Pursuing a perfect life

Tradition is a guide, not a jailer.

Daily self-motivation

I cherish and make good use of my freedom.

Daily Essay: Pursuing the Perfect Life

Anything worth doing is worth doing well; Anything worth doing well is worth doing perfectly.

Henry Xiali teaches Greek at Detroit Middle School. He has property, so he doesn't have to teach. He insisted on teaching only because he liked it. He is an eccentric person from the inside out. He is 6 feet 6.4 feet tall and untidy. His reddish-brown hair is thick and unkempt, and the incongruous layout of his face and teeth constitutes his face, with a pair of sharp eyes shining on it. The wrinkled clothes were covered with a thin layer of chalk dust. He is skinny, like a walking scarecrow and a mythical figure in baggy pants.

When I joined his study, I was only sixteen years old, impressionable and eager to know more. Like a blacksmith hammering an anvil, he taught me strictly for two whole years. Xiali is a perfectionist. He always has a problem with the education department and other teachers because he refuses to compromise. In education, he has his own ideals and ways to pursue them. No matter how difficult it is, he wants to go his own way.

His favorite teaching method is humiliation and intimidation, which gives people an unexpected embarrassment. However, he first gave the punished students ample opportunities to meet Xiali's requirements-100% correct. If he makes mistakes again, he will be impolite.

On the first day of the lecture, Xiali watched us carefully for a long time. Then he said in a very gentle tone, "So, you want to learn Greek? Of course, this is an admirable wish. But I want you to know what you're dealing with. I made a promise: I am a person who is not satisfied with the average good. " "I'm not kidding. I don't like good students, only the best students; I don't like better translations, only the most correct ones. " You either know or you don't know; Either you can do one thing or you can't. I will try my best to teach you Greek. I also ask you to do your best to learn it. "Now talk about learning steps. Your daily academic performance must be the best, your pronunciation must be the most accurate, and your translation must be the best. " In order to make your study perfect, I ask you to write every corrected word on the blackboard ten times. If you make this mistake after making such corrections, you must write the corrected words a hundred times. Now we begin to study. "

In this way, I began a decisive two-year study life in my life. Xiali's method aroused my interest. If a person can be perfect, even in a small matter; Can't he be perfect at another thing and then be perfect at other things? It's great when he is perfect in many things.

Other students go to class with trepidation. I go to class like watching gladiators fight and Christians being thrown at lions. I grinned when the lion roared at me. Then the lion blinked and left. I know my answer is completely correct.

Sometimes in order to correct an accent mistake, I write a sentence on the blackboard, erase it all and write it again, which makes the lion dumbfounded. Think about it, why others are forced to write ten times, but I have to write twenty times; On my way home, I often copy Greek sentences on many wrapping papers, just to beat his tricks. I hope he knows that!

He corrected the papers we handed in every day with a blue pencil and wrote very rude comments in serious mistakes. He never misses a line. I can't imagine how he did it. However, year after year, he has been doing this without hesitation.

In the second year, I began to learn Homer's epic and recited five lines accurately every day. After getting up every day, recite the quota from the first line of the first book. If there is a little mistake in pronunciation, we have to start all over again. When you have to reread 200 lines, you will get bored.

It is difficult for me to learn prose or poetry, and I am particularly tired of reciting the whole work, and I feel a little contradictory. However, Henry Xiali forced me to read the first two volumes of the Iliad line by line, which made me recite it from beginning to end at the end of that year and master it as well as English.

I handled and won the game of pursuing perfection. But did Xiali pat me on the shoulder? Did he say "well done, young man"? No. He wants you to keep digging.

On a hot and humid June day, when we were reading the last lines of the Iliad, Xiali closed the book, looked out of the window, and then slowly walked to the door. He left. I haven't seen him since. But now, half a century later, I still measure people according to his standards-whether teachers, students or anyone else. "Anything worth doing is worth doing well: anything worth doing well is worth doing perfectly."

After learning Greek, I decided to learn to write. When I was studying Hebrew, Arabic and social studies, I tried to study in this way, according to Charade's requirements.

Everyone should be influenced by a crazy perfectionist at least once in his life. Only in this way can ordinary people exert their amazing potential. It is better to observe a person who is completely devoted to the noblest ideals than to receive education. A man is the enemy of "average good" because he only loves the perfect things. Knowing this, you may hate half-knowledge, half-talk, and half-hearted, and you may ignite the passion for perfection in your heart.

I have forgotten most of the Greek taught by charades, but what I will never forget is the passion for perfection.