学进去

When I was in my fourth year of teaching，I was also（and am still）a high school track and field coach（田径教练）. One year，I had a student，John，who entered my class when he was a junior. John changed to our school from Greece，and seemed to be interested in sports，so I encouraged him to join our track team. I explained to him that even though he had never taken part in it before，I did believe that he could do well in any event，and that I would be willing to coach him in whichever ones interested him. He accepted the offer，and began to work hard at every practice.

About a month later，I had found out from other sources that John was a first-class tennis player，winning various junior awards in his home country. I went to him asking，“John，I really appreciate that you came out for the track team，but why didn’t you play tennis instead？It seems that would interest you a lot more，since you’re so good at it.”John answered，“Well，I like tennis，but you told me that you believed in me，and that you thought I could do well in track，so I wanted to try it for that reason.”

From then on，I often remember my student’s reply. I told it to a friend and she suggested I write it down to share somewhere with more teachers. No matter how critical（挑剔的）students can be of themselves，I’ve found that a simple“I trust that you can do it！”can go a long way！