E02 002 我的拓荒女教师生涯

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0:10 My name is Elizabeth Willard, and I am a 22-year-old teacher 我叫伊丽莎白·威拉德，是一名22岁的教师。
0:15 I graduated from the Hartford Female Seminary in Connecticut, one of the first schools in America that trains female teachers.
0:23 In 1854 I began teaching in the new territory of Kansas, an area located in the middle of the United States.
0:32 There are many teaching jobs in the West because many whites have been settling here from the East.
0:38 New frontier towns have popped up everywhere 新的边疆小镇到处涌现。
0:41 My teacher training started when I was twenty, and I learned spelling, mathematics, and music.
0:48 Before graduation my classmates and I were invited to teach out West when we completed our studies.
0:55 Some teaching students accepted the offer, and I was one of them 一些师范生接受了邀请，我就是其中之一。
1:00 We trained for frontier life by carrying pails of water and chopping firewood.
1:06 We needed to be tough to face the many hardships ahead 我们需要变得坚强，才能面对未来的重重艰辛。
1:11 When we graduated, a school committee gave us our teaching posts and I was assigned to a school in Kansas.
1:18 All the teachers traveled west in the spring, and since it was unsafe for women to travel alone, my father went with me.
1:26 First, we rode on horseback for two weeks, about eight hundred kilometers from Hartford, Connecticut, to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
1:35 Then, we took a steamboat down the Ohio River from Pittsburgh through the states of Ohio and Kentucky.
1:42 After 12 days we arrived in Old Shawneetown, Illinois, and from there I took a stagecoach on my own.
1:50 After ten days and another eight hundred kilometers, I arrived at my final destination—Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
1:59 Suddenly I was alone in a strange town, and I had nowhere to stay. So I went to the schoolhouse.
2:08 With so few trees for lumber on the prairie, sod and dirt had been used to build the small school, rather than wood.
2:15 There was only one room and two windows 那里只有一个房间和两扇窗户。
2:18 The bathroom was outside, and a little fence wrapped around the schoolyard 厕所位于外面，校园周围围着一圈矮栅栏。
2:23 Some of the town's children came by to see me 镇上的一些孩子顺道来看我。
2:26 One little girl named Abby said I would be staying with her family 一个叫艾比的小女孩说，我会住在她家里。
2:31 " Boarding around," or staying in students' homes is common for frontier teachers.
2:37 I would have to help Abby's family with the chores, but I was happy to accept their offer.
2:43 Boarding helps me save money, since I make only one hundred and fifty dollars a year—half the salary of a male teacher.
2:51 Most of my students live on farms, so the school year must fit between the fall harvest and the spring planting.
2:59 During my first year, the class size varied from 3 to 25 children 第一年，班级人数从3个到25个孩子不等。
3:04 Some of the children do farm work and other chores and cannot attend every day.
3:10 My students' ages range from four to twenty years old 我的学生年龄从四岁到二十岁不等。
3:14 In my classroom I have a small desk up front, and my students sit on benches in rows.
3:20 There is one blackboard, and we have no books except for a Bible 只有一块黑板，除了《圣经》外没有别的书。
3:25 Sometimes the children bring in old newspapers or magazines from home 孩子们有时会从家里带来旧报纸或杂志。
3:30 We have no paper supplies, so my students write their lessons on flat rocks called slates.
3:36 They write with a soft piece of rock called a slate pen 他们用一种叫石笔的软石来写字。
3:41 Most of my students behave well in class, but sometimes I have to punish them.
3:47 If a child talks during a lesson, I put a whispering stick in his or her mouth.
3:53 This is a small wooden stick that is held in place by a piece of cloth that I tie around the student's head.
4:00 The child is forced to bite on the stick and cannot speak 孩子被迫咬住这根棍子，就说不了话。
4:05 Sometimes if a student never knows the correct answer to a question, I put a pointy hat on their head with the word "Dunce" written on it.
4:14 When a student wears the dunce cap, it means he or she is not very smart 学生戴上笨蛋帽时，就表示他或她不太聪明。
4:19 My first winter was very hard. The temperature sometimes dropped to -23 degrees Celsius.
4:27 The snow started falling in November and did not stop until April 雪从十一月开始下，一直下到第二年四月才停。
4:32 The only heat we had was a potbellied stove in the classroom and it was smoky and hard to light.
4:38 I'd arrive at school early to chop firewood for the whole day 我得早早到校，为全天劈好柴火。
4:43 Children close to the stove would get too hot. Others in the back of the room, almost froze.
4:49 It was so cold that my students' lunches of dried fruit and salted meat would sometimes freeze.
4:56 Some children became sick and died during the year 这一年里，有些孩子生病去世了。
5:01 We all were happy when spring finally arrived 春天终于来了，我们大家都很开心。
5:06 I am now at the end of my first year, and I am very lonely 如今，我的第一年快结束了，我觉得非常孤单。
5:11 When I took this job, I promised not to marry for two years so I could devote myself to my students.
5:18 In my free time, I sew quilts and patch my clothes 空闲时，我就缝缝被子、补补衣裳。
5:22 I go to church and visit the friends I have met there 我去教堂，也去看望在那儿认识的朋友。
5:26 I have heard that some teachers have already gone home because the life out here is too difficult.
5:32 But I would like to stay on for another year 但我想再留下来教一年。
5:35 I have grown to love my students and the progress we all have made 我渐渐爱上了我的学生，也爱上了我们一起取得的进步。