversation seems to inhibited adults to be indecent. If they express opinions on religion or politics or morals, they may be met with argument, provided it is genuine argument, but not if it is really dogma: the adult may, and should, suggest considerations to them, but should not impose conclusion.
我并不是絕對自由的倡導者，但我要倡導多數成人無法忍受的一些自由。不應該強迫小孩尊重大人;小孩應該允許他們說大人蠢，如果他們像這樣說的話。僅僅通過禁止他們說出他們的想法，我們并不能阻止他們認為我們蠢;事實上，如果他們不敢這樣說，他們更有可能把我們往壞處像。小孩罵人不應被禁止——這并不是因為讓他們罵人是好事，而是因為讓他們知道罵不罵人并不重要是件好事，因為事實就是如此。他們應該從性禁忌中完全解放出來，當他們表達關于宗教，政治或道德的意見時，大人可以與他們辯論，而不能只是教條：大人可以也應該向他們指出可供考慮的論點，單不能將結論強加給他們。
Given such conditions, children may grow up fearless and fundamentally happy, without the resentment that comes of thwarting or the excessive demands that are produced by an atmosphere of hothouse affection. Their intelligence will be untrammeled, and their views on human affairs will have the kindliness that comes of contentment.
(education and social order, 1932)
有了上面的條件，孩子們長大后，就會無所畏懼，就會由衷地感到幸福;他們未曾被橫加干涉過，所以不會有怨恨，他們也不曾被溺愛過，所以不會有過度的要求。他們的智力沒有被束縛住，他們的人生觀有一種來自滿足感的善良成分。
《教育和社會秩序》1932年
