A college professor had his sociology class go into the Baltimore slums to get case histories of 200 young boys. They were asked to write an evaluation¹ of each boy's future. In every case the students wrote," He hasn't got a chance." Twenty-five years later another sociology professor came across the earlier study. He had his students follow up on the project to see what had happened to these boys.

With the exception of 20 boys who had moved away or died, the students learned that 176 of the remaining 180 had achieved more than ordinary success as lawyers, doctors and businessmen.

The professor was astounded² and decided³ to pursue the matter further. Fortunately, all men were in the area and he was able to ask each one," How do you account for your success?" In each case the reply came with feeling," There was a teacher."

The teacher was still alive, so he sought her out and asked the old but still alert lady what magic formula she had used to pull these boys out of the slums into successful achievement.

The teacher's eyes sparkled and her lips broke into a gentle smile. "It's really very simple," she said. "I loved those boys."

一个大学教授在上社会学课的时候，让他的学生去巴尔的摩贫民窟找200个男孩的历史记录，并且要求写出对每个男孩未来的评估。对每个孩子，学生都这样评价着：“他这辈子完了。”25年以后另外一个社会学教授发现了这个早期的研究，并让他的学生继续探究这个研究，看看这些男孩到底怎么样了。这些男孩中除了已经去世或者迁居的20位以外，学生发现，剩下的180人中有176人都获得了比普通人更大的成就，他们中有律师，医生，还有商人。

教授大吃一惊并决定进一步地探究下去。幸运的是，这些长成人的孩子还都在这个地区，因此教授有机会挨个去问他们：“你是如何获得你的这些成就的？”很让人感动的是，他们的回答如出一辙：“因为我有一位好老师。”

这个老师还健在。当教授找到这位年迈但仍不失机警的妇人，问她到底有什么魔法能让这些贫民窟的孩子都获得如此成就的时候，这位老师眼里闪耀着光芒，她的嘴唇露出一抹温柔微笑，“很简单，”她说，“因为我爱这些孩子。”