July 31, 2015

A Treasury of English Famous Essays

英美散文菁華

陳榮吉 編譯

15.  Attitudes toward Work 工作態度

       G. Colket Caner, American educational psychologist

       A person may have an idea about himself that will prevent him from doing good work.

       He may have the idea that he is not capable of it. It is easy to get such an idea even though there is not justification for it. A child may think he is stupid because he does not understand how to make the most of his mental faculties, or he may accept another person’s mistaken estimate of his ability. Older people may be handicapped by the mistaken belief that they are incapable of learning anything new because of their age.

       A person who believes that he is incapable will not make a real effort, because he feels that it would be useless. He won’t go at a job with the confidence necessary for success, and he won’t work his hardest, even though he may think he is doing so. He therefore is likely to fail, and the failure will strengthen his belief in his incompetence.

      Alfred Adler, a famous psychiatrist, had an experience which illustrates this. When he was a small boy he got off to a poor start in arithmetic. His teacher got the idea that he had no ability in arithmetic, and told his parents what she thought in order that they would not expect too much of him. In this way, they too developed the idea, “Isn’t it too bad that Alfred can’t do arithmetic?” He accepted their mistaken estimate of his ability, felt that it was useless to try, and was very poor in arithmetic, just as they expected.

       One day he became very angry at the teacher and the other students because they laughed when he said he saw how to do a problem which none of the other students had been able to solve.

       Adler succeeded in solving the problem. This gave him confidence. He rejected the idea that he couldn’t do arithmetic, and was determined to show them that he could. His anger and his newfound confidence stimulated him to go at arithmetic problems with a new spirit. He now worked with interest, determination, and purpose, and he soon became extraordinarily good in arithmetic. He not only proved that he could do arithmetic, but he learned early in life from his own experience that, if a person goes at a job with determination and purpose, he may astonish himself as well as others by his ability.

       This experience made him realize that many people have more ability than they think they have, and that lack of success is as often the result of lack of knowledge of how to apply one’s ability, lack of confidence, and lack of determination as it is the result of lack of ability.