這是兒子十一歲上六年級開學時寫的一篇課堂作業。作業在四十分鐘內完成。那時應該是他人生的低谷，因為那年他姐姐去上大學了，艾倫獨自從美國回上海時，心里是空的。雖然整篇短文都不提姐姐的事情，但這是他寫這篇文章時的背景。
回憶隨想
- 狄艾倫 （11歲）
- 2015.8.21
學校不僅是一個學習、交友或好玩的地方。在某些情況下，學校是一個給你帶來終生回憶的地方。不過，你的所有終生回憶不可能都充滿著開心打鬧。恰恰相反，其實很多回憶都是讓人傷心難過的時刻，譬如當你們班養的寵物死了，或者由于對方一位球員進球使得自己的球隊輸掉賽季的最后一場比賽。人生的記憶真是形形色色。有喜怒哀樂，有緊張興奮。有各種心情會被記憶塵封而又被永遠懷念。
多數小孩都覺得學校像個監獄，每天關你七個小時，再把你放回你自己那個安全的家。有些孩子每天早上醒來都這么想，不過他們一進那座“監獄”，卻又覺得像是回家了，而且他們被跟他們感同身受的人包圍著。然后他們就想，“也許今天將是不錯的一天” 。其實有時會，有時不會，你是很難控制自己的心情的。我們的心情會根據各種情況作出自己的選擇。很多小孩坐在課堂里不視一切人和事，有時看窗外，有時瞪著墻，思緒遠離現實，直到他們回過神來，找回思路，他們完全忘卻身在何處。這在學生當中是很常見的事情。
很多小孩從不記得課堂里教的東西。留在腦海里的往往是那些學到的人生大課，譬如從如何報復一個朋友到如何交到一個朋友。無論具體情況怎樣，你更可能記得一些和學習無關的大事，而不是那些有關學習的無關緊要的話題。所以，學校不是一個只制造毫無益處的記憶或永遠也用不到的信息的地方，其實它會給你很多人生享用無窮的回憶。
翻譯：湘偉
Memoir Essay
Name: Alan Deutsch
Date: 8/21/2015
School is more than just a place to learn, meet new friends, or have fun. In some cases school is where your lifelong memories are born. However, it is unlikely that all of your lifelong memories contain fun and frolic. Many of them, on the contrary, contain sad moments, like when the class pet passed away, or even when someone scored on your team which led to losing the season's final match. Life is filled with memories containing genres of all the sort. Sad, angry, happy, excited, nervous. There are all different types of emotions sealed away to be referred to forever.
Most kids may think of school as a prison holding you there for seven hours before releasing you back to your safe private home. Some kids wake up thinking that way every day, but as soon as they arrive to the so called “prison,” they start to feel at home, and that they are surrounded by people they can actually relate to. Then they start to think “Maybe today will be a good day.” Sometimes it is, other times not, you can't always control your emotions. Our emotions choose themselves depending on the situation. A lot of kids sit in class ignoring everyone and everything while looking out the window or even at the walls, drifting away from reality. Until they come back to their senses and try to focus on whatever they were doing before, they completely forget where they are. This is the case for many students.
A lot of kids never remember most of the content that is taught in classes. The stuff that really sticks with you are the lessons you learn from getting revenge on a friend to trying to get a friend at all. No matter what the case, it is more likely that you'll remember big non-academic stuff other than small specific academic subjects. That is why school is not just a place to make memories of no benefits or information that you'll probably never use again, but actually a place filled with memories that you'll put to good use for the rest of your life.
